Fairies Riding Thunder II
Big Sister takes up three-quarters of my queen-sized bed at home when she wants (these are the mornings I wake up sleeping on the floor). She keeps gathering all of her friends, wherever we are. She stands by the door and surveys her handiwork.
“It would be easier if we got into it, about what I did to Flipper and how this gets all of us kicked out from good places like Aunt Ally’s - I even have my own bathroom, and I already mentioned about the bed,” I say.
“It’s not some stinking hard mattress and your aunt splurged on one of those soft pillow top kinds,” Big Sister says. “We’re lucky Flipper’s dolphin guts didn’t bleed out all over the bed and his glittering water didn’t mess up her pretty floral sheets too or we’d be kicked out permanently.”
I study the cracks in the ceiling searching for G.D., but he stays silent, a punishment since I always ask him for one of his fries. And tonight when the train runs through my head, it sounds like fairies riding thunder. And when it comes, it feels like a miracle to be traveling again and I ask Big Sister to come along.
“There isn’t enough room,” she says. “Don’t you get it, this is a twin mattress, not like you’ve got at your aunt’s.”
“This is one of your fantastic lies,” I say. “You’ve got super powers, you can be big or small depending on your mood. Once you even transformed into a paperclip. I saw.” She torments me the entire day, even at school. (I don’t realize what she’s up to until she morphs into a pen or a clip and she’s on my desk making fun of all my wrong answers in math or in history, and then in English too. (I don’t tell her if I will make room for any of her friends on the train.)
“Why did you invite so many?” I ask.
Her friends are everywhere, they fill up the living room here wherever we are and I seem to get squeezed out. “Can’t I go back to my room?” I ask. “There’s a train coming soon, I’ve got to pack or I’m going to miss it.” I say other things too.
And even though Big Sister pouts and transforms into a child, and then into an older sister that makes demands and we get back into my room she says, “You shouldn’t have told that Lady Steeple Hands about the train or about your imaginary boyfriend.”
“It would be easier if we got into it, about what I did to Flipper and how this gets all of us kicked out from good places like Aunt Ally’s - I even have my own bathroom, and I already mentioned about the bed,” I say.
“It’s not some stinking hard mattress and your aunt splurged on one of those soft pillow top kinds,” Big Sister says. “We’re lucky Flipper’s dolphin guts didn’t bleed out all over the bed and his glittering water didn’t mess up her pretty floral sheets too or we’d be kicked out permanently.”
I study the cracks in the ceiling searching for G.D., but he stays silent, a punishment since I always ask him for one of his fries. And tonight when the train runs through my head, it sounds like fairies riding thunder. And when it comes, it feels like a miracle to be traveling again and I ask Big Sister to come along.
“There isn’t enough room,” she says. “Don’t you get it, this is a twin mattress, not like you’ve got at your aunt’s.”
“This is one of your fantastic lies,” I say. “You’ve got super powers, you can be big or small depending on your mood. Once you even transformed into a paperclip. I saw.” She torments me the entire day, even at school. (I don’t realize what she’s up to until she morphs into a pen or a clip and she’s on my desk making fun of all my wrong answers in math or in history, and then in English too. (I don’t tell her if I will make room for any of her friends on the train.)
“Why did you invite so many?” I ask.
Her friends are everywhere, they fill up the living room here wherever we are and I seem to get squeezed out. “Can’t I go back to my room?” I ask. “There’s a train coming soon, I’ve got to pack or I’m going to miss it.” I say other things too.
And even though Big Sister pouts and transforms into a child, and then into an older sister that makes demands and we get back into my room she says, “You shouldn’t have told that Lady Steeple Hands about the train or about your imaginary boyfriend.”
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