{"id":1776,"date":"2025-05-08T11:24:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T16:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/?p=1776"},"modified":"2025-05-08T11:24:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T16:24:19","slug":"again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/2025\/05\/again\/","title":{"rendered":"Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

The car ride was silent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Once we pulled into the driveway, my little sister ran inside.<\/span><\/p>\n

I watched her, as my mother once watched me.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Knowing that eventually her feet would slow too.<\/span><\/p>\n

My mother and I followed, slowly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We watched as she ran through the hallway, swinging my parents\u2019 bedroom door open, and waited for the verdict as she scanned the closet.<\/span><\/p>\n

When she emerged, she was silent. My mother started dinner. Dinner for three tonight, my sister\u2019s face said, and she cried.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My mother sobbed over her dinner. And excused herself early to bed.<\/span><\/p>\n

I showered my sister and made sure she did her homework.<\/span><\/p>\n

I let her sleep in my room. My mother\u2019s door was locked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0She would emerge in the morning, and we wouldn\u2019t talk about the empty half of the closet or how she made an extra serving for dinner just in case.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 And eventually he would come back, duffle in hand.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 He would sleep again in my room.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 He would make sure my sister showered and help her with her homework.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 He would move his things back into the empty half of the closet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 And eat the extra serving at dinner.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Then there would be another silent car ride.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0And my sister would run to the closet again.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0An empty closet, an uneaten plate.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0And my mom\u2019s door would be locked.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 And we wouldn\u2019t talk about it.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The car ride was silent.\u00a0 Once we pulled into the driveway, my little sister ran inside. I watched her, as my mother once watched me.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1778,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1776\/revisions\/1778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sagebrushreview.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}