remember how, before we finally installed ac in our 1970s-built split level, summers would bring thick, dry heat into every room? the sliding doors to our dining and living room would have to flung wide open in order to flush out the uncomfortably still air while we tried a little bit hopelessly to coax the occasional breeze in. i remember how the curtains fluttered softly as the afternoon sun stretched into the backyard, ushering in the cool evening. those summer afternoons were often spent in the hallway outside our bedrooms, our one respite from the heat. i recall playing with my stuffed animals (we'd create elaborate storylines and lineages between our characters) with my legs outstretched in front of me or reading with my back pressed flat onto the hardwood to dissipate as much of my sweat to the cool floorboards as i could. my dad eventually had our house retrofitted for an ac system, but i still kind of miss those days i'd spent hiding in the hallway, pretending i was suffering some great calamity with my animal friends :>
my sister and i used to spend all our free time playing together. we had games only we understood and set rules for (though i admittedly set most of them...), adopting such creative names as "pretend you found me..." (where i would pretend i found her as a little orphan girl on some lonely stoop/fire station/out in the rain/etc.) or "les miserables" (we just reenacted the entirety of les mis with our stuffed toys or lego minifigures). but of all the games we'd play, my very favorite was always "journey" (our stuffed animals would embark on a quest of some sort) while my sister's was "day in the life" (slice of life anime but with our own animals or dolls). even at that young age, i was deeply enamored with lofty daydreams of grand adventure, filled with treasure maps, quest markers, sorcerers and evil queens and lost princesses. i wasn't satisfied simply playing out a day in the life of some ordinary character, i craved swashbuckling and unexpected voyages. i always wanted more. i'd often get my way, too, even goading my sister into petty squabbles more than a couple times because of how insistent i would be. and when those petty squabbles devolved into screaming, crying, and venom-tainted jabs between sisters, we'd be instructed to sit in opposite corners of the house, starting blankly at the wall until my dad figured we'd been punished enough for making playtime a snotty, teary debacle.
remember how we'd use to fight? stupid, trivial gripes escalating over afternoon play would extend into whispered arguments in the night. we never physically fought, opting for nasty words aimed straight at one another's egos. when we shared a bedroom still, we'd lie in our beds (mine lofted, hers perpendicular below) tucked in with lacey and leo and clara and sealy and penguiny, hissing antagonistic exchanges through our teeth. and though we thought ourselves sneaky, every night this occurred, we'd hear the signature click! -- followed by a soft glow under the door -- of one of our parents waking up and turning on the hallway light to "investigate" our said squabbles. shhhh~! we'd whisper-shout, holding our breaths in hopes that we wouldn't land ourselves into trouble. because, in the end, no matter how big our fights were, we always managed to temporarily set aside our anger at each other in order to unite against the true threat...
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