The Joys of Siblings

The Saga of La

I have three older brothers. Josh is 8 years older, Jesse is 6 years older, and Dan is 4 years older. When I was younger, my brothers developed an extensive and elaborate story about a sister they once had name La. She was the best sister in the world. She would do anything and everything for my brothers. She was the sweetest and the brightest, and no matter what I ever did, I couldn't live up to what a great sister she was. Of course, in the beginning, this provoked questions in my young mind about what happened to her. Well, my brother's explanation was simple. Arnold Schwarznegar chained her to a post, and ran over her with a Corvette. This, naturally, was terrifyling to me as a young girl, and the very thought of that big, scary, muscley man shook my very sould. Anytime that my brothers were baby-sitting me and bagan to tire of my energy, they would run to the window and scream, "Rachel, Arnold is coming, run!! Go hide in your room!" This would immediately bring my tiny little mind to tears, and I would run to my room and hide in my colest for a half and our. Not only was this effective to get me out of their hair, but anytime that were too lazy to do something for themselves, they had a wayto coerce me into doing it for them. If they wanted a glass of water, but didn't want to get up to get it themselves, they owuld ask me to do it. I would reply with asmart and childish no, but they would lay into me about La. They would tell me what a grea sister whe was and that she would ahve done it for the. I wouldd immediatley feel guillty and run downstiar sto get them a drink of water. Often times they would even go as far as timing me, telling me that La could make a sandwich in 15 seconds. Every single time, I wasn't fast enough, and they woudl tell me once agian that La was a better sister than me. You may be asking yourself how exactly my borhters got away with this. Yet another one of their ploys. They would explain to methat I could never tell my mom and dad about La, becuase if I did, it would bmake them cry, and I didn't want that. So, this is how I lived out the majority of my childhood; in hear of Arnold, and consisitenly in the shadow of a nonexistent sister.
Several years later, when I was about 16, I had my family at home for some type of holiday. We were all standing in the kitchen, and like a WWII flashback, the horrors of La came back to me. I gasped remembering what my brothers had done, and I began to pour out the story. My mom was in shock, and my dad laughed for about 10 minutes. My mom couldn't believe that my brothers had gotten away with it, and that I had never told her about it. To this day, I am still teased about La, and what a great time my brothers had with it.