Long Lost Siblings

There it was, right there in the mailbox. Staring at her. It always made her feel excited and sad all at the same time. That small parcel. She slowly reached her hand in and pulled it out. She turned it over. Blank. As always no return address, but she knew. She knew who it was from without turning it over. Every year around her birthday she received the postcard. The postcard with nothing on it except her name and address. No information of who it was from. But she knew. The postmark was different every year, a different part of the country. Her birthday wish every year was for the sender of that postcard to send her their address so she could send a message back. Twenty years and the same thing, a postcard with no message and no return address. She had never moved, in twenty years she had not moved out of her home. She raised her family in this home and each time the discussion came up about moving she put an end to it immediately. It was not an option.

She closed the mailbox door and went back into her house. She went up to her room, retrieved the shoebox off the top shelf of her closet and placed the postcard inside. She went back downstairs and began making dinner. She continued think about that postcard as she made dinner for her family. She wondered again what could have been different? What could have been done to prevent all of this from happening. She should have been a better person twenty years ago and prevented all of this. Now it was too late, people left, people died, people moved on and she was all alone in this. Even Husband didn't know the story. She was too embarrassed to tell it, to share with him, the truth of what an awful person she had been all those years ago. She didn't like to talk about her past and husband and accepted it.

That night after everyone had gone to bed she pulled at the shoebox and went the living room. One postcard at a time she looked at each postcard. She looked at each one knowing that the sender had loving picked out a postcard just for her. The person who sent the card had penned her address and that was it. Had the person who sent the card cried as the they dropped it into the mailbox? Had the person who sent the card felt as much remorse as she had? Did the person who sent the card miss her as much as she missed them. What kind of life were they living in country? Her birthday was tomorrow and again this year she felt horrible. Twenty years of postcards. That was it, she had in her hands 20 postcards that showed her the love that the person who sent the cards had felt for her. That is all she had of her past life since that incident happened. Before that day she had pictures and pictures of their life together and after that day she had pictures of the life she had created since that day. There was nothing from that horrible day all those years ago, except regret. She went through the pile of cards again. None of them had a message or a return address. The only thing she knew for sure was the country the person who sent the postcards came from and that her sister was still alive.

Character put the shoebox and it's contents back onto the shelf in her closet and crawled into bed. She was having a birthday tomorrow and it was supposed to be a happy day. Another celebration without her sister. Weddings, birthdays, Christmases, Thanksgivings, anniversaries, funerals all the days that should be spent with her sister were spent alone. Tomorrow would be no exception.

Character awoke with a start. Then she remembered that it was her birthday and her family would be serving her breakfast in bed soon. She rolled over looked at the clock and laid there thinking about how lucky she was to have her family. The family she made herself. She was truly blessed. Just then the bedroom door opened and that blessing walked in with her breakfast, shouting Happy Birthday! They piled on the bed with her and watched her take her first bite and asked how it was. Smiling she told them wonderful even though she had to gag the food down. A for effort she thought. After breakfast she showered and got ready for the day. She was going to spend it with her family. She walked over to the closet and again pulled down the shoebox. There was nothing special about it, no decorations just a plain shoebox. She pulled at the postcard she had received yesterday looked at it again, city, That is where it had been sent from. She turned it over looked a the picture. She then sent up a private thank you for the knowledge that her sister was still alive. She replaced the postcard and shoebox and went downstairs to join her family. No more thinking about her sister. Today was her day and she was going to focus on her family and herself.
11-1-16