Some days I still think I'm going to wake up in bed at 26 Austral Rd with Sophie tapping my face,wanting to come lie under the blanket. She had an annoying,darling habit of jumping onto my bed just as I was about to get out of it. Feeling her little footsteps across my blankets was one of my favourite feelings ever.When I'd cuddled with Sophie,I'd have my quiet time in the green,bowl shaped couch with the knife lost inside it. the couch was old,hardly green anymore,really. More of a mouldy grey with an occasional yellow fleck where the sponge was starting to show.
We would all do school in the outside classroom,sometimes getting caught up in pointless debates for hours. We even declared our classroom a country,wrote a history and a charter and gained amazing red indian names. My mother was Chief Mother Moose,Rebekah was lame Duck,on account of her extreme laziness and inability to fetch anything of her own. I was Ugly Bird and Jesse was Little Swaying Antelope. Zoe,poor thing,was dubbed Poop Scoop,for reasons that cannot be disclosed to the public. During tea break,the duty fell upon me to make tea and popcorn for the hungry masses. During lunch break,my dad and I would get our daily dose of justice by giving Judge Mathis our impeccable advice.The library would be graced with our critical presence every other Monday,dancing was,at one time,nearly every day. On Friday afternoons before youth we would all endure 45 minutes of music lessons. While the classes never produced any great enjoyment,I am eternally grateful for the skills I have developed on the flute.
On odd rainy days (and non rainy days) I would watch New Moon and eat chocolate custard with Rebekah,squashed up on my little bed,under a pile of blankets. In between yanking the duvet,readjusting the lap top so that it was exactly in the middle,sometimes falling off the bed or getting knocked into the shelves and repeating certain scenes,we managed to create an excellent sisterly bonding time.
During the afternoons I would swing and journal with Zoe. Sometimes we would just lie on a blanket and look at clouds,talking till there was nothing left to say. So many "What Ifs" and "Imagine You Could" conversations took place during those short moments. There was always something to laugh about and an endless supply of tea.
Once a week,or more if we found a surprise rerun,I'd watch Law and Order with my mom,racing to the kitchen during ad breaks to make tea and scrounge around for a piece of I-KNOW-I-saved-some-somewhere chocolate.
More often than not,and unbeknown to most of the rest of the family, my brother and I would sit up in the kitchen or in his room long after everyone had gone to bed,listening to Eminem and,again,drinking tea. We would talk about the oddest things,from how certain Linkin Park songs are a cry for Salvation,relationships,remember whens and what we thought was going to happen in the next episode of LOST. Too many inside jokes were formed during those times. Only Jesse will understand how a painting can be a Scratchy Poo and why giving some one a thumbs up is hilarious.
While my days now honestly are fairly decent,I do think of these times as our good old days,when we all lived in the same country and spoke to one another more than once a month. i miss the noise,the four cats ruling the roost,laughing at the little retard Moo,hearing the two dogs bark at thieving pigeons and not being able to go into the garden because of target practice. My family is absolutely insane,weird,loud and messy.We are all stubborn and strong willed,and like any family we fought.But when it really mattered we always stuck together like a little gang,ganging up on whoever was bullying one of us or having a heart felt funeral for a passing cat. Oh the insanity,I miss being a part of it more than ANYTHING.
