Sarah Gibson leaned her head against the black polyester backseat headrest of the 2014 Ford Focus, sinking into the stiff cushion even as she sank into being a Gibson. She was sharing that backseat with another teenager and an almost-tween, and it was cramped living, but she relished the closeness. It was the same closeness as she'd felt just a few minutes earlier, with the five of them crushed into a TGI Friday's booth table that was deigned for only four people. And with Mom now driving and Dad in the passenger seat, that meant five entire bodies in the small cabin space of the compact sedan, five people who loved each other, and who knew each other, and shared a bond that Sarah had never felt before.
This was what Sarah had been searching for.
The car pulled into the driveway of the Gibson home, and Roger twisted around in his chair to face his children. "You guys aren't usually this quiet. Is everything alright?"
Richard McMillan had never asked Sarah such a question before. But no, Sarah wasn't going to think about Richard McMillan anymore. She was going to just appreciate this, whatever it was, while she had it, before she had to give it back.
"Well, things are a lot easier when Sarah's not poking me with her elbow the whole ride," groused Mikey, the youngest Gibson child, from his perch in the middle seat.
Sarah knew that Jon probably would have taken umbrage at that insinuation if he was in her shoes (what an ironic turn of phrase), and she also knew that it was probably a good idea not to stray too far from expectations, but just tonight, just this once, just as she was appreciating having a sibling who groused about her, Sarah decided to give in to her euphoria.
And she hugged her newfound brother. "I love you, Mikey."
"Hey, no fair," the young boy squirmed in her embrace, "I'm trapped until you or Zoe move your big butts!"
Sarah laughed, but she also let go, unbuckled her seatbelt, and got out of the car so that Mikey could follow suit.
The young boy zipped around Sarah and made a beeline for the front door, despite the fact that he did not have a key and would need to wait for someone else to unlock it. Sarah waited for Zoe, only a few years her junior, to exit the car, and turned to her. "Hey, Zo?" Sarah had no idea if anyone had ever abbreviated the girl's name like that before, but in the moment it felt right.
"Yeah?"
"Can I talk to you about something? Just the two of us?"
"Um... sure?"
Sarah nodded. "Me and Zoe are gonna be in the back yard," she called to her parents as she came around the car to grab the younger Gibson's hand and lead her around the side of the house.
The two girls sat on a wicker bench that rested on the concrete pad that was their back porch.
"Am I a good big sister?"
Zoe turned her head, confusion evident on her face. "What?"
"Am I a good big sister," Sarah repeated. "Like, think back over the years. Have I gone places with you? Ever pick on you too much? Like, on the balance... I'm not really sure what exactly I'm asking, but like, are you glad that I'm your sister?"
Zoe's expression did not change. "Where is this coming from?"
Sarah looked out over the green grass of the back yard, darkening the further it went as the dim porch light's jurisdiction faded. She let her eyes focus on the rusty swing set that even Mikey had already outgrown. "I've just been thinking about family a lot lately. And it's weird to talk to Mom and Dad about this, and Mikey wouldn't get it. Maybe you don't really understand either."
"I think I understand," Zoe said, her face softening. "It's just, I almost don't think of you as a sister, you know? We don't really do girly things together. We don't really hang out together all that much. You're my sibling. And I'm glad you're my sibling." Zoe's gaze followed Sarah's over to the swing set, and unbeknownst to either girl, new memories were being woven as she did so. "You taught me how to get across the monkey bars." Neither Sarah nor Jon had done so, but there was no way for Sarah to know this was a false memory. "We used to always play tag in this back yard, and you would always let me get you." Again, Jon hadn't played tag much with his sister, and he always made sure he won. "But like, you never had any dolls or anything, and you never played with mine. And Athena taught me how to do makeup." Zoe let that thought hang in the air for a moment as she marinated in a stew of memories both real and fabricated. "Yeah, I think you've been a very good older sibling, but I don't think I'd call you a big sister."
Sarah hesitated with her next words. They would definitely stray from Zoe's expectations of Jon, and may have some deeper consequences. But the temptation, the urge to insert herself into this almost TV-sitcom family structure, was almost overwhelming. She could fix everything once she changed it all back. She could reverse everything she'd done. This would just be another wrinkle to fix, however it manifested itself. "I want you to think of me as your big sis from now on. I want to really be sisters. Like, sharing everything and getting into trouble together. I want us to be closer, and from now on I'm going to work to make sure that we are. Will you work with me?"
Zoe smiled. "I think there are some things about being a "sister" that I'll have to teach you. But I'm in. I love you, Sarah."
"I love you too, Zoe."
Sarah could feel magic flowing, but she didn't want to think about what it meant. She just wanted to think about her family. The family that she wanted. And on that wicker bench, on that concrete pad, overlooking the thick grass and the rusted swing set, the Gibson sisters shared a hug, and for once, truly felt like they were sisters, and not just siblings.
