A Sister's Struggle (Thanksgiving 2009)

[Myria Graziano]

She hadn’t been present seven years prior but she’d heard the stories countless times. Chrissy’s constant complaints of “broken ass” suffered during a touch football game. Bode knocking the entire meal onto the floor but managing to keep the beer safe. Slightly charred turkey legs, somewhat grubby from time spent on the floor, wrapped in freshly ordered pizza and declared ‘best meal ever’. Steamed broccoli and carrots changing vocations from food to food-missiles, some of which weren’t recovered for months when certain pieces of furniture were moved. No, she hadn’t been around then – she’d been home in Brooklyn wondering just what the hell had happened to her family to make them disappear, one by one, and never send word.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, she’d learned to disregard them all. Without family, those “special” days held no meaning for her. She spent most of them alone with a takeout meal or some frozen concoction that she’d stick in the microwave and pick at, but rarely eat. Memories of those nights, painful as they were, came tumbling to the surface when Maria declared her intention to skip the traditional family meal and spend the day alone. With all she was going through, Myria knew the last thing her eldest sibling needed to do was spend time in her apartment, with no Bode, no Adie, and little else but heavy-laden thoughts. She’d agreed to cover for Maria, to lie to Mama and the rest of the family, but not without a price.

No, Maria wouldn’t spend Thanksgiving by herself. Myria might not have been her sister’s number one preference for company – the relationship between the two had been mostly strained of late – but family was family. Myria didn’t want her sister to experience the same feelings she had gone through over a span of years; things were rough enough in Maria’s life with the divorce and efforts to revitalize her dueling career. If a night of movies and crying were what Maria needed, then that’s what she’d get. If Maria wanted a night in silence with her thoughts, then she’d get that, too. But she wouldn’t get them alone. Her sister would see to it that there was no way in hell she’d get them alone.