Such drama today...

My sister, who we'll call S, has been dating a guy behind the whole world's back.

I'm part of that whole world.

Several times I've spoken to her by phone or in person as she runs in or out of my parents' home where she still lives, and she is short, curt, factual, and distant. Very different from how things used to be with her.

Why on earth is she hiding this? Well, because she is 23 and he is 18. He is in high school and she is in college. She is a very typical white girl and he is of chaldean descent. (Which does NOT make him a *bad* person on ANY level - but DOES imply some serious cultural differences that any two people would have to consider... Let's ponder those for a few minutes before any readers think I'm prejudiced. I know some friends of his. He is not, I repeat not, supposed to be dating a white chick. He can NOT marry a white chick. Why then, is he dating my sister? Isn't dating a process of learning who and what you are compatible with in order to select a partner?)

Yesterday S called me to ask if I wanted to go shopping with her. I was actually stunned that she called. I told her the truth - I had a work obligation to take care of. Customers to take out and entertain. If I could wiggle out of it early enough for the stores to still be open, I'd give her a call and we'd meet up someplace. That didn't work out. I wasn't home until very late.

So first thing this morning I called her. And called her. And called her. (Not quite as repetitive as that sounds - each call was more than an hour a part from the previous or the next.) All together I think I made four calls in 5 hours. One of them resulted in a voice mail message. The message was that I was wondering if she still wanted to do some shopping and had time today. (She starts a brand new job tomorrow and needs to look her best!)

My other sister, who we'll call B, was on AIM. I said hello, she said hello, I mentioned shopping, and she said "what time?" We discussed where to go, and I suggested an outlet mall not too far from here. B thought it was a great idea. S wasn't mentioned in this conversation.

So I shower and pick up B. We drive to the outlet mall, which is about 45 min to 1 hour from either of our homes. On the way there, B, who also lives with our parents when she's not away at school, mentions that S is at the same outlet mall with some girlfriends. She also mentions that she had never heard of the names that S reported she'd be with that day for her shopping excursion. B wondered where S had met those people. Were they from work? Anyway, I was just excited to know that S was shopping, and we'd all be able to hook up. On the way, B calls S to try to make some basic arrangements and at least know what area she's in.

B calls S's phone. S answers.
S: Hello?
B: Hey! Are you still shopping?
S: Yes!
B: Where are ya at?
S: Birch Run
B: Cool, who are you shopping with?
S: What? I can't hear you well. Windy. I'll call you back.


S never called back.

B and I get there. We decide we'll drive around and see what area S parked in. We drive all around the place, and we don't see her. We decide we'll sneak up and surprise her! :-)

But we're not having any luck finding her. So B calls S's phone again. It's been at least 20 - 25 minutes since the last call. S answers. B is trying to be a little bit incognito so we can surprise S.

S: Hello?
B: Hello!
S: What's up?
B: Are you still at Birch Run?
S: Yeah, why?
B: What store are you in? Is there a BCBG store there?
S: No, no, I'm just arriving there now. I'm not in any store yet.
B: Oh! You're just now getting there?
S: Yeah.
B: Okay cool. Bye!
S: Bye.

B and I find a clever place to sit where we can see all traffic coming in the only entrance of the place. Our mission is to see S, and presumably her friends, and swoop in to surprise her, and then all have some late lunch together. B and I were laughing about having driven all over the place looking for S or S's car.

After sitting for about ten to fifteen minutes, with no S pulling in, B and I are growing a bit concerned. Where was she?

So after fifteen minutes, B calls S again.

S: Hello?
B: Hey, have you gotten there yet?
S: Why? What are you talking about?
B: I drove out to Birch Run! I'm waiting for you. Did you pull in yet?
S: (pauses for a bit of silence.) You are at Birch Run?
B: Yes! Where are you?
S: I'm not at Birch Run. I'm in Lexington. If you talk to Mom, tell her you saw me here with Sara.
B: Great. Whatever.

Now at this point B and I are both very angry. Why does S feel she has to lie to us all the time now? What's her problem? We went to Pizza Uno for lunch and talked more about it there. Then we shopped, but were seriously pissed that we'd wasted so much time on S.

After shopping for about an hour or so, B mentioned that she was stuck, because S had just told her to say S had been seen with Sara. However, B remembered that the names of the two girls S was originally going out with did not include Sara. What would happen when she got the dates wrong? After much discussion, we decided to both just say that we never saw her there. We looked, but it was busy, and we never found her. Seemed like a good plan.

B and I returned to my parents' house after we did some successful shopping. The stores closed at 6. We were home by about 7:15 after not getting out until a bit after closing, and then walking to the car a good two miles away, and then driving back through construction.

We hung out for a bit. Then things got really exciting. Exciting as in crazy and full of commotion, not exciting as in cool and breathtaking.

While there, we were all looking at the computer in the living room. Several live journals of various young people my brother knows were bookmarked. We were looking at them when one came up with a picture of the locak high school football team on it. I said something like, "C has friends already in high school?" and I scrolled downward. In huge capital letters I saw S's name in the text, so I focused in to read it. While I did so, my mother happened by and stopped to peak too. It said something about S being so effing hot. I'm a bit concerned because I was still under the impression that this journal belongs to one of C's friends and they are all 13 and 14. So writing about your buddy's much older sister being "effing hot" isn't exactly acceptable. So we read on a little bit and I discovered, that we were all reading S's "boyfriend's" journal. Holy cow. I stopped reading it. But my mother kept on. Among other things, it talked on and on about how he and S were planning to go up to Port Austin to the beach on Sunday.

(So was it Lexington or Port Austin? Good Lord.)