Vignettes #19

I've already mentioned that in our childhood I had to watch over my sister whose a few years younger than I am.

This was in the early 70s, I was maybe 12 years old. On Saturdays there was no school, and my parents had their day off as well, so before breakfast we'd go to the nearby bakery to get fresh bread and to the stationary store to get the weekend paper. On that particular Saturday my mother sent me off with my sister to do just that.

At the stationary store we had to wait in line for a few minutes. My sister noticed that she could manage to get her little fingers in below the glass cabinet where all the sweets were displayed. Amazed she showed me what she had just discovered. I told her to keep her fingers out of the cabinet.

After I had paid for the paper and we had left the store my sister showed me triumphantly that she had actually caught a small pack of bubblegum out of that cabinet. I got real angry and told her that she had just stolen that bubblegum and that we'd get into big trouble at home, if Mama'd find out. So I ordered her to go back to the store, give it back and apologize.

Of course she refused at first, but I didn't let her get out of this. I watched her go back to the store, and there she just stood in front of the entrance door as if waiting. I thought she was just a bit scared to go in, but as soon as a customer leaving the store opened that door, she threw the bubblegum into the store and ran back to me...

Today my sister refuses to admit that this ever happened and accuses me of having made it all up.