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Sisters  by Grey Wonderer

"Sisters"

Maintaining one’s dignity is very hard to manage when you are the youngest. Every time you turn around, you are caught in an embarrassing situation. Just now, Peregrin Took finds that he is washing the dishes for the third night in a row in one of his mum’s frilly aprons. It’s the sort with the lace all round the top and bottom with little birds and flowers embroidered into it everywhere. His mother does love to sew and is quite good at it, but sometimes she gets a bit carried away with the embroidery to Pippin’s way of thinking.

He protested the apron at first, but his mum had insisted because last night he had gotten completely soaked when he’d over-turned a bowl of water by accident. He’d had to mop the floor on top of everything else because of that incident. Pippin didn’t consider having to wash the dishes to be a fitting punishment for a lad of sixteen anyway. Why didn’t they make him chop extra fire wood or clean out the barn again?

He supposed that this was his punishment because they knew how he hated it and because he’d gotten himself into trouble in the kitchen this time. He’d been stealing the raisins out of his older sister, Pervinca’s muffin dough. Pippin loved raisins and Pervinca had refused to give him any, deciding instead to put all of them into the muffins. She was less likely to give into him than either Nell or Pearl. Pearl would have given him a few raisins and let him lick the bowl when she was finished. Nell would have at least given him the raisins. Pervinca was stubborn.

Pippin had been waiting for a chance to swipe some of the raisins. There had been nothing else to do at that point because it was raining. So, when Pervinca left for a few minutes to go see a new dress that Nell was making, Pippin slipped into the kitchen and began to fish the raisins out of the dough with his fingers and pop them into his mouth. He’d been enjoying the raisins so much that he had neglected to watch for Pervinca’s return and had been caught. Startled, he’d moved too quickly and over-turned the entire mixture onto the kitchen floor.

Pervinca was furious and had gotten him in some sort of a wrestling hold and rubbed his face in the dough on the floor before his mum had come in and caught them. To Pippin’s way of thinking, this whole thing could have been avoided if only Vince had been reasonable and given him the raisins or had not startled him when she returned. His mum, unfortunately, did not agree with this and so Pippin was doing the dishes for the week.

Sisters were a trial and Pippin had more than his share of sisters. Three older sisters could make one’s life miserable if they so chose. In fact, his sisters were responsible for many of his most undignified moments in his short life. They just didn’t seem to remember that he was a young lad and not a fourth sister. They were always doing things to him.

He was out-numbered and out-sized for the most part. He was, thankfully, taller than Pervinca just of late. He’d grown a whole half an inch this past winter and was now ever so slightly taller than her. For some reason she was still able to get the better of him most of the time. She was very strong for a lass and if need be, she would resort to hair pulling and tickling. Both of these things should be illegal in Pippin’s opinion. His sisters weren’t ticklish and so it wasn’t fair that they had this advantage over him. They had far too many advantages as it was.

He wasn’t allowed to out-right hit any of them. His father was very clear on this rule. You don’t hit lasses even if they are your sisters and even if they have just sucker-punched you and knocked all the wind out of you. You never hit them. Pippin had lost his temper once with Pervinca and had decked her good. They been outside and she had been teasing him about his hair. His other sister, Pearl, had given him a rather bad hair cut. It wasn’t on purpose but it was quite dreadful. Pervinca was teasing him about it and he had finally had enough, so he decked her. He’d pulled back his fist and clocked her a good one right in the jaw. She had fallen to the ground like a sack of flour leaving him standing there with his mouth open in surprise.

There had been a moment when he suspected that he might have killed her and in a panic he’d run into the house to get help. Pervinca had managed to get up and had followed him, a bit dizzily, into the house and then Pippin had gotten the worst strapping of his entire life from his father and the silent treatment from all three sisters for several days.

That was another thing. They would all join together against him if he had wronged one of their number, just because they were all lasses. He had no one on his side at times like this, being the only lad. His mum was very neutral in these arguments. She stayed out of them completely and his father was in charge of keeping the peace and so the punishments fell to him. His sisters knew that Pippin hated to be excluded and so they would ignore him and refuse to talk to him if he got out of line. This should also be illegal. If he ignored one of them, they had each other. All of the way out here in Whitall on their farm, that left Pippin totally on his own.

Sometimes he wished desperately that they would ignore him. Sometimes when he was with older lads, Pearl would come over to say hullo or to check on him and do something that would embarrass the life out of him. She would straighten his hair with the lick and spit method, she would see a spot of something he’d eaten on his face and go after it in full view of his friends with a handkerchief as Pearl always had a handkerchief at the ready, she would kiss him on the cheek and tell him to behave as if he were still five, or she would just say something like, "Have a nice time with your little friends, Peregrin." Pearl was fourteen years older than he was and so she often treated him like he were her child rather than her brother.

Pimpernell, or Nell as he always called her, was the most easy-going of the three and also the most adventurous.  Though she was eleven years older than he was, she had been the one that would rough-house with him when he was small. She taught him everything he knew about wrestling holds and even had showed him how to spit. The most embarrassing thing that Nell ever did to him was that she would often best him in things that lads were supposed to be better at than their sisters. Nell could out-run him. She could throw further than he could and she could lift heavier things than he could. His cousins, Merry in particular, found this very amusing. Pippin did not.

All three of them would wrangle him into doing the worst things for them. He had often been a dress-maker’s dummy for them. He’d find himself in one of their frocks while they hemmed it or pinned it up in some fashion. He had become an expert hair-braider thanks to Pearl, who had taught him to do this when he’d been about eight or nine. Back then it hadn’t seemed to be such a bad thing, but now, well, now it just seemed like something he shouldn’t be able to do. Lads shouldn’t be able to braid a lasses hair, but Pippin could.

Merry had teased him endlessly after walking in and catching Pippin helping to dress one of Pervinca’s stuffed bears. Pervinca collected bears and all of them had names and clothes and sadly, Pippin knew the bear’s names. When he’d been small, he’d played with them when Pervinca would allow it. At the time in question, Pervinca had hurt her arm and was in need of some assistance with the dressing of one of her cherished bears. Pippin had allowed himself to be talked into this only to have Merry walk in and see him trying to button the bear into a tiny pink frock.

Having sisters did have its advantages at times. Pippin had to admit that on several occasions they had each come in handy. It wasn’t all bad. They could be very nice to him if they were in the right mood.

Just a month ago, when Pippin had been sick with a bad cold, Pearl had sat with him and kept him company, commiserating with him because he was missing out on a fishing trip with Merry. She had read to him even though he was too old for this and had brought him tea and cakes. She had even stayed with him and shared the tea so that he wouldn’t be lonely. Pearl was good at spoiling him when he was sick.

Nell had helped him clean out the barn last week so that he would be finished in time to go into Tuckborough. He would never have managed it without her. She could have left him to do it on his own, but she’d felt sorry for him and pitched in. The work had gone faster and had been much more fun with Nell helping out.

Pervinca had saved him from ruin just recently by helping him escape from Astor Bracegridle at a picnic. Astor, for some reason, seemed to fancy Pippin of late and her affection was, in no way, returned. Astor was very giggley and very clingy. She was also a head taller than him and he looked quite silly beside her. Astor had been following him around all day and making him miserable. He’d tried to get Merry to help him, but his older cousin was taking some sort of perverse pleasure in his predicament and was also busy trying to get Clover Chubb to kiss him. The food at picnics was wonderful, but often, the rest of the afternoon would be dreadful. Pippin didn’t yet care much for the lasses attentions and some lasses seemed to think that picnics were for pairing up. Pippin was not ready to be paired up. Thankfully, Pervinca noticed his situation and insisted that he help her gather up the plates and do some general cleaning. Pippin didn’t much like cleaning either, but he much preferred it to spending time with moon-eyed Astor giggling in his ear.

The three of his sisters had also taught him to dance. It was a skill that was starting to come in handy at parties and Pippin enjoyed dancing. Granted you had to do this with a lass, but there was music and you moved about and it was fun. It was embarrassing if you weren’t very good, but thanks to his three sisters, Pippin was a wonderful dancer. He knew all of the really fast ones and even a few of the slow ones should he get caught out on the floor when the music changed.

"You are making a terrible mess of that as always," Pervinca sighed, coming into the kitchen.

"I’m doing the best that I can," Pippin objected, dripping water on the floor as he turned, dish in hand, to face his older sister.

"That, little brother, is the really sad part of it," Pervinca smiled as she walked over to him.  She was five years older and could always make him feel like a little child if she wanted to do so.

"Lads aren't supposed to be good at dishes," Pippin said.

Pervinca giggled. "In that apron, you don’t look much like a lad."

Pippin wrinkled up his nose at her and returned to his washing. "Is it part of my punishment that you are allowed to come in here and tease me?"  He tried to sounded put-upon, but Pervinca was seldom impressed with his attempts to gain sympathy.

"It should be," Pervinca said. "You did ruin my muffins, you little thief."

"I just wanted some raisins, Vince," Pippin said. "If you’d have given me some, then I wouldn’t have had to steal them."

She laughed at her brother’s logic. "If I had given you some, then there wouldn’t have been enough for my muffins."

"We should keep more raisins about," Pippin said.

"Mum and dad should have had one less child and then there would be plenty of raisins and a great deal less mess," Pervinca said.

"I’m not that messy," Pippin said, as he wiped soap bubbles from his nose. "It’s water and soap and it gets things clean. It’s not messy." He was completely soaked at this point. No one had any idea how he managed it, but he always got more water on himself than on the dishes. He also had managed to get a considerable amount of water on the floor.  He was, just now standing in a rather large puddle.  He’d have to mop again tonight.

"You are hopeless, Pippin," Pervinca said, turning to go. "I don’t know why we’ve kept you this long."

Pippin turned to respond to this and slid on the water underneath his feet. He went down quickly, striking his head on the table behind him and twisting his arm as he tried to catch himself.

"Ouch," he moaned, cradling his arm in front of him. He was now sitting in a puddle of soapy water trying to make the room stop spinning. He didn’t know which hurt more his head or his arm.

Pervinca rushed over to him and knelt in the water beside of him. "Are you alright, Pip?"

"I think I’ve sprained my arm," Pippin winced.

"What was that noise in here, Pippin?" It was Nell. She had entered the kitchen and was on her way over too.

"Pippin slipped on the water and hit his head on the table," Pervinca reported. Most of the time, Pippin hated it when she answered for him but just now he didn’t feel much like talking.

His two sisters got him to his feet and moved him away from the puddle. "Get momma, Pervinca," Nell suggested. "I think his head is bleeding."

"I’m alright," Pippin growled, embarrassed, now.

"No, you aren’t. Now I am going to sit you in this chair and you are going to hold still while I look at your head, do you hear me?" Nell said, firmly.

"I hear you," Pippin said, and allowed her to do as she wished. He didn’t feel like arguing just now.

As Nell examined his wound, his mum and his other sister, Pearl entered the kitchen along with Pervinca. He was now surrounded by Took lasses. All of them were fussing over him at once. Somehow he wound up in his bed with a cold cloth on his head. His arm was wrapped in a bandage to keep it supported and he was still surrounded by lasses.

"Lay still, Pippin," Pearl advised. "You’ll be fine by morning."

"My head hurts, Pearl," Pippin said. "I don’t know how all of that water got in the floor anyway."

His mother and sisters laughed. "I think I know how it got there," his mum said, leaning over and kissing him on the cheek.

"Well, I didn’t mean to," Pippin said. "I was doing my best to be careful because of the mess last night. Some of it just must have sloshed over the side is all. Do I have to mop?"

"No, dearest, I don’t think you’re up to mopping just now," his mum said. "Your father is doing that now. You are going to drink a bit of this tea and go to sleep. Your sister is right. You’ll feel better in the morning."

He sipped the tea that his mum offered him and looked around his room at all of his sisters standing around his bed. No, they weren’t so bad when you thought it over. Sisters weren’t so bad at all. 





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