Starting Over – Chapter 05

I wiped the condensation off the foggy window with a pajama sleeve .
It was still dim outside, but I had an unbroken view of the snow-covered town .
From how the sky looked, it should have been rather cold, but my young body was warm . Kid’s bodies are great like that .
It was still early morning, so there wasn’t anyone outside, nor was there a sound .
All that was even moving out there was the snow, drifting down at a fixed rhythm .
It made my own breathing and the rustling of my clothes seem unusually louder .
As I rummaged through the paper bag, it woke up my little sister sleeping on the bottom bunk, and I heard her crawl out from under the down quilt .
I grabbed onto the bed frame and peered down at my seven-year-old sister .
She drowsily turned to a teddy bear beside the bed and shouted “Yaaay!” with a slight delay .
Long hair like lacquered silk, round mouth, big eyes with just a light touch of color .
Oh yeah, my sister used to look like this, I thought nostalgically . Always walking a few meters behind me, going “Big brother, big brother!”
I guess in a way, I’d say this was when she was cutest . ‘Course, she was still a great little sister ten years later, that didn’t change .
But thing is, as she grew older, she didn’t need to rely on me anymore . Good for her, but makes you wonder if your little sister can ever
be too capable .
I dropped off the bed onto the carpet and sat down on my sister’s bunk . As she sat entranced by her teddy bear, I said to her “Hey . ”
“Your brother’s come back from ten years in the future . ”
Still sleepy, she laughed “Welcome back!”
I kinda liked that response and said “It’s good to be back,” rustling her head .
My sister being my sister, she looked down, smiling wordlessly, and did the same with her teddy bear .
I didn’t do this kind of thing much when I was ten, so it might’ve been new . So I wondered how I should respond .
I wanted to open my heart to someone about the brilliant plan I’d devised . I just had an itch for somebody to hear my strange notion, my dare to re- enact my first life . And my sister seemed like a good pick for it .
She was little and wouldn’t understand whatever I told her, and she’d soon forget all about it .
I said this to my sister, sitting before me with a teddy bear on her lap .
“I know the mistakes I’m going to make, and I know what it is I should really do . Tell the truth, starting right now I could be a prodigy, or get super rich . Heck, I could even be a prophet or some kinda messiah .
”…But you know, I don’t want to change a thing . It’ll be fine by me if I can just live the same life as before . ”
She stared absentmindedly at me, holding her teddy bear . “I don’t get it,” she replied honestly .
“Suppose you wouldn’t,” I said .