let's eat some cereal together

i smiled. she giggled. milk dripped off my spoon and plopped back into my bowl. her elbow bumped the table, spilling milk on the old wooden table. she gives me a guilty look, but i only smile and reach over, wiping it up with a napkin. she gives me a toothy grin. i give her a wink. she giggles, and slurps milk and cereal into her mouth. i grin, watching her, her little golden curls bouncing with her every movement. we were separated by ten years. i was the oldest, she was the youngest. but it didn't matter. we were sisters. she looked up to me like a mother. i looked up to her like a friend. in her simplest, child-like manner, she would say things that would make so much sense, and make me wonder why i hadn't thought that before. i could be a horrible mess of a crying wreck, and she would simply slip her small hand into mine, so warm, so tiny, so precious. her large eyes would look up at me and she'd whisper, "you ok?" and i'd wipe away the tears and nod, smiling down at her little face. she made days bearable for me. she gave me that smile i needed. she gave me that encouragement to reach the last mile. she might've only been give years old, but she was wiser then someone who was five hundred years old. i would forever love my little sister. she saw the simple things that i often forgot. she saved me from the silliest things. she lifted my hopes and brightened my days. she was my little sunshine.

i can still remember the words she said as i came down the stairs that morning, my face puffy from crying from the night before. she didn't know, or need to know, about the yelling that had gone on. she didn't need to know about the horrible words screamed at me, the same words that i screamed back. she didn't need to know anything other then that i was her sister, and that we loved each other. she just came up to me with her innocence. her beautiful big eyes stared up at me as she whispered the so simple words. the simple words that suddenly brightened my day and made everything better.

"let's eat some cereal together."