In My Sister's House iii

Something I left
out of the non-Index
high school reunion
index a few weeks back
was mention about
how my relationship
with the owner of
all those pets
from last week
evolved over the
past ten years.

Truthfully, there
wasn't much to speak
of by the time
I shipped out to Erie
in the fall of '99.
I had waiting for me
a reunion with my brother
Pierre that first year,
and by the end of it,
strange new encounters
with the stranger who
had taken my sister's form.

I think it was one
of the last family trips
to Rhode Island that
brought us together again
briefly, and it put our
relationship into a
whole new dynamic,
which is to say perspective.

By the time the offer
was made to room with
her in Burlington, I
realized a new transition
had come, in many ways,
but mostly a new opportunity
to know her, and become
real family again.

That's what happened.

When I realized that
moving to Colorado Springs
was not only economical
but an extension and
evolution of our
new connection, it
was something to spark
an affirmation that
this time had not
been wasted.

It hadn't.