The Good Sister Read Online Free PDF

hovering?” Mommy sat up a little and pulled off her black satin sleep mask. Her eyes were pink and puffy and
     crusted with yellow crumbs. “You know I hate when you hover.”
    “Were you sleeping?”
    “Do I look like I’m asleep?”
    “I’m sorry.” Merell knew that although her mother spent hours and often whole days in bed, she hardly slept at all.
    “Mommy, I was wondering…”
    “Merell, my head hurts.”
    “I’ve been thinking about school.” She waited a moment, hoping her mother would remember on her own. “And I was thinking,
     I was wondering… Do you remember I’ll be in Upper Primary this year?”
    “And?”
    “Did you forget?” She spoke softly because Mommy had sensitive ears.
    “Will you get to the point, Merell?”
    “You said we’d go shopping.” In September Merell would start fourth grade at Arcadia Upper Primary, and she needed a new uniform
     because girls in fourth grade and older didn’t dress like the babies in Lower Primary. “You said we’d go in a taxi.”
    At that moment Merell realized that she had never truly believed her mother would take her to Macy’s, walk around the crowded
     store, and act like other mothers; and though this disappointed her, she wasn’t angry, for she knew her mother never intended
     to break her promises. She just couldn’t help it.
    “I’ve got the meanies today, Merell. I can’t do anything.”
    Merell had a far-off memory of a time before she knew about the meany-men, when the twins were still intheir cribs and they had their own nanny. In that sweet time Merell spent hours in her mother’s bedroom, where they played
     games and looked at picture books together. Sometimes they played Pirates of the Caribbean. Mommy emptied all her jewelry
     onto the bed—earrings, necklaces, rings, and bracelets, everything that sparkled—and then buried it beneath the covers, under
     the pillows, up inside the shams, between the mattress cover and the mattress. They wore scarves tied over their eyes and
     pretended to be pirates searching for treasure. Afterward they draped the booty all over themselves.
    One day Mommy had found her wedding dress in a box at the top of her closet and let Merell put it on, using safety pins to
     pull it tight. Mommy wore a special suit called a tuxedo and held up the pants with suspenders.
    “You’re the princess,” her mother said that day. “And this is your wedding day and all the important people in the kingdom
     have come to see how beautiful you are.”
    She turned on soupy music, made a little bow, and lifted Merell into her arms.
    “Will you dance with me, my beautiful bride?”
    Merell would always remember how her mother’s eyes sparkled like treasure as they held each other. They couldn’t dance because
     the wedding dress had too much skirt and veil, and everything got tangled up around them. Instead they stood in one place
     and hugged and swayed side to side in time to the music.
    Mommy whispered with her lips touching Merell’s ear.“I love you, I love you, I will love you forever, my beautiful girl. My wife.”
    Soon after that the meany-men came for the first time Merell knew about, and in the months and years that followed they seemed
     to come and go as they wished, taking up residence in her mother’s head for a few hours, days, or weeks. Once Merell had pulled
     back her mother’s hair and looked in both her ears, hoping to see one of the little monsters. Now, of course, she knew that
     the evil little men weren’t real, that Mommy was depressed; but
depression
was just a word like
sad
or
lonely
and she didn’t understand what gave it such great power, so she continued to think of her mother as possessed by tiny, evil-minded
     creatures whose sole desire was to make her miserable. Since Baby Olivia was born the meany-men hardly ever went away, and
     Merell wondered if she was the only person in the family who could see that they were hurting Mommy, making her sick.
    “When does