When my sister was just a few months old, I was about 8 and 1/2. Early one weekend I was up and everybody else was still sleeping but I wanted to hold the baby. So I sneaked upstairs and took her out of her crib and was going to bring her down to the TV room and watch the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon with her, cuz she reminded me of Dungeon Master. Well, while going down the second flight of stairs from the main floor to the family room she started wiggling and slipped out of my arms. It was the loudest and most terrifying sound I've ever heard...
THMP-THMP-THMP-THMP-THMP
She slid down the carpeted stairs, tiny head whacking against each one. I stood there for what felt like an hour, waiting for her to start wailing, waiting for my parents to come crashing down from upstairs to see what the racket was, waiting to catch the ####storm of a lifetime for killing my new baby sister.
But nothing happened. Nobody came running and somehow she never made a peep, just laid on the floor, legs kicking and arms flailing. I didn't know if she was just dazed or now permanently ######ed. I crept down the stairs like a ninja, not wanting to sell myself out and scooped her up, then leaped back upstairs two at a time and put her into her crib with nobody the wiser.
The next few years were tense, secretly dreading getting news that my sister was brain damaged and only I would ever know why... Thank goodness she actually turned out to be pretty awesome.
|