Needless to say, Sadie didn’t understand the issues involving my family and me. Family was a magic word to her. To me, it wasn’t. We had different definitions.
“Open it! Open it! Open it!” Sadie started chanting, dragging each syllable out.
I glared at her. The excitement from what the letter could say had brightened her blue eyes and plastered a childlike smile onto her face. “Fine.” I sighed.
My fingers trembled as I flipped the envelope around in my hands and tore it open. I stared at the folded slip of purple paper inside, still debating whether the news my sister was trying to give me could be anything good. It had to be. Purple paper had to be something good. Emma wouldn’t write anything earthshattering on purple paper. Blue or gray maybe, or green even, but not purple. Purple was her favorite color. Writing sad news on her favorite color would tarnish it forever in her mind, wouldn’t it?
I slipped my fingers inside the envelope to retrieve the paper while kicking myself for not answering her last few calls. The Montgomery stubborn streak had gotten the best of me after our last conversation, and now I regretted it. My mind drifted back to why I was so pissed at her, trying to remember what it was she had said that set me off, but nothing stuck out. I was too focused on what I might find written across the purple stationary my sister had bought last year during an Easter sale at the dollar store. The memory of her saying she loved the spacing of the lines in that overly excited voice of hers tumbled through my mind. I couldn’t understand her obsession with stationary products.
I stared at the paper in my hand. No. Emma would not write bad news on her beloved purple paper. She just wouldn’t.
“Come on,” Sadie pressed. “Read it.”
I chewed my bottom lip as my fingers unfolded the letter. My eyes soaked in her familiar handwriting. It was still pretty. A memory of trying to mimic her perfect Y’s flashed through my mind before I could focus on what the letter said. I had tried for hours to get the curl right.
“What’s it say?” Sadie pulled me back to the now. I situated myself so she could read it over my shoulder, and then dropped my gaze to the paper.
Char,
I’m sick of hearing your voicemail. It’s not even set up right. You’re supposed to tell people who they have reached, not let some automated robot say a standard, cold greeting and repeat your number. It’s impersonal. Change it. Please.
Three more things:
One: Call me! Seriously.
Two: Mom is fine, so don’t worry. Although, she probably wouldn’t mind talking to you more as well.
Three: I’m getting married!!!!
The engagement party is in two weeks. Please, please come home for it.
Love,
Emma
P.S. Pick up your cell and call me. NOW!
“She’s getting married.” Sadie said the words before I could, with just the right amount of shock.
My sister was getting married. That couldn’t be right. I skimmed the letter once more. The words were there, written in her impeccable handwriting.
“When did this happen?” Sadie shouted. “Who is she even dating? You haven’t mentioned she was seeing anyone serious.” I told Sadie everything, and it was obvious from her tone she thought I had left out some vital information.
I didn’t know the answer to either of those questions. My sister didn’t have time to date, let alone find someone to marry. At least I hadn’t thought. Apparently, I had been wrong. “I don’t know.”
“So she hasn’t mentioned anyone to you?”
I thought back to our previous conversations. “No. She only talks about Mom’s doctors and nurses. Stuff like that.” Which was why I avoided her calls.
“Could be a hot, young doctor she’s been taking your mom to.”
My brows furrowed as I contemplated this. “No. She would have told me if there was a hot doctor she was interested in.” At least I thought she would. Maybe I had let us drift so far apart it wasn’t something she felt a need to inform me of. I couldn’t think of the last time when we’d discussed dating and guys.
“Could it be a hot nurse, then?” Sadie moved to sit on the edge of her bed. “There are some pretty hot male nurses nowadays. It’s not just females in the field now. Eric was in school to be a nurse.”
“I remember.” How could I forget him? He was one of the first guys Sadie dated during our freshman year here. He was also the first guy I ever met who was in school to become a nurse. Eric would be making a lot of women’s fantasies come true in the nursing ward one day. “And no, she didn’t mention any guy nurse. She hasn’t mentioned anyone to me. At all.” Why hadn’t she mentioned someone to me before now?
“Okay, this is your sign, then. You have got to pay more attention when she calls!” she chided. “There is no way she wouldn’t have said something to you about this.”
I averted my gaze to the carpeted floor of our dorm room. “I know.”
“I love you to death, Charlotte. I really do.” She slipped off her bed and moved to kneel in front of me. She smoothed her hand along my forearm while holding my stare. “But, you seriously should answer the phone and pay attention when your sister calls. What if it had been something about your mom? What would you do then?”
“I don’t know.” I could have mentioned that had been my fear from the moment my eyes landed on the envelope, but I didn’t because then she would ream me even more for my lack of relationship skills when it came to my sister.
Sadie talked to her mom every day, and her dad and brothers at least three times a week. She didn’t understand why I would keep distance between my sister and me the way I did, especially not when our mother was as sick as she was. To Sadie, this was a time when I should be calling home every day. She didn’t understand I couldn’t; I was scared to hear from Emma that Mom was getting worse.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.” Sadie stood and walked toward our shared desk. “With as sick as your mom is, the two of you should be bonding over it. No one in the world knows how you feel better than Emma.”
I closed my eyes, knowing she was right, and fell back against my mattress. I couldn’t count how many times Sadie had said those exact words to me. Each time they made me feel like the world’s shittiest sister.
“I’ve said my piece. Now I need to meet Jeff in the quad.” The sound of her moving around the dorm made me look at her. I watched as she plucked her denim jacket off the edge of her bed and flashed me a smile. “He’s taking me out to a late lunch. This is date number two.”
I sat up on my elbows and narrowed my eyes at her. “Don’t you mean number three?”
“Studying in the library does not count.” Her facial expression grew so serious I laughed.
“Okay. Sorry.” I contained my laughter. “I forgot about your ‘it’s not a date if you don’t leave campus’ rule.”