I wasn't planning on doing much of anything that evening. It was raining pretty hard out and I didn't have anything I really needed to get done anyway. Then the phone rang.
"Michael, have you seen your sister?" It was my mother's voice on the other end, she sounded worried.
"No, why?"
"It's just, she ran off and we don't know where. We called some of her friends' houses but nobody's seen her. I hoped maybe... maybe you would know where she was." She was close to panic.
"What do you mean ran off? Night like this where would she go? Actually never mind, I'm going to go look for her."
I hung up the phone ignoring whatever mom tried to tell me after that. If my eighteen year old little sister really was wandering around out there on a night like this I needed to go find her. I couldn't imagine what would have caused her to take off though, unlike me she always seemed to get along fine with our parents. Not that we had a terrible relationship or anything but there had been arguments that got pretty heated.
It was even worse out than I expected, I could barely see where I was going half the time the rain was hitting the windshield so hard. I really hoped mom was just misinformed, that Katie had just gone over to a neighbour's house or something. Surely she wouldn't have tried to walk all the way to my house, not in this weather.
Then I saw her, just a tiny figure hunched over miserably in the rain. It might not be her I told myself even as I executed an extremely dangerous turn in the middle of the road. It was though, I could tell as soon as I stepped out of the car.
"Come on Katie get in the car," I almost had to yell to be heard as I tugged on her arm.
She looked startled for a moment, like she hadn't even noticed me approaching, then let me drag her to the passenger seat. I wished I had thought to bring a blanket or something but I had to settle for turning the heat all the way up. I was uncomfortably warm by the time we got back to my house but she had only just stopped shivering.
"M'sorry I got your car wet," she said as we walked through the door, the first thing she had said since I found her.
I shrugged. "Doesn't matter Katie, it's just a car. You're still cold aren't you?" She had her arms wrapped around her and she nodded at me emphatically. "Okay, you go take a shower and I'll see if I can find some dry clothes for you."
I left her at the bathroom and went to see what I could find that might fit her. Luckily I had a handful of clothes left behind by an ex-girlfriend who was much closer to Katie's size than I was. I grabbed a pair of her pants and a shirt as well as one of my sweaters. The sweater would be too big but at least it would be warm. If she didn't want to wear it that was okay too.
"Katie, I'm just going to open the door far enough to throw some clothes in okay?" I called through the bathroom door.
"'Kay," she called back.
Facing away from the door I awkwardly opened it and tossed in the bundle I had been carrying. I had to call mom, let her know Katie was with me. That was going to be a difficult conversation to keep short.
In fact it took almost fifteen minutes to get her off the phone. She kept wanting to talk to Katie even thought I told her she was taking a shower several times. Eventually I reassured her enough that Katie was fine that she let me go without me having to hang up on her again.
"Hey."
I had been sitting on the couch staring into space and didn't hear Katie approaching. She looked even smaller than she was wearing my oversized sweater. She hadn't even bothered to roll up the sleeves and they were hanging down over her hands.
"Hey," I replied. "Feeling better?"
"Yeah, thanks for coming to get me." She sat down beside me and pulled her knees up to her chest. "How'd you know where I was?"
"I didn't really. Mom said you ran off and I thought there was a chance you were coming here so I just drove toward where you would be coming from. That's all." She didn't say anything else for a while and I would have left it at that except I was still curious what she had been doing out there. "So, what happened?" I almost thought she didn't hear me and was about to repeat myself when she finally spoke.
"I just... I had to go to the store," she started. "I took dad's car, I wasn't going to be long. Just went to the store, that's all. And then it was raining so hard, I didn't think it was that bad." I nodded at that, I knew how bad it was driving out there. "I didn't mean to Mike, I really didn't, but I went in the ditch."
She was getting upset and I didn't blame her; crashing a car, dad's car no less, would be pretty upsetting even if it wasn't that bad. I checked her out quickly for bruises or cuts but of course I couldn't see much of her under that shirt. I had to assume any injuries she had sustained weren't serious or she would have said something by now. I slid closer to her and put my arm around her shoulder as I waited for her to continue.
"He wouldn't stop yelling. I know I shouldn't have taken his car without asking but I didn't mean to crash it. I tried to tell him. He wouldn't stop yelling." She was curling up against me as much as she could, almost burrowing into my side.
"He never yells at you," I said quietly. I don't think I had ever once heard him so much as raise his voice to her. She was his perfect little girl, she couldn't do anything wrong as far as he was concerned. "He was probably just scared."
"You think?"
"Yeah, I mean if I heard you were in an accident I'd be scared too. That doesn't mean he should have yelled at you but I don't think he was angry, not really." She seemed somewhat reassured by my words even though I had no idea if what I was saying was true or not. For all I knew dad really was just pissed about his car getting damaged. "Anyway I told mom I'd drive you home tomorrow if you're okay with spending the night here."
"Oh, okay."
Katie seemed a little hesitant about accepting but I think that was just because she was worried about returning home. We sat together on the couch for a while until I noticed she had fallen asleep on me. I rolled my eyes but I didn't really mind, it might help her to get some sleep. Maybe she would feel better in the morning.
I picked her up as gently as I could and carried her to the guest bedroom. She was a little heavier than I remember but still light enough that I didn't have much trouble lifting her. She woke up as I tried to get her under the covers and looked over at me sleepily.
"Sorry," I whispered, "I tried not to wake you."
"S'okay," she said. I finished tucking her in and turned to leave when she called to me softly. "Mike, can you stay? Just for a little bit?"
"Sure."
I lay down on the bed leaving some space between us and stared up at the dark ceiling. If my presence helped her sleep I was fine with staying a while. I listened to the sound of her breathing intending to head to my own room when she drifted off.
****
I woke up confused not to be in my room before remembering I had stayed with Katie last night and must have fallen asleep there. She wasn't in the room anymore and somehow the blanket was pulled up over me. Whether I had done that or if Katie had I didn't know.
After stumbling downstairs I found Katie in the kitchen by the stove. She was still wearing the clothes I found for her except she had removed my sweater. She turned around as she heard me enter the room.
"Morning," she greeted me. "I'm just making some breakfast. It's only eggs and toast, that's all I could find."
"That's fine," I assured her as I sat down at the table.
Soon she set a plate of scrambled eggs and toast down in front of me. She sat across from me with a plate of her own. She seemed happier to me, almost cheerful.
"These are good," I said after a few mouthfuls.
"That's probably just 'cause you only eat junk all the time. Not used to real food. I've never seen a fridge that empty I swear."
I smiled as she chastised me, she was definitely feeling better. "I eat healthy sometimes."
"Whatever, you need to get a girlfriend to take care of you. Otherwise you're going to die of malnutrition before you're thirty."
I dropped her off at our parents' house after we finished eating. I wanted to stay and make sure everything was okay but I was already running late for work and had to just hope things worked out.
****
A few days later Katie was back. She was sitting on the front step of my house, evidently waiting for me to return from work. She didn't seem upset as far as I could tell which left me curious what she was up to.
"Hey Mike," she called as I stepped out of my car.
"Hey, what's up?"
She shrugged. "Not much. I was over at a friend's house and it's only like a ten minute walk from here so I thought I'd come hang out for a bit. If that's okay."
"Of course it's okay. You can come over any time you want Katie. Actually why don't I give you a spare key so you don't get stuck waiting for me to get home."
My kitchen is the first room after the entryway to my house and Katie was immediately drawn to it as I let her in.
"Don't you ever do dishes?" she called to me as I was still untying my shoes.
There was getting to be a decent pile on the counter I will admit, but living by myself I didn't really have to do them that often. Especially since I rarely cooked anything that required more than one dish. I heard water running in the sink and guessed Katie was planning to wash them.
"You don't have to do that you know," I said, finally making my way into the kitchen.
"Someone has to take care of you, you obviously aren't," she countered.
"I appreciate it Katie, I just don't want you to feel like have to do that stuff when you're over here. You cooked breakfast last time you were over too. Seems like taking advantage or something."
She made a dismissive sound and submerged a stack of plates in the water. "It's not really taking advantage if I want to do it for you is it? Anyway, speaking of cooking would you mind running out for a few things if I make you a list? I'm thinking of just making spaghetti, something simple."
I rolled my eyes but couldn't say I really minded if she wanted to cook for me. She always made better food than what I was used to.
****
Katie started coming over fairly often, usually without warning but that wasn't an issue for me. Sometimes, mostly on weekends, she would sleep at my house but more commonly I would drive her home or someone would pick her up. She even started leaving a few sets of clothes at my house.
She always cooked for me and I had to get used to keeping more ingredients in stock for her. I also wound up doing dishes more frequently so she wouldn't feel like she had to do them for me.
It got so that I was looking forward to getting home every night to see if she was there waiting for me. It led to a lot of disappointments but I reminded myself that she had better things to do than spend all her time 'looking after her brother' as she put it.
