‘You?’ I start to laugh. ‘Look at you. You’re a knockout. You’re smarter than I am. You’re on a career track and you’re family-centered and you probably can even balance your checkbook.’

‘And I’m lonely, Campbell,’ Julia adds. ‘Why do you think I had to learn to act so independent? I also get mad too quickly, and I hog the covers, and my second toe is longer than my big one. My hair has its own zip code. Plus, I get certifiably crazy when I’ve got PMS. You don’t love someone because they’re perfect,‘ she says. ‘You love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.’

I don’t know how to respond to that ; it’s like being told after thrity-five years that the sky, as I’ve seen as a brilliant blue, is in fact rather green.

‘And another thing- this time, you don’t get to leave me. I’m going to leave you.’

If possible, that only makes me feel worse. I try to pretend it doesn’t hurt, but I don’t have the energy. ‘So go.’

Julia settles next to me. ‘I will,’ she says. ‘In another fifty or sixty years.’

————————————————————————————–

Campbell and Julia, My sister’s keeper