The narrator recalls quiet mornings reading with their sister
When I was four years old, I moved to America with my mom and older sister and brother. I remember the first year being very strange and different from our life back in China. We didn’t have a car, so we had to walk everywhere we went, and coming from a walkable town, we were unaccustomed to everything being so far apart in the suburbs.
All around, there were people we’d never met, and it was hard for us to communicate with anyone outside of our family because we barely knew how to speak English. My older brother was already in high school and very busy, so this made it even more important to spend time with my sister.
When school started that first year for her, my sister began to read me picture books in the mornings. We’d sit together on the slightly crooked front steps of our new house as she waited for the school bus, and she would trace her finger over the illustrations as she read to me. I remember that the mornings smelled like freshly cut grass, and the leaves swayed in the trees above us. I loved being with my sister, and reading with her helped me feel less empty when I didn’t have anyone to play with after she left for school.
Once I got to kindergarten, we had less time to read together, and as time went on, we had completely forgotten about it. I would really like to read again with my sister. Now, years later, she is about to go to college next year, and I feel sad thinking about not reading again with her. Thinking about those mornings together brings up a lot of bittersweet feelings!
Sometimes I wish I could reverse time just so I can experience reading with her on those sunny days again, and I feel sad that I will see her so much less next year. I can’t stop that from happening, but you readers who have siblings might still have time to spend wonderful days together, reading and laughing.
So, what are you still doing reading this? Go outside and read with your family!
