Grey morning at Sister Central

Tuesday 14th April 2009

For some reason-- probably the same reason as yesterday-- I woke up way too early and for something to do I went online. I sat here in my t-shirt surrounded by my blankets and typed at people till I realised-- unlike I did yesterday-- that I would be better off being asleep. That was just about 7.00. I curled up with Cinnamon and tucked all the blankets under my shoulders and chin and smiled happily to myself as I got comfortable... and then Lisa tiptoed in from the side gallery. 'Janine!' she whispered urgently. 'Are you up?'

I stared right at her, my face the only part of me visible to her in the doorway. 'Obviously.'

She looked at a loss for a moment and then said in that same weighted whisper, 'Can I use your bathroom?'

I smiled at her and nodded. 'Close the door,' I whispered back.

She smiled at me and went in and closed the door. The water ran; she actually washed or rinsed her hands before coming out. It's something Jessy and I have been insisting on, and she remembers on her own. 'Janine!' she whispered again, like that. 'What are you doing this morning?'

I lifted my chin above the pillow and whispered, 'Trying to sleep.'

She giggled a little. 'Okay,' she said. She seemed to hesitate and then she leaned over Cinnamon to kiss me on top of my head. So I reached up to her and she reached over me and we hugged, sort of. 'Good little sister,' I said.

'Good big sister.' She smiled at me as she stood down on the floor again.

'I love you, sweetie,' I told her.

'I love you too, sweetie!' She giggled a little.

'Will you close the door when you go out so I can sleep?'

Still in that important-sounding whisper she said, 'Okay.'

She nodded and went out. Before closing the door she fluttered her fingers at me. I made a kissy-face at her, and the door closed.

Outside, rain clouds obscured the sunrise. The gulls stood on the parapet above my windows and cooed at each other. I squeezed Cinnamon a little closer to myself and sighed.

After a very bizarre dream involving a commune, LED light bulbs and being mad at Jessy for talking, I heard her voice speaking softly-- 'No. Well, I don't know. She's still asleep.'

She was standing in the grey light coming through my window, talking on her phone. I got up to my elbows and looked at the clock. It was almost 11. I dropped my head back past my shoulders and sighed.

'Oh. She is up.... Wait.' She held the phone down upon her bare chest. 'Do we want to see a movie with Rita?'

I sighed. 'Jessy, we are going to Philadelphia today.'

'Okay.... How about later this week?'

'Ask me later this week.'

She spoke again to the phone. 'I'll have to let you go tomorrow. I'm already missing rehearsal tonight....' Naked, with her hair a mess, she wandered round my room, stepping round the bed post and stopping between my bed and the bathroom, still talking quietly on the phone. I slid my feet over the edge and leaned past her to pluck some panties out of my top drawer. 'No,' she was saying. 'I will ask her later. It won't matter.... Okay.... Bye.' She closed the phone.

'What on earth was that about?' I asked her.

She shrugged. 'She called. She just wanted to ask.'

I shook my head. The clock showed 10.53. 'I'm having a shower.' And I went in and shut the door.

When I came out, still drying my hair, Lisa was sitting on my bed, amidst the rumpled covers, with two Barbies before herself seated on a little red pillow from her room. I looked at them as I went round to my dresser. 'Good morning, Janine,' one of the Barbies said.

'Good morning, Janine,' the other one said.

'What are you two doing here?' I wondered.

'We're just waiting for you,' one of them said. 'Are you going to have breakfast now?'

I shrugged, taking out a bra from my drawer. 'I don't know. It's kind of late for breakfast.'

'Oh,' one said.

'Oh,' said the other.

'You could have brunch,' said the first one in her higher-pitched voice.

'Hm,' I said, fitting the bra on and turning to the mirror, away from the spectators, to close it in front. 'I could. Would you like to see if there's anything I can have now?'

'I think Mummy has oatmeal,' Lisa said.

'Can you check?'

She scampered off the bed, leaving the two Barbies sitting primly on their little red pillow. I looked at them. 'Don't you think it's a little cold to not have shoes on?' I asked them.

They stared mutely back at them as though I had spoken Greek.

'I see where she gets it from,' I said to them. 'Well-- you could be a little better influence on her. Even I don't run round this house barefoot when it's chilly like this. You're supposed to be the mature ones, right?'

My Barbies were (and are) always posing unanswerable questions like that. But I don't think Lisa's have learnt to be very philosophical yet.

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