A new family has moved in. A dad, a mom, a son, and two daughters.
The two daughters are sharing a room. It makes sense that this is the room they chose, one wall is entirely a mirror, except for the window. There will be no fighting over the mirror for these sisters.
The closet isn’t very big but they’re young, it’s not like they need that much space. I’m excited to have two girls living here! This is what I was made for.
They only have one bed, which they have to share. They stay up late into the night, telling stories and giggling.
When the younger sister can’t sleep, she doesn’t let the older sister sleep either. She pokes her and asks her random questions throughout the night. Until the older sister finally has enough, and she yells at the younger sister to fall asleep. The younger sister huffs and turns away, pulling all of the covers with her.
One early morning, the older sister, still asleep, kicks the younger sister out of the bed. The younger sister falls into a pile of clothes hangers on the floor. She doesn’t get back in bed, she resigns herself to laying on the pile of hangers. She was always the weirder one.
The mom opens the door to check on the daughters and sees her youngest in her new bed. When the mom asks what she’s doing, the younger sister doesn’t hesitate to tattle on her older sister.
One night when the older sister has friends spend the night, the younger sister begs them to let her hang out. They relent after a while. The girls are giggling, eating junk food. One of the friends flings a spoon full of peanut butter up to the ceiling.
It splats and all girls look up at it. They watch it begin to fall and the older sister holds her hands out to catch the peanut butter from staining the carpet. The celling is not so lucky. Now a light brown stain is permanently a part of the ceiling.
The bed finally breaks one day when the older sisters decide to belly flop onto it during a happy moment. The frame breaks and the daughters have to sleep on a lopsided bed until a new one gets bought.
The younger sister gets the lopsided side.
New beds come in the form of matching twin beds. Big wooden frames that are entirely too big for this room. But the sisters are so excited for the separate beds that they don’t care. Each girl picks out her own sheets and comforter. Now they each have their own side of the room.
The walls get covered with posters of the latest boy band, three brothers with dark hair and baby faces. The thumb tacks painfully pierce holes. There isn’t a space of wall left to be used. So, the older sister hangs a poster over her bed, covering the peanut butter stain.
A wooden desk is put into the room for the sisters to share. Younger sister gets bored of the plain wood and decides to add a little bit of spice. She paints rainbow polka dots all over it. Older sister hates it, but there’s nothing she can do about it now.
The family gets a kitten at older sister’s begging. The kitten gets to explore the bedroom. The small kitten is on top of younger sister’s bed, exploring. The kitten is investigating the edge of the bed. The kitten falls in the space between the bed and wall. Meows are heard instantly, and the sisters rush to save the kitten.
From now on, a towel is stuffed in the space, so the kitten can never fall between the bed and wall again.
One night, pre-teen older sister has a friend spend the night. The ceiling fan and light have come lose over the years. Younger sister is sitting on the floor because older sister’s friend gets the bed.
The fan is spinning, coming lose even more. Finally, the wires snap and the fan falls to the ground. Younger sister is saved from being hit by a few inches. The room of girls sits in silence. Mom comes in to see what the commotion is about. Younger sister tattles on older sister and older sister’s best friend.
A new fan and light gets put in, but it doesn’t take long for the sisters to break the string and now they can’t ever turn off the fan. It swings perpetually for years, never getting a break.
Posters of the boy band get taken down slowly and younger sister replaces them with posters of a baby-faced boy with hair that swoops across his forehead. Older sister replaces the posters with boards covered in pictures of family and friends.
The brother comes in every once in a while, to make a comment about the posters.
Finally, the wooden beds have been a nuisance for far too long. The sisters want bunk beds. Dad and mom buy a new bunk bed. The bottom bunk is a full-sized bed, and the top bunk is twin sized.
Guess who gets the top bunk?
Younger sister spends her teen years climbing up and down the ladder, complaining every time.
A bookshelf is put in the room, filling up the space the bunk beds created. Younger sister buys a fish to put on the bookshelf. The fish dies and a series of fish get bought, each one dying the same week they were bought.
One chaotic day, the family cat brings a bird into the house. The bird gets loose and flies right into the daughters’ room. The bird goes under the bed, scared out of its little mind. Dad has to come in to save the day.
Now the sisters have too many clothes, the closet and dresser are too small. Clothes litter the floor. Mom and Dad make a comment about it every time they look into the room. The daughters roll their eyes and tell Mom and Dad that they need their own rooms.
Sharing a room isn’t as fun as it used to be.
One day older sister comes home from high school and goes straight to the room, closing the door behind her. She doesn’t come out. Younger sister peeks her head in and see’s older sister in bed with her back to the door. Older sister is crying. Younger sister assumes it’s that boy older sister has a crush on.
The metal bunk beds have begun to squeak with every toss and turn the sisters make. They complain and beg enough that Mom and Dad agree to buy new beds. New furniture fills the room. Two twin beds, two desks, a new dresser, and a bookshelf.
The room is filled and there is an L-shaped path that the furniture creates. The posters are taken off the walls, leaving behind a million small holes.
The sisters decide they will fix it themselves. The buy spackle and put it over every hole in the wall. They realize that now they have a million white patches all over their walls. No big deal, they can paint the walls themselves!
They just have to buy paint. Okay what color do they want? Older sister wants a cream or eggshell color. Younger sister wants a bright white. The sisters each buy a sample of paint and paint a small square on the wall.
Older sister’s squares is perfectly shaped. Younger sister’s square is not even a square.
Now the time to pick the color has come. Older sister like the color she picked. Younger sister likes the color she picked. The fight ends in a draw and the walls don’t get painted for years.
I watch as the sisters get ready for first dates. I watch as they pack for vacations, I watch them change the decorations of the room so many times, I can’t even keep up.
I watch so many fights that I feel like I’m watching some reality show where all the people do is fight.
I also watch them help each other pick outfits and do their hair together and experiment with makeup.
I get to see them try to fall asleep on Christmas Eve, as they listen for Santa to come down the chimney. I see them wake up early the next morning and run to brother’s room to wake him up.
I see them on every first day of school and every last one. I see them get ready for every part-time job they ever had. I get to listen in on every phone conversation they have.
I overhear their conversations, whispered in the dark late at night when everyone else is asleep. Secrets get shared, and complaints about other family members get said. Every fear, every hope, every dream is spoken within my four walls.
Older sister brings a boy home one day. He’s different than the others. This one keeps coming back. Older sister spends less and less time here. Younger sister starts slowly changing the room to fit her tastes alone.
Older sister walks in one day with a diamond on her finger. Soon and slowly, older sister’s things start disappearing.
Younger sister is so excited, she packs up older sister’s things when she’s not even around. Older sister comes home and gets mad, more fighting. More making up.
Younger sister must have big plans for me, because all of the furniture disappears. I overhear Dad talk about new flooring. So, I get emptied out.
Now, younger sister sits in the middle of an empty room, staring up at the new ceiling fan they bought years ago. Earlier she was drawing in a notebook, I catch a glimpse of what she’s doing. She drew me with new furniture! Trying to figure out how to place everything.
She has music playing on her phone and her eyes search the emptiness. I can’t tell how she’s feeling. She doesn’t speak any words out loud, because now there is no one here to hear them.
I see her grab her laptop, which she does all the time now.
And she begins to type.
Gabby Gaspard 