“Goodbye kids,” I yelled out as I headed out the door.
“Bye mom,” they chorused back. They were watching their favorite Saturday morning cartoons, and while their dad was not yet out of bed, the girls would remain occupied at least for another hour or so. Despite being eight and nine, they had never met the person I was going to see. They probably knew more about her from others than the woman herself.
“What’s Auntie Nome like?” I recall Catherine asking once. “Is she like all super and bang, bang, I got you bad guys now?” Catherine asked while imitating the super heroes she watched on television. “Yeah, she was like, Nobles you’re under arrest and we’re taking you in!” Nina added. I smiled as I reminisced on the thought. At least her nieces still thought highly of her. Perhaps because they did not yet understand words such as massacre and vengeance. Perhaps it was the childlike innocence of wanting to see their relatives in a good light, regardless of what others would say.
As I took the short drive to the house I grew up in, it did occur to me why I had never brought my daughters along. It wasn’t that I was afraid to leave them with her… was it? She had been my maid of honor for my wedding and even my husband didn’t think she was as insane as reports often made her out to be. To me her actions will always be justified. I couldn’t imagine watching an entire city burn to the ground and not have a response. I’d probably have snapped too. But that’s not what we talk about. She doesn’t like to talk about war stories. She prefers just being a sister, another Xelhan woman trying to make her way in the world. Maybe that’s why I don’t bring my daughters to her. They aren’t yet old enough to understand the pain and suffering of such events. They’ve never really known the strife of war that we all lived through and experienced.
As I pulled into the driveway, Nome was already sitting on the front porch step. “Twenty years later and you can still set a clock by your actions,” she spoke as I got out of the car and approached her. “Perfectly on time and not a second early or late,” she smiled.
“Well when your big sister sets her timers on exact minutes and penalizes you for a second, I think I have been well groomed for such habits that aren’t going to die anytime soon,” I replied back as I sat down next to her and we embraced each other. In that moment, Nome was once again my big sister. Not some monster that massacred an entire army. Not some insane creature that was a danger to society. But my kind and loving older sister. Someone who I can still confide in and trust from the day I was born. In that moment I made up my mind. Other choices may be hard, but this one I was making was far more complex than I needed to. “Let’s go meet your nieces,” I said as I held her aloft. And for the first time since the war, I see her with a genuine, broad smile.
“I’d really like that,” she said through the tears, which for once were not tears of anguish, or a crazed woman. But tears of joy. We hugged again, and for the first time in a long time, it truly felt like we were sisters again.216Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBmh1uKnsmU
