12th Grade, perhaps the summer after ~ I learn to cook pasta and crack an
egg, a miniscule milestone, a rite of passage.
Some time before 2nd Grade ~ We find out that I’ll have a sister (though
she’s born two weeks late). Without any fuss, I decide that I actually want a sister anyway, because don’t little brothers just get into your things?
8th Grade ~ I write a poem about characters from the novel I’m writing,
which will definitely be a movie someday, and Helena Bonham Carter will definitely be in it. It is the first of my poems to be significantly and publicly praised.
Preschool ~ After making it through cancer, the Make a Wish folks come to
my house and ask what I want my wish to be. I ask if they can give me a brother. They laugh with my parents and tell me kindly that they can’t give me that. I go to Disney World instead.
When I am very young ~ Spencer and I sit on the floor watching Winnie the
Pooh ‐‐ that “dear, silly old bear” ‐‐ as he runs from the grey mass of bees, and in all our innocent delight we laugh and laugh and laugh.
*with thanks to Deborah Harding
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