The Great Cracker Escapade
Or How My Sister Scared The Crap Out Of Me.
Our house in Hawaii was a four-bedroom, two-bath home. It was large, but our family was large. My mom took one of the rooms as the master, then I and my little sister had one room, my three older sisters had the actual master and my brothers had the other room. There was a kitchen, a living room, and a lanai. The backyard had a banana tree complete with a banana spider and no fence. In fact, I never knew people fenced in their back yards until moving to the Mainland. The front yard was long with a carport where the geckos laid their eggs in the mailbox, a Banyan tree, and some Plumeria bushes. Just an average Pearl Harbor Navy base family house in Hawaii.
I have a lot of fond memories of that house and the goings-on there. One memory is of my oldest sister Nancy. Nancy had epilepsy. Not anything I cared about, but sometimes she would jump up from her chair, run around and then sit back down like nothing happened. My mom told me it was her epilepsy. One night, Nancy was babysitting us younger kids. She was in the living room sitting in the rocking chair and watching Monty Python’s flying circus which she thought was hilarious. I was more into the Roadrunner Cartoons. Now that was funnier. Us little kids had been put to bed. If I remember correctly I had not eaten my dinner because it was yucky and I was still very hungry. So I decided to sneak into the kitchen for some snacks.
My room was at the back of the house. So in order to get to the kitchen, I had to creep down the hallway past my brother’s room on the right on then my mom’s room on the left. Seeing as my baby brother and sister were already asleep, and the older kids were not home, that part was easy. Just skittered down that hall on my hands and feet like a hunch-backed baby. At the end of the hall, now that was where it was dangerous. The hall opened up to the living room on the right and the kitchen on the left. There was a counter between the kitchen and the living room so all I had to do was cross that 4-foot gap. I geared up sleuth mode. I watched my sister closely for signs that she had heard me already. Nope still laughing at the stupid show that was showing guys carrying a coffin. Good.
My sister Nancy was one that I had a love-hate relationship with. In many ways, she was a great big sister. I was born the day after her birthday so she always said I was her present that year. She helped me with many things. Mostly I remember baking with her. She was a good baker and loved making the biscuits for dinner she taught me how to do it and awakened the baker in toddler me. In other ways, she was a mean big sister. She once dragged me by my ear and called me a bad name when Mom sent her to fetch me. Granted, I was probably supposed to be home already, but I forgot those things a lot. I gained a healthy respect for my sister’s sometimes mean ways. It was a good lesson as it was making me cautious in crossing the open space between the hallway, where I had a chance to run back to bed, and the kitchen, where if caught, I was doomed.
With no signs of Nancy moving other than laughing and rocking back and forth, I quickly scurried across the linoleum and behind the safety of the kitchen cabinets. I made it. Finally. I really wanted cookies, but cookies were kept on top of the fridge in a cookie jar that looked like a fat chef. No way was I going to risk climbing up on the counter and getting that jar down. It was heavy and I would be exposed to the enemy watching TV. So I settled for searching the cabinets under the counter. I had actually never been in those cabinets before. There wasn’t a lot of food just canned stuff. After searching I found some saltines. I very slowly opened the box. Indie was a package that had already been opened. Very quickly I put some in my mouth, happy that starvation was not going to be a problem. Carefully because the bag crinkled a lot, I took the rest, and quietly went to the edge of the counter.
I could not see Nancy from behind the counter only hearing the rocking chair creaking and her laughing occasionally. I was going to have to risk it without know where she was or what she was doing. Getting my brave ups, I started across the gap between the hall and kitchen. I was halfway across when all of a sudden Nancy jumped up off the chair, clapped her hands several times, and started to run towards me.
You have never seen a child move so fast. Dropping those crackers I went like lightning on four legs back to my room. Onto my bed at the top of the bunk beds, I flew. I dove under the covers, turned to the wall, and tried to not cry. I waited, knowing I was in trouble. My only defense was to pretend to be sleeping. So I did that. I did it so well I really fell asleep.
The next morning no one asked me about the crackers or what I was doing out of bed. It was as if I dreamed the whole thing. I didn’t, but it was weird. I was extra good for most of the morning that day. Guess in my little head I decided that being extra good would wipe out the bad thing I did. To this day, I have no idea if Nancy saw me. Probably not as she was most likely have a mild seizure. I do know that my mom told me not to go into the cabinets because there were mouse traps in there and they would hurt me. I promised.
