crazy

She came down the stairs to her father lecturing her brother again on how lazy he was and how he'd never make it anywhere. Couldn't he find anything else to worry about? He never spent that kind of time on her. She was fine. Her grades were high. They (mostly) approved of her friends. Nothing to focus on. If only they would notice her. The waiting was hard. Hoping for the question to be real. "How are you?" She wanted that and feared that. It was almost a guarantee that she would fall apart then; burst like the delicate bubble she really was. It was also almost a guarantee that it would never happen, and she couldn't cry unprovoked. Not now.

"Dad, can't you find something else to do before dinner?"

They would wonder why she would leave. They would wonder why she never seemed to want to come home. She would go through an entire lifetime in the next ten years that all of this school wouldn't prepare her for. Hopefully, she would survive it. Something was there inside, knocking, begging for her attention. Not the time to look directly at it. Just a few more months of listening to it call her. It was just not something she could let out until she was gone. Too risky to let loose here.

I guess this is the sister response to this. The title is about the confusion, a personal feeling. Also, it rhymes.

lazy

He flopped his head onto the sofa cushion. His father could be so annoying. He started counting the dots on the ceiling. Then the drips on the windowsill. Then the number of times Dad said the word "lazy". Mom would call them for dinner in a minute, and it would be a 30 second wrap up of how he wasn't using his full potential. Then dinner. If he could wolf down his plate before Mom noticed enough to caution, "Slow down," he bet he could be back in his room in 20 minutes. Lock the door, turn up the music on his Ipod, and lay perfectly still. They'd leave him alone. Probably sighing their parental confusion-disappointment. Where had they gone wrong? It was when they forgot that children don't want to be their parents. At least not until they become them. They just didn't understand. Old and out of it. If they only knew what he was going through, they'd leave him alone. They didn't care though. WAY to wrapped up in their own plans for him. Dad had reached 25 lazy's. And there was Mom. He should start setting his watch to this. Here's the big finish.

"You could learn a thing or two from your sister. She has drive. She has passion. A future."

He knew that. He also knew that she was lucky. Or blessed. Everything was clear for her, only a matter of stepping on that road and keeping one foot in front of the other. If only he could have just a little bit of that. Life would be so much easier.

I wrote most of this looking at the ceiling. Mine has no dots to count.