The Meaning to Sisterly Love

“No! Don’t cross that bridge! Your life will be in danger!” The words nobody expects to hear from anyone in a serious situation. That day was about as meaningful than any other day in my life. Let’s take it back to when I was a child. My Name is Alex and this is how me and my little sister Kyla grew closer in love. The day is December 26, 1995, and my mom brought in the greatest gift in the world. My little sister Kyla. Who would’ve thought that I would have a younger sibling? Not I. The day I laid eyes on her I knew then and there, something special was going to change my life forever.

When you have to fend for you and your younger sister life as the oldest and through hard times you learn fast. It’s not every day a child has to learn to be a parent. You learn to become protective and feed like a mother and not a sister. Then things get hard. We stayed with my grandfather at one point in life and he was amazing. We had everything we wanted. The true definition of spoiled might I say. We had received a puppy one year, well I did. My sister Kyla was scared of him but wouldn’t let nothing happen to him. My grandfather served in many wars and was growing old day by day. He made sure we were safe all until one day, the Feds decided to raid our home. The day my faith in police was taken away from me. They killed my dog in front of me and my little sister. Blood splatter on our face and tears as DCFS was there to take us away.

As time goes on we went to her grandparents’ house to live. They treated her with such love but I was the unwanted child in the house. That’s when I felt I had to become an adult n do for myself at the age of five. My aunt came to take me n my sister to her house to live with her but Kyla didn’t want to go. The love we had this day has been separated. I lost my little sister. We are now in separate homes. Her father takes her away and moves out of state so now we are even further apart. My heart hurts. I miss her, I love her. But I’m not around her anymore. I have no contact but social media, barley that. As we both grow to realize that we are fading from each other lives and don’t really know why. She is in another state dealing with abuse. Meanwhile I’m still here in Illinois dealing with rape, abuse, and neglect from my own family members I live with. Life has been hard but not harder than I planned.

Elementary school through high school was hard. My sister was fed lies about our youth and mother. Her father mistreated her, and it was well known. But she decides to move back to Illinois. She applies to Triton Community College and goes for her teaching degree. Here is where I feel is the time to try and rebuild our relationship. Its been years since we have been together and bonded. Is this a happy moment? No. She has lost all respect for me as her sister because of the lies her aunt and father have told her.

Have you ever just wondered why nothing can ever go right in life? I do daily. “You need to figure out what you want to do after high school. I’m not keeping no grown woman in my house. You either go to the service or college.” Words I will never let fade my mind from my aunt and uncle. Trying to pass a test that has all your weak points is hard. Math. A subject nobody can imagine is easy to all. So, I failed. I was nervous but at the same time I had several other things on my mind. Such as Kyla asking me to be there for her high school graduation. How can I be around people who took you away from me? People who talked down on my mother? People who fake loved you? I went.

Things got better but the respect still was not there. Time pushed apart more and more. I decided to take a trip to Paris, France. The weirdest way to travel to an airport is by train. On the train I run into a few classmates. It was a major coincidence that we all are taking the same flight to Paris. Then I get the most random phone call from Kyla telling me she is meeting me there. I thought nothing of it. Get to the airport and literally my whole graduating class was on the same flight. Its like a class reunion. We all played catch up and so many memories where brought up. Then the point was made that we were all brought together by the same person. Kyla.

We catch the flight feeling like it’s a trick or trap. Nobody is sure, but nobody backed out the flight. Who would turn down a free trip to Paris, France? We land and not shortly were we all greeted by Kyla. I was so happy that she was there but filled with so much rage that she invited my whole graduating class of 2011. She told me she would explain everything later. A coach bus pulled up to escort us to the hotel we would be staying in for the duration of the trip. Hotel Ritz Paris, the most fascinating hotel to stay in; well you would think. Our rooms would be underwater. Something different but not something I was ready for.

We were separated by genders. Males in one half by the shark tanks. Most men like sharks some don’t. Women with the simple fish. As the night started to winddown we all parted to enter our rooms for bed. At around 3am all you hear is screams from the men’s room. One of the male sharks attempted to attack the men in the room. Banging against the glass. He kept trying until he did enough damage to break his teeth. Blood started filling up the tank quick which drew more sharks into the area. Everyone started to panic. Nobody knew what exactly what was going on. “Look! By the ceiling there is an opening. We have to close it before they get out or break the glass!”

Now why would there be an opening in the room? Nothing made sense anymore. I gave up hope. I didn’t know what to do. I felt my life flash before my eyes and nobody was making it out alive. Kyla grabbed my hand and said “I love you more than you think sister. I have been hard on you, but I cannot allow us to leave this world knowing we might not make it.” My heart felt so heavy at that point. The bond we had, the connection came back but at the worst time in history I tell you. I realized that I can not lose my life nor my sister. She was my everything. I noticed a walkway above the opening and a button to close the opening.

Here I was about to risk my life and take the chance, until I heard someone yell out, “No! Don’t cross that bridge! Your life will be in danger!”. I look, and everyone is freaking out. Someone must save us, or we all die a sad death. I take the walk. You can see the sharks circling underneath waiting for me to plunge to my death. “I literally do not have time to do this, you stupid sharks, so leave me alone!” I scream as I try to focus crossing the bridge. I get to the middle and my heart starts racing. The sharks have started jumping to break the bridge. I started running to the end, but they have made it to where I’m stuck in the middle.

I say a prayer and I pray that someone watches over my sister and family as I take this risky run and try to make it before I’m a snack for these sharks. I breath in and I take a run for it. As I’m running, the bridge starts cracking. Dear God, I’m not going to make it. I hear Kyla yell out to me, “You got this sissy! Your almost there! Keep going! Don’t stop!”. I felt a lift of encouragement from her lift me and give me a boost. I took off like a rocket to the end. And just in time. As I hit the wall, the bridge collapsed and fell into the water. A sigh of relief as I hit the button to close the overtop door.

I walk down feeling like a hero. I saved everyone. I saved my sister. She ran to me with open arms and cried. “Never do that again!” she cried, “I could’ve lost you forever. I did once and never again.”. I finally had my sister back and she isn’t going nowhere this time.