Shabri Worthey

Mr. Obrien

October 22, 2013

                                                 True or false? An Ice-skating Experience 

Two years ago, on a cold winter afternoon, my family and I sat on the couch, contemplating our plans for the day. Considering that Christmas break would soon be over we wanted to enjoy our final days, despite the freezing conditions. My aunt’s birthday was quickly approaching us and she had been insisting that my mom take us all ice skating since we had never done so before. With my nana watching lifetime, in a dark and cold living room, this idea couldn’t have seemed more thrilling. Immediately my two younger cousins, my aunt, my brother and I compiled ourselves into the car hoping that my mother would follow.

When we arrived at the skating rink the line was about the length of sixty people. As we got closer, at a point where my short cousins could see past the crowd, they were frightened by the white skate and the sharp silver blade that was being distributed. “O-My-M-G” she said to my mom. She failed to comprehend that saying “my” was implied and this had become her own personal catch phrase. “I didn’t know this is what you meant Aunt Landa.”  Instantly her anxiety grew inside of her and her whining grew more annoying to us. We piled back into the car disappointed that we allowed our day to be shortened by bringing my cousins along with us

Arriving back to my nana’s house 2 hours later, we sat in the car devising a plan that would fool her, and excuse our early return. The obvious solution was to fake an ice-skating injury. My brother would walk in, limping on his right leg, declaring the pain that he was enduring. Forgetful of the silliness and inability for him to maintain seriousness, the plan began to fall rapidly as he began to laugh and reconsider his role in the plan. My mom decided for the whole group that we would fail at convincing my nana and that we would not do it.

Two steps into the door and we all paused with confusion. My six year old cousin, Quennaz, had begun to cry real tears.  Worried, my nana called her into the kitchen. “What’s wrong nezzy?” she asked. Quennaz moved forward with a limp in her right and tears dripping down her face. “Aunt Pooda fell on me when we were ice- and hurt my leg.” As the older kids and the adults in the room stood baffled, her four year old sister began to assist her in this trick. “She really did nana. She really did” said Brazil.” As my Nana began to grow concerned about the situation, she urged my mom to take us to the hospital. Quennaz walked closer with her limp and said “I’m just kidding nana. I’m okay” We all began to laugh and with no hesitation we denied our involvement in this scheme. Full credit was given where it was deserved, to my six year old trickster of a cousin. We all agreed that we had to get this kid into acting classes, so that she could be the next child star for our family. She took us all by surprise and to this day we all have a good laugh at the time the 2 youngest members of the family tricked us all.

Shabri Worthey          

Mr. O’brien

October 22, 2013

                                                           True or False?- Meeting my sisters

I was walking down the street to the store on a warm, summer day when I ran into a woman whom I had apparently made very happy. She embraced me with open arms and with confusion on my face I kindly pushed her off of me. Her faced appeared a familiar one which would explain why I did not run with terror and fright. She went into her pocket and pulled out a picture and to my surprise; the little girl in the middle was me. I had only met my two little sisters twice and had a faint remembrance of them. Three best friends holding onto each other for dear life with the biggest smiles upon their faces. That is what the picture displayed. There was a dark skin little girl with big brown eyes and face shape similar to mine on one side of me and on the other side there was a light skin girl, even tinier with a smile like mine. I knew that there could be no other reasonable explanation, except that I would finally get to see my two little sisters.

We hadn’t been granted the opportunity to grow up together and therefore lacked the close relationship that I always hoped for. Instead I was raised with my brother who was easily amused by the smell of his own farts and how much food he could maintain in one sitting. Meeting my sisters seemed like the miracle I’d been waiting for. Our chance at sisterhood had been restricted by my father’s inability to accept that his unwillingness to be present in my childhood and his personal opinion as to whether my sisters and I should be able to see each.

Regardless of the past, the moment that I realized who I had encountered, I ran home to my mother and proclaimed my enthusiasm for this revelation. On a piece of paper that I had been handed by their mother was my sister’s address. We hopped into the car and in less than 5 minutes my mother began to park in front of a red brick walled house. Years had gone by us and we never knew that the barrier between us that seemed so big only took about four minutes to conquer. Ta-Ta was the feisty one and Glory was the quiet one who  people would assume was shy but is actually equally as sassy as her sister. We hugged and sat on the porch. We bonded. It wasn’t long before we’d begin to act like our natural selves. They made jokes about how I hadn’t inherited the long hair that their Puerto-Rican mother had given them, but instead I was “nappy headed” like our father. We walked to the park and played on the swings as we took pictures. In one moment we envisioned that we were casted America’s next top model. Hanging from the monkey bars, sliding down the slides and even just walking across the shaky bridge, we never forgot to “sm-eyes,” smiling with our eyes as Tyra Banks would do.  I invited them to my house for sleep overs and our families began to merge. They grew closer to my mother and even began to have inside jokes about me that I was made aware of weeks later

Since that day that when I walked to the store and met my sister mother, my life changed completely. I get to be an influence over the clothes that they wear, the hairstyles they choose and the gossip they think is cool because everything that I do is golden in their eyes. We meet for dinner and take trips to downtown center city and enjoy each other’s company. Jokes about each other flow rapidly out of our mouths as our relationship developed a fluent flow. Our father no longer stood as a hindrance in our relationship because now we were old enough to know each other for ourselves