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That
summer, I went to visit my sister in South Africa for her graduation ceremony.It
was unforgettable.We haven¡¦t
seen each other for a long time, and on the long distance telephone we
didn¡¦t talk much.But
the minute we got together, so naturally did we fit together that there
was no feeling of unease or awkardness.
Helen
may not be your everyday good little girl.She
may be greedy at times and violent in her earlier years.Sometimes
when she played with me, she would punch my stomach for real.For
she was then incapable of empathy to know how much it hurts.
But
the presence of her on our reunion excited my very being.For
we seem to have a close understanding of each other: what she did and how
she behaved would look like rudeness and abuse in another person, whereas
in her case, it achieves in me excitement to a maximum point where anger
might start.
During
the visit, when she woke up every morning, I would bring breakfast to her
bed.She would call me a slave, which
I accepted with great humor and honor, and she would tap the table next
to her with a real look of a master and claimed for her ash tray.
She
was kind enough to take me to her Dental Faculty and give me a free wash
for my teeth.She would claim that
the other dentists were not doing their job in merely touching on the surface
of the teeth, and that she had to drive her drillers in deep and good.She
could be professional in front of her other patients, but in front of her
sister, driven by certain kind of madness, I suppose, she would exercise
her tyranny as if leading a pig to the slaughter.When
she finally presented me and my teeth to her professor, I looked as horrifying
as a bloody vampire.
Not
only did she torture me physically, but she would try my limitation.When
we drove to town, out of her moments of zeal, she would start the car and
tell me to run beside it.She would
drive the car at such a pace in which my physical and mental tolerance
reached a point where the fun would be over and my temper might break.But
she always seemed to know where the subtle point was.There
she would slow down the car and said, ¡§You need a taxi?¡¨
¡§Yes.¡¨ I would say, almost ready to explode.¡§Get
in.¡¨ And she would carry me happily in her car like Jesus, the
Good Shepherd, finding his lost sheep and carrying it happily home.
At
times we make Tacos together.I would
look at the recipe book and told her to hand me half a cup of water for
the mince.Even in cooking a decent
meal, she couldn¡¦t keep herself.She
couldn¡¦t stay good, she had to do something wild and attention-seeking.She
deliberately poured me one cup of water.At
this point the air is high and the atmosphere is hot. We
think it very funny but provoking at the same time.There
is a mixture of feeling of us wanting to cry, to laugh and to shout at
each other.With my Adrenalin boiling
in me, I shouted to her, ¡§I told you to give me half a cup
of water, why did you give me one cup of water!¡¨ So she shouted
back at me, ¡§And I want to give you one cup of water, so what
do you want to do about it!¡¨
Our
mince that day turned into stew.But
I never tasted Tacos so good as this in my life.I
really believe that it is because during the cooking process, our laughter
was mixed into it.
Once,
my sister was sitting in the living room watching television, and I offered
to cut for her some fruits.I started
slicing the fruit and arranging it in a way which would look pleasing to
the eyes.Suddenly I saw a slice
of fruit which seemed to rot, and immediately I put it into my mouth.I
was surprised at myself.I was surprised
at how very much like my mother I was.But
then I realized that it was because of love.I
started to ask myself whether I could just throw the piece of fruit away.But
to do it seemed to demand rational reasoning whereas maternal instincts
seemed to demand it the other way.But
it was because of love.And love
is itself universally self-sacrificing.
This
stay with my sister was most memorable.Although
I was always on thebrink of getting
mad and wanting to explode, but because her behavior is so funny yet so
subtle, in actual reality, we seem to cope along fine and wellAnd
we could achieve this really weird but good relationship between us because
within the both of us, there is a deep understanding of each other.In
being together for 26 years, we know the temper and the character of the
other person too well: she knows exactly to what extent will I get mad.And
I understand when something was meant to be a joke.It¡¦s
a kind of understanding where politeness seemed to be out of fashion.And
there where love flourishes, all things could be meant in a different way.
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