My New Sister

“And then the wizard comes and summons the dinosaur monster and it stomps on everyone!"

“No,” Sally said, swatting away Molly’s wizard doll and dinosaur toy. “That’s not how it’s supposed to go. This is a tea party, not some fantasy world. Don’t be stupid.”

Molly stood up in a rage. “You’re stupid! I hate you!” she screamed, then ran into their parents’ empty bedroom and slammed the door. She fumbled at the lock, then flopped onto her parents’ bed.

“Molly!” her mom knocked on the door. “Open up!” From the living room, their golden retriever Nugget barked in response to the frenzy.

“No!” she shouted. Her mom knocked a few more times, then gave up and left.

She could hear mumblings from next door, where her mom was getting her sister’s side of the story. Curiously, she looked around the room. The closet was half open, and she could see an oak dresser. She opened each of the drawers aimlessly. The first one contained a jumble of random objects. The second one had a rubber cucumber that she poked at a couple of times. In the third, she saw a shiny blue stick-looking object, with a little curve on the end. It was still in its cardboard plastic package. She took the object and flopped onto the bed, studying it.

When her mom knocked on the door and said “Molly, open up,” she quickly hopped off the bed.

“Molly,” her mom said when she opened the door. “What happened with your sister?”

“What is this?” Molly asked, waving the shiny blue stick in her hand.

“Where did you get that?” her mom asked. She suddenly looked worried. “Were you looking in my drawers?”

“Yeah,” Molly said. “What does this say? Cro-chett hook?”

Her mom grabbed the object out of her hand. “It’s pronounced cro-shay. I meant to use it for years, but haven’t yet.” She gave it back to her. “Molly, don’t look in my drawers, okay? Now let’s go talk to Sally.” She grabbed Molly by the shoulder and steered her back to the other room.

“You two are sisters,” her mom said, hands on her hips. “You cannot call each other stupid, or say 'I hate you.' Say sorry to each other.”

Her sister was sitting on her bed, kicking her legs. “Sorry I called you stupid,” she said insincerely.

“Sorry I said I hate you,” Molly said with equal insincerity. Their mother would have made them say it again in the past, but she seemed too resigned now.

***

Later as they were having dinner, Molly asked her mom, “What is a cro-shay hook for?”

“Oh,” her mom said, with a quick glance at her dad. “It’s a way to make things out of yarn. You’ve seen your grandma knitting right? You can crochet using similar technique, but with the hook. Do you want to learn? I have a book you can read.”

“Yeah,” Molly said. “I can make scarves and blankets and things right?”

“Exactly,” her mom said.

After dinner, Molly sat at her desk with the hook, the book, and a ball of seafoam green yarn her mother provided. She tried to follow the instructions, but ended up with a tangled mess. Sally was looking over her shoulder and tried to grab the hook. “Let me try.”

"No!" Molly protested. “I found the hook."

“You’re not even following the book right. I can learn it faster and teach you.” Sally yanked the hook out of her hands. Molly tried to grab it back, but Sally was taller.

“Girls, quiet down,” her father said, poking his head in the room.

“She took my hook!” Molly shouted.

“Share it,” her father said wearily, and Molly relented, sulking at her desk.

Later that night, she took the crochet hook back from Sally’s desk and brought it under the covers with her. A faint beam of moonlight streamed through the window. She stared hard at the hook and ball of yarn as if she could magically learn how to crochet. Sally had made a perfect looking scarf in a few minutes. The more Molly tried to replicate what her sister had done, the more the yarn tangled. 

“Stupid Sally,” she muttered. “Perfect Sally. Always getting everything right. I wish I had a new sister.” The crochet hook and ball of yarn suddenly felt warm in her hands. She cradled them close and fell asleep.

***

The next morning, she woke suddenly. Her arm was curled around a seafoam-colored yarn-spun girl, whose chest was rising and falling with steady breaths.

"Oh!" She cried, and jumped out of bed. The girl opened her button eyes and cried out. Sally also woke up with a cry.

They stared at each other, the two girls made of flesh and blood, and the other made of soft green yarn. Finally, Sally asked, “Who are you?”

The girl looked at the crochet hook that had fallen off Molly’s bed, and Molly understood what had happened. “She’s my new sister,” Molly proclaimed. "I made her magically out of crochet."

“Doesn’t that mean she’s my new sister too?” Sally asked.

“Yeah, but mostly mine. Your name is Yarny,” Molly told the girl, and Sally rolled her eyes. “Let’s get pancakes. My parents make them on Sunday.”

The three of them entered the kitchen together, and her parents looked up. Nugget padded over and sniffed Yarny’s legs.

“This is Yarny,” Molly said, brandishing the crochet hook. “She’s my new sister. I made her out of crochet. It's a magic hook!”

“Oh,” her mom said, who seemed to be struggling to speak. “Well, nice to meet you."

“I actually learned how to crochet last night without needing magic,” Sally shot back.

Her mother shot Sally a look, then smiled nervously at Yarny. “Let me make some more pancakes.”

*** 

Sally had an art class after breakfast, and their parents were running errands all day, so Molly and Yarny played make-believe.

“So I play the wizard, and you play the dinosaur,” Molly said, giving Yarny the dinosaur plushie. “And here’s the town.” She indicated Sally’s prim dollhouse. “I summon the dinosaur to destroy the town. And then, oh my gosh! The dinosaur betrays the wizard, and says no, and they started fighting!” Molly crawled forward and starting bashing the wizard doll against the dinosaur in Yarny’s hand. Yarny merely stared at the two plushies.

“Come on, why aren’t you fighting?” Molly asked, sitting back.

"What if..." Yarny said.

"No, they fight! Do it!"

Yarny reached out with the dinosaur plushie and half-heartedly touched Molly's wizard.

***

At the dinner table, Molly's parents doted on Yarny and fed her extra servings. Molly was glad to see her parents being nice to Yarny. But after dinner, her mom pulled Molly aside into the sisters' bedroom with a thin smile.

“Molly,” her mom insisted, “We need to take the crochet hook from you. It’s wonderful that you can use it for magic, but we cannot take in more...yarn people.”

"But Mom..."

“Sorry, Molly." She took the crochet hook from Molly's desk. “I'm sure you can find something else to play with.”

Later, as Molly tried to fall asleep with Yarny tucked in next to her, she wondered where her mom had hidden the crochet hook. Maybe it didn't matter so much, now that she had Yarny. She drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face.

***

Yarny sat between Sally and Molly as they drove to school the next morning. As soon as they got off the car, Molly noticed that all the other students and parents were looking at Yarny. Molly beamed with pride. All these people were admiring her creation. Yarny noticed this attention too, and squirmed in the spotlight. Once they got to Molly's classroom and her teacher had found an empty desk for Yarny, everyone couldn’t take their eyes off the green girl.

When the recess bell rang, Molly grabbed Yarny by the hand. "We're going to the playground.”

They were drawing in the sand when a group of sixth-grade girls came and stood in a circle around them. "Get lost, Molly,” said the tallest girl. "Yarny wants to play with us."

"What?" Molly looked up at them. "Yarny's my sister. She wants to play with me."

“No, Yarny doesn't belong to you, she can play with whoever she wants,” the tall girl said. “Get out of here before I make you."

Stunned, Molly got up and stepped back. The girls immediately stepped forward and sat in a circle around Yarny. Still shaking, Molly wandered up to Sally, who was reading by herself in the corner under a tree. “Want to play?”

“Why don’t you go play with Yarny?” Sally scoffed. “Didn’t you create her? Isn’t she supposed to be your new sister?”

“Those mean girls told me to leave.” Molly stared at Yarny on the playground, surrounded by people.

“Well, I can read to you.”

“Boring.”

“Ok. How about you read to me?”

Sally always tried to read out loud to Molly, but Molly usually covered her ears shouting, “Boring! Boring!” Molly considered the idea of reading instead of being read to. She offered a hand, and Sally gave her the book. She began reading out loud, with Sally helping her with the words she didn’t understand. Suddenly, the story opened itself up to her. It felt magic, as if she was creating images for Sally.

That night during dinner, their parents doted on Yarny again, while she fed scraps to Nugget.

"Yeah, and then I played games with some girls at recess, and it was fun." Yarny was saying to her parents.

"Sounds like you're making friends," their mom said. "If only Sally and Molly could have friends too."

Sally and Molly rolled their eyes at each other.

***

The week went by in a similar fashion. Yarny hung out with her admirers every day during recess, while Molly read a book to Sally. Every evening, Yarny commanded attention from their parents and Nugget at the dinner table.

As Molly lay in bed on Friday night with Yarny next to her, she felt Yarny twitching and kicking. Annoyed, she got up and crawled into bed next to Sally.

“Yarny’s the new favorite sister.” Molly whispered.

“I know, it’s not fair,” Sally said.

“I used to hate you because you were the favorite.”

“Well, that’s not fair either.”

“It's not fair that you're older and get to boss me around.”

“It's not my fault that I have to tell you how to do things!” Sally’s whispers were loud enough to wake up Yarny. Molly huffed at an equally loud volume, grabbed the pillow, and went to sleep on the floor.

The next morning after breakfast, Molly marched into the bedroom to confront Yarny, who was sitting on the bed.

“You have to stop hogging all the attention from Mom and Dad,” Molly said. “They aren’t even paying attention to us anymore, and we’re the real kids."

Instead of getting angry at Molly's accusations, Yarny seemed to shrink into the bed. “Real kids,” she said mournfully. "I knew it, you don't see me as a real sister.”

Molly looked at Sally, who was sitting on the other bed. She looked just as guilty as Molly felt.

“I know I’m not like anyone else in this world. Your parents know it. That's why they pay so much attention to me. It's pity in their eyes, not real interest. They didn't choose to have me in their life. I can see they're actually afraid of me."

"That's not true," Molly started to say. Was it? She always thought her parents weren't afraid of anything.

"Every day at recess the girls bully me, while you two real sisters read to each other under the tree."

Surprised, Molly asked, "They bully you? But you tell us during dinner about how you enjoy playing games with them. Why would you lie?"

Yarny shook her head. "The game is called ‘Let’s call Yarny cruel names until she bursts into tears.' But I never let them see my tears. And I tell your parents happy stories, so they don't feel sorry for me. But what I really want is for them to look at me the way they look at you. And I want to be real sisters like you two are. Molly, you've never asked me what I want to do, only told me what to do."

Molly watched Yarny hang her head, and said, “Wait here.” She snuck into her parents’ room, and found what she needed. Her mom was really terrible at hiding things.

“Mom,” she said, peeking her head in the kitchen, where her parents were baking cookies. “Me, Sally, and Yarny are going for a walk with Nugget.”

“Have fun,” her mom said.

It was a warm day, the kind that was perfect for magic. The four of them walked until they came to an empty field nearby. Molly turned to Yarny and said, “I'm very sorry I didn't protect you from those girls. And I'm very sorry I tried to boss you around. I know what that feels like." She glanced at Sally, who gave an apologetic smile. “I want us to be real sisters who share with each other. Like equals."

"It's ok," Yarny said. "Thank you for your kind words."

Molly took a crochet hook and a ball of yarn from her little purse and held them out. "Want to try?"

Yarny took the hook hesitantly. She studied it for a minute, then said, "I want to have my own parents."

They stood back in amazement as the hook glowed and began spinning in midair. A minute later, a man and woman made of yarn stood looking at Yarny. Their loving expressions looked familiar - Molly realized it was the way her own parents looked at her and Sally.

"I want a home for us," Yarny said, and a minute later, a yarn-spun house complete with windows and fences stood in front of them. Yarny's new parents admired their new home.

"Are you going to ask for a new sister?" Molly asked anxiously.

Yarny contemplated for a second, then said, "I already have sisters."

Molly sighed in relief. She ran forward and hugged Yarny fiercely. "We'll visit each other all the time. You can join us every day at recess. We'll take turns sharing our ideas. We'll protect you." She felt Sally join the group hug.

After a long while, Yarny broke from the hug and held the hook out to Molly. "You better put this back before your mom finds out you took it."

Molly went to grab the hook, but Yarny said, "Wait, one more thing." She turned to the yarn house and said, "I wish we had a dog."

A seafoam green dog materialized before them and lunged playfully at Nugget. Sally tugged at the leash to prevent Nugget from running away in fright. Molly smiled and took the hook from Yarny, placing it in her purse.

“Just you and me again,” Molly said to Sally as they walked home together with Nugget.

“I’m also sorry,” Sally said, holding Molly’s hand. “I know I always tell you what to do, even when you have your own ideas.”

Molly smiled. “That’s okay. How about Saturday we do my wizards and dinosaur story, and Sunday we do your boring tea party?”

“My tea party isn’t boring!”

“How is copying British people supposed to be fun?”

“You’re supposed to pay attention to other cultures! That’s how British people do tea parties on TV!”

They argued the entire way home.