A badly needed visit with my childhood.

It is the first memory I have. I was being carried over my mothers shoulder in the dark of night to a large brown house that was across the street from ours. She banged on the door, handed me to someone, and they set me down. I sat in the entry way on a linoleum slab playing with lego's. I have no idea how long I was there. I could ask my mother and she could probably tell me exactly how long I was there. I know that it was in the month of April, I know that I was two years old, and I know that I played with lego's in a brown house in a front hall. (I remember the lego's well, especially the little green trees.) I have a photo of myself the very next day, holding my newborn baby sister. She was named after my great Auntie. Her name was Afton. From that moment on I had a friend, a companion, and an accomplice. She was someone to confide in when I was afraid to talk to my parents, she was someone to hold on to when I was scared at night, and she was someone to blame things on when I did something wrong. She was my sister and we were best friends. When I was six, and she was four we used to sneak into a nearby corn field, and steal corn on the cob and eat it raw next to a huge oak tree until we were sick. When she was six, and I was eight, we ran off a babysitter so terrible and cruel that I can hardly believe my mother ever hired her. She was mean, and she had to go. So we plotted against the evil witch that inhabited our lands. We would make longdistance calls, and leave the phone off of the hook for hours. We would hide from her for hours in our secret places while she screamed in anger and fear. We would move things around in our parents room and take things that children wouldn't want. Finally she was gone, and all was well in our kingdom. We were a team my sister and me. And we saved each other that summer. Summer was always the best, we lived in the huge lilac bush in our yard from the begining of spring, until all the leaves were gone from it. We spent countless hours building forts and keeping our treasures there. We would have slept in the tree like monkeys but Mom wouldn't let us. To this day I believe lilacs are still her favorite, for they are mine. I love my sister with all of my heart and keep her secrets as she keeps mine, buried where the X is. I wonder if she remembers the X and the burried treasure? We were eight or nine then. Most of the happy memories of my childhood have my sister in them, my first memory is about her, and I wouldn't be who I am with out her. She is stronger than she thinks, I couldn't do what she does. She thinks I am the stronger one, but if someone put me in her shoes, I would crack. Yet, somehow, she stays in one piece. I will see her tomorow, it has been six months since the last time. I can't wait to hold my boys, and she can't wait to hold her Nicky. She only had boys, and I one girl. She desperately wanted a girl, so I let her claim mine as her own, as she lets me call her boys mine. They are so amazing. I love them as they were my own flesh, my Bug, and my Haylen. They are both so smart, and remind me so of my sister as a child. I can hardly wait to step off of the boat and see their big smiles as they run into my arms. (Mental note to self: Bring Camera this time!)