Before

Lovely
I'm not sure what your belief is about where our souls live before we are born. Before, as in before the sperm and the egg play that fateful game of hide and seek.  Which, as a side note, is a funny visual - the egg getting cozy in the lining of the uterus only to be bombarded with a bajillion sperm racing around yelling, "I'm gonna find it first!"  But before all of that happens - I believe - in a sci-fi, non religious sort of way - that my sister and I were on the lookout for our next set of parents.  And one day, my sister spotted our soon-to-be mom and soon-to-be dad and said, "There they are!" And I said, "They are awfully young, I think we should keep looking."  And she said, "No, I really think they are the people who are going to teach us the most about life on Earth."  And I said, "They are awfully young, I think we should keep looking."  And she said, "Trust me."  And I said, "Ok, but you go first."  And she agreed, with the caveat that I come right behind her.

So we were born to an 18-year-old mom and a 19-year-old dad and arrived within 16 months of each other.  When I was born, my sister held my hand and welcomed me into the family.  From that day to this - my sister has a firm grip of my hand and we travel this life together.  Before.  And now.

​Sister
Well, my version of the before would be something like this, a much less romantic version. Boy meets girl. Girl falls in love with boy.  Their love is a forbidden sort of love.  It's the 60's. He is black. She is white. They are in high school. He's charming. She feels alive around him.  I knew from the beginning they wouldn't NOT be together.  I chose them.  I'm drawn to excitement, passion, and a good fight-drama.  I knew this should be our journey, Lovely and me.  I also knew I could never, not once along this lifetime, go it alone.  So, we rock-paper-scissored it.  I lost and went first. Ha. That's not true.  I'm the oldest, the number one daughter, the big sister.  It has always been my duty to enter the family first.  Two babies were coming within 16 months of each other, all before our soon-to-be mom turned 21.  Yep.  I needed to arrive first, get the lay of the land so that when Lovely arrived, we would be ready. Yes, I knew they were going to teach us about surviving life, but what you didn't realize Lovely, was that we would be teaching them too.  Hand in hand, always together.