Read Online What My Sister Remembered by Marilyn Sachs - Free Book Online Page A

I think you should get on Uncle Walter’s case.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I mean you should help him give up smoking. I clipped lots and lots of articles for my father, showing the correlation of cancer to smoking. He didn’t want to read them, and he kept telling me to stop it, but I didn’t.”
    "I'm safe there,” said my dad. “Molly never reads the paper, so I won’t have to worry about that.”
    “You really should, Molly. You shouldn’t let him keep smoking.”
    “Aw, Beth, I only smoke half a pack a day, except when I’m sitting around or when I’m with other smokers.” He stubbed out his cigarette.
    She kept talking to me, lecturing as if she was a grown-up and I was some dumb little kid. She certainly could irritate people. “I mean it, Molly. If you love somebody, you shouldn’t let him kill himself.” She made a face. “And lung cancer is a terrible disease. You can’t breathe.”
    “My mom keeps telling him to stop. The smoke makes her nauseous,” I said.
    Beth waved her hand impatiently. “I’m talking about him,’“ she said. “You have to help him stop.”
    She smiled up at my dad. “Uncle Walter, do you know what finally convinced my father to stop?”
    “You left him alone,” said my father, trying to make a joke of it.
    “No. I told him, ‘Dad, I love you very much. And I want you to be around when I have kids. I want them to love you very much too.'"
    The bell rang, and my dad leaped to his feet and rushed out of the room. Beth tossed her head, and her hair made a smooth, shiny wave across her cheek. “My dad used to run away from me too, Molly, but I didn’t leave him alone until he stopped. You should really start clipping articles from the newspapers like I did. Now, here, in today’s paper there’s a wonderful article that ... ” She held out a part of the newspaper toward me.
    “Do you want me to run away too?” I asked angrily. “Just get off my back, Beth. Just get off all of our backs.”
    Beth’s eyebrows raised. “You’re just ignorant,” she said.
    “And you think you know everything.”
    “I know a lot more than you do,” she said. “I really can’t believe we’re related. You’re such a ... such a ... birdbrain.”
    “And you’re a pain,” I said. “You make people feel bad. You made my dad feel bad, and you make my mom feel bad, and you try to make me feel bad.”
    “You don’t know anything.” Beth moved closer to me. I could see her eyes—brown, like mine, and her nose—kind of long, like mine, and her skin, dark, like mine. She had that weird, mean smile on her face again. “What goes on in that bird brain of yours? What do you think about besides eating and decorating your room in sick pink?”
    “Lots of things,” I said, moving back, and beginning to feel scared again.
    “Like what?” She moved her face up closer. I could smell her breath, minty, like toothpaste. She was probably the kind of kid who brushed her teeth after every meal.
    “I see my friends. I ride my bike. I swim. I ...”
    “Do you ever read a book? Uncle Walter says you never read a newspaper. How about books? Do you ever read books?”
    “Sure I read books.”
    “Name one.”
    “I don’t have to if I don’t want to.”
    “Because you can’t think of any. Because you can’t think period,”
    I wanted to slam my fist into that mean, scary face of hers, but my mother’s words, Be nice to her, and my father’s words, You will behave yourself as long as she is in this house, froze me in my place.
    “You’re stupid,” Beth said in the meanest voice I had ever heard. “You’ve had it easy all your life— just because you’re little and cute. People always thought you were little and cute, and they always babied you and spoiled you. You’ve always been lucky. I remember ...”
    But I didn’t want to hear what she remembered. I jumped to my feet and went tearing out of the room. If I had stayed there another second, I would have tried to kill