You know, there are some funny things that happen in your life that you are unable to control. Whether or not, those things or intentional or not, I haven't the faintest idea. I only know they happened. Take me for instance. It didn't happen right off the bat. It started when I was around seventeen.
Back on the Southside. I had been living with my adopted mother who had been divorced from my adopted father for over a year at that time, and a younger sister. Oh, yes, maybe I should introduce myself. My name is Jon Reinlander.
Well... even though the incident originated over ten years ago, it didn't actually have its happening until a few months ago.
Unbeknownst to me at that time, it was incorporated by my younger sister, Leslie (name means; Lives at a gray and floral covered castle), and maybe if there hadn't have been so many years difference between Leslie and myself, things wouldn't have had worked out the way they did.
Leslie started out life as something of a surprise, because for years my adopted parents had tried to have a child, but never could... so they finally adopted me, and we spent several years together as a happy family.
Then my adopted parents suddenly got a divorced... why, I still do not know to this day... but anyway, when the doctor told Mom she was pregnant, she just about had a heart attack.
Newly divorced... and with no prospect of a job right then... the thought of having to raise two kids with no husband sent Mom into a panic, as she wondered just how she was supposed to take care of a baby and a four year old, when she didn't even have a job yet.
But somehow... I don't know just exactly how... Mom over came the obstacles and Leslie was born... conceived a week before mom and dad split up, and although our parents never said anything about it one way or the other, I doubt if she had been planned at the time she was conceived.
One thing that was for sure... is that Mother, Leslie and I always had a very close relationship with each other during our growing up years.
I'm five years older that Leslie, and I have to admit one thing... she's a very smart girl... but true to form Leslie remains a surprise to this day, and the only thing you could say about my baby sister is that she was unpredictable... and you never knew that she was going to do from one minute to the next.
Leslie's also one of those people who are very honest. She tells it like it is in no uncertain terms. It gets scary at times, because she never hints about anything. She just comes right out and says what's on her mind and damn the consequences.
This one particular trait of hers had led to a lot of fighting between us. Not physical fighting, just verbal fighting. She knows me better than anyone, and she knows that I wouldn't hurt her for anything in the world. That's why she won't let me get by with anything.
Whenever Leslie thinks I'm lying about anything, or being the least bit phony about my feelings, she screams and cusses at me... and tells me I'm a liar. It doesn't make any difference where we are or who is listening, she'll lay into me verbally.
She's very uninhibited that way. She yells at me and I yell right back. Many a times, this will happen at school when we take a break together. And from the way we go at each other, most of the students would swear we hated each other's guts with a passion.
But what usually happens after we have a big fight, is that I would apologize and admit I was wrong. And the awful thing about it was that I was virtually always wrong.
But to be honest, the part I really liked the best, was the making up. When we make up, Leslie would really get real affectionate after one of our big fights. One thing you will have to understand, Leslie never yells at me unless I am being a real big jerk. Which I admit, was usually quite often.
It's always been very easy for me to fool people and get away with a lot of stuff. All through high school I would hang out with what people call "the unsavory crowd" which I secretly hated. I only did it because they were popular. Leslie really laid into me about it, too.
I think if I didn't have her around to watch my back and keep me on the straight and narrow, even if she was a girl, I might have become a real user of drugs like the rest of those I hung out with.
For a couple of our teen years, we went to the same summer camp. I was a counselor because of my age, and the fact that I had gone there when I was younger... while she was one of the campers. You might think that my position of authority would have kept her from yelling at me, but you would be wrong. It didn't... even though I was one of the big shots, she never held back for a moment.
I was very popular with the kids, mainly the female campers, and I was really getting off on it. I started acting like some sort of an adolescent guru, handing out the secrets of life. I guess Leslie held off for about as long as she could. Then one day, right in the middle of a camp get-together, she just blew up.
"Jon... you are such a jerk, it amazes me," she screamed. "Who in the hell do you think you are. Some kind of a dime store messiah?"
Her choice of words and tone of voice at first made me dumbstruck. I tried to defend myself, but I could tell she was pretty hot under the collar... and also one hundred percent right in her perception.
Eventually, after some more of the choice words describing my various parts of my body, she cooled down some. We found a shady spot under one of the trees and sat down to talk it over.
I promised I'd try to cut it out if she would try to understand how tempting it was for me to be the center of attention.
"I know you like to be, Jon... but I love you so much and I don't want to see your ego get so bloated and bent out of shape, I don't know who you are anymore." she said, sniffling the tears away.
After that, Leslie let go of being an adult and went back to just being my kid sister. She laid her head in my lap. I bent my head down and gave her a kiss on the cheek. As I began to stroke her hair, she closed her eyes and fell asleep.
I'll always remember that day, stroking my sister's soft, silky sun-warmed hair while she slept, one finger crooked between the buttons of my shirt. I adored that girl, despite of the way we acted towards each other. I loved her more than I'd love anyone else, all because she knew my faults and weaknesses better than anyone else and put up with them... but most of all; I loved her because she still loved me unconditionally.
That was five years ago... before I left for the west coast shortly after graduating from high school. I haven't been able to get back to the Southside since. How I miss those days!
* * * * *
The next time I saw my sister was last summer. It was just a few months after I turned twenty-five. She called me long distance from the Southside to see if she couldn't come and spend a couple of weeks or so with me. I told her she'd be more than welcomed to stay with me.
