Sisters, Brothers, Family Strangers

4.
Teetering, this trotting on red rum, Sister had not listened to her Sister Shrinker (who had refused to take her to another shindig for “You are freaking drunk!”)

5.
Sister was mumbling about Terry Teeter who taught her daughter Tara to teeter totter while teetering on the steps leading up—up-- up to where a still sober Super Mama Sister was waiting for her. (Super Mama Sister had coaxed with a pretty please and batting eyelashes, in words.)

4.
“Don’t you worry, go, go, go, she will take me home,” Sister enunciated to her Chesire Knight to mask how gone she was. And blind as she waved him off bye-bye.


1.
It all began with a first for the year. Someone died. Someone may die from brain seizure. Someone will not walk straight for three years. Someone may have tuberculosis. Those alive are all dying and Sister is bracing herself against the panic of maybe losing all these some loved ones to sickness unto death.

Inside a room where she once cared for strangers, she becomes unapproachable, “Fuck do I care for y’all.” She is sucked by grief that she cannot feel and she is relieved.


2.
“Miss,” she says to Sister, fear making her look down instead of at eyes, “I failed four, maybe five subjects last term. Don’t get mad. And I met somebody and I want you to meet him.”

Sister says, “And why would you fail at these things that are supposedly so easy? Because you could do them? That’s just stupid.”

“Miss,” she mumbles, “Why do you care? I mean, nobody really does. Shit, my own mother didn’t even for a long time.”

Sisters says, “Because who would? And I do care, kiddo. So, enough of the talking shit and just do the damn shit.”

And what do you know, Sister laughs, she already met the somebody maybe a year or so ago, introduced then by somebody’s father who then played percussions even with one paralyzed hand.

The world is smaller.

Somebody’s father died a couple of months ago: heart attack at 63.

Sister said, “Ah shit.”


3.
The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Cuckoos had called Sister, “Am I disturbing you? You busy?”

“What is it? Problem?”

“You want to go to Bangkok to see our sister?”

“Hell yeah. When?”

The dates made Sister ask Flauna (a future cartoon character in another whacko story) about the dates and---- “Shit, I have work then.” Obviously Sister can’t leave. Sister began being really pissed and resolved to say to hell with the next day and so began getting herself pissed drunk.


4.
Sister has been dreaming but she does not have the time to record her dreams of alien lovers and monsters. She does note that it’s 5 in the morning because the Muslims begin singing; that it’s 6 in the morning because the Church is clanging the Angelus; and that it’s 7 in the morning because the neighbor is playing the piano. Like always, for now and until when Sister does not know.

“What did you dream of becoming when you were a kid?” Sister asked in an interview.

“I dreamt of working in a tall building, just like this,” Emzo the Emo Gonzo answered.

“Well, well, and now that it has come true? Not happy, huh?”

“Well…And you?”

Sister laughed, “A housewife. Nobody believes it, of course.”

Emzo laughed, “You?! No way!”

Sister smiled, “Precisely.”


2.
Now, now, Flauna said, I begin to see now how you were as a teacher.

Sister shrugged, “And how did I look when you first saw me months ago?”

Flauna laughed, “An alien. You didn’t belong there. And you were just not there.”


3.
“Maybe it’s time to leave,” Sister Shrinker said.

“Stop saying po and Ma’am to me,” Sister said to Sir instead.

Sir said, “I can’t help it! And I don’t think it will ever be right to just call you by your name!”

Sister said to Sister Shrinker instead, “I’m leaving all right because look at what I’m drinking---- here comes the Red Whore.”


5.
Sister said her hellos to her family of strangers, a roll call of old news. Sister does not remember much after, except sitting on some Brother’s lap (who was turning to be playfully incestuous) and being guided by somebody to the rest room who had said, “You don’t remember me, do you?”

But they were all crazy anyway.

Sister remembers a cab ride to an all-day-all-night den now catering to vampires, zombies and fiends. (That Brother didn’t come with them anymore, thank the God they all killed.) She remembers eating and drinking light then falling asleep.

Sister wakes up to the morning---- waiting for the Muslims---- sober.

Super Mama Sister asks, “Good morning. Want a beer? Or coffee?”

Sister says, “Jesus fucking Christ, we’re still drinking? Coffee, please.”

Brother Absentee Father says, “Hey, hey, we’re talking about how we all started. I remember the first time I saw you and asked what the hell you were doing there, hahahaha!”

Sister says, “And what was I like then, Brother?”

Brother Absentee Father says, “Well, shit, I knew that you collect men.”

Sister laughs, “That got around, huh? It was a hobby, according to my slumbook. And that’s why you are my brother, fucker.”

Super Mama Sister laughs, “You don’t know half of what she’s done!”


6.
And so there was an argument about how secrets came out--- affairs of love--- Sister simply listened.

Aborted Father was an angry megalomania going paranoid from the night’s barley.

Sister said, “You denied it, anyway. She was made to look like the liar. So who was the liar? And who made an issue of it anyway?”

Aborted Father pointed, “You did!”

Sister laughed, “I did?! I’m not even party to that equation. And really, how old is this shit? A decade? Geez, it’s done, move on. Unless you want to talk about what the hell past shit you and I have right here and now, hmmm?”

Aborted Father shut up.

Sister smiled, “Just as I thought. Freedom. Live and let live what you preach.”

Sister is popular for throwing missiles and screaming punches: not new to scandalous embarrassment, the Red Whore.


3.
Sister Shrinker asks, “So why do you cry?”

Sister shakes her head, “I don’t.”

Sister Shrinker says, “You do. In my dreams.”

Sister sniffs, “Fucking Red Whore.”


6.
And Sister silently talked in her head: Why is it that upon discovery of a secret, men get angry, feeling all betrayed. It takes two to tango and in that tango, one has the right to open a mouth. After all, men can jockey and brag and the women are supposed to shut up and take it in silence if denied and called you slut, you whore.

“It was supposed to be a secret!”

Sister sighed, “It takes two to tango, three to cha-cha, and four to samba. All secrets come out unless you have a gag order on everyone. Or you’re sloppy. Choose your witnesses with care. And ask for their goddamn consent in gag heaven, including the dance partner.”

“Amen!”



2.
Sister says, “I want to go away, far, away, away from all these, all of you…”

Sister looks at the Red Whore and inhales.

She disappears.


1.
It all began with learning and teaching freedom.

Someone says, “Let’s talk about the fucking I.”

Someone says, “Let’s talk about fucking the I.”

Someone says, “The I in individuality.”

Someone says, “The I that can screw over anyone.”

Someone says, “The point is freedom.”

Sister says, “That has always been the point.”