Sipping the Tea

If you've heard the fairytale "Brother and Sister", you may get the Roe reference.

I'm sure SOME of you can relate -
Some of us just have siblings that... well, we're really good friends with (nothing funny, just friends xD)! Others think it's weird, but ... it's natural, to me.

Years ago, my brother and I had our home ripped out from beneath us. I'm a cat, so I landed on all fours and kept trudging along, curious.

My brother, however.... he didn't do so well, but he'd been so steady, so settled where we had lived.

I was leaving behind a place that was too dull for me and going to the beach, to the place I'd always loved, to live and start a new life.

Matt was leaving his brothers - and they were my brothers too, in a way, but not as much as they were his.

The awful crushes I had on THAT one, the night I stayed up til dawn talking to That One2, the night That One3 gave me my first beer, when That One4 and I had a food fight in the kitchen - the dozens of innocent parties my brother threw when Dad was out of town...

I tried multiplying those memories of the guys by twenty, and then tried to see my brother's pain.

I remember, clearly, we were in the hotel room the night before we moved into the new house. I let him talk about his friends, and listening to the voice of my brother, my oldest childhood friend, my oldest companion, and was struck my the depth of pain in his voice.

Then he said, very quietly:

"I guess we're each other's best friends now, Hal."

It was so strange - here was my tough, arrogant brother feeling quite alone, so alone that he'd actually admit to being friends with me.

I didn't know whether to cry or be very happy, but ever since, whatever old wounds that Felicia (our evil stepmother) had brought upon our persons once before were then healed, and we were back to the Haleigh and Matt that we had once been before she ever came. Despite the divorce, the many girlfriends, new towns, new houses,-

He has always been one of my dearest friends.


And so, here we are, years later, and still there.

He came to the restaurant with mom and the girls and gave me a huge hug, and I thought I'd burst into tears.

We stayed up all night talking, laughing, telling stories and gaming. I fell asleep on the couch to the wild sounds of Resident Evil 5-

It was just like the old days.

And I keep thinking things will change, that one day Katie and I will meet up again and she won't be the same Katie, that Matt will come home a dignified and boring businessman and think games and stories to be childish -

And I'm proved wrong entirely.

I don't know why I'm so scared.

But it was one of the most comfortable feelings in the world, listening to whir of the fan, and the wind sifting through the trees outside as we fell asleep -

- just like when we were children, nestled between Ninja Turtles and Sleeping Beauty, when mom hummed to us gently over the sound of the fan and below the sound of the moon -

- though her lullabies are the quietest, the most promising, and remind me that though the words of the songs are sometimes forgotten, the tune remains and, as we grow, return and return again -

And there is nothing to fear from change, because some loves are constant.