Series on Display: Sins of Women
Chapter Three: The Sun:
On my desk to my left sat a sun charm necklace. I smiled as my head filled with sweet memories of the next lady in my life. Her name was Sun-Ling. She was my younger half-sister, in fact. I remember the day she came to live with us.
My father left us when I was four. Over the years, he remarried and went on with his life. At the age of fourteen, I learned that I had a sister. This came about while I was snooping in my mother’s office. She had another man over and they were in her bedroom at the time. I was bored and decided to spy around on her. In her desk drawer, I found letters addressed to me from my father. I blinked and tiled my head at the handwriting.
What the…?, I remembered thinking. I took them out and ripped each one open. Through them I learned of beautiful Sun-Ling.
Sun-Ling was born to a Hong Kong mother. My sister grew up pretty isolated. Because of this, she didn’t know how to socialize with people. In the last letter addressed to me three weeks before I found it, her mother had cancer and Sun-Ling was being sent to live my mother and me while he took care of his new wife. My heart raced as I read that letter over and over again. I sank down to the floor with such shock. My sister was coming to live me? She was coming to live with me and my mother didn’t say anything? I figured why, but it still came as a shock. That evening, I confronted my mother about the letters and Sun-Ling. I had never seen her get so angry at me before in her life.
“Stay out of my office!” she screamed.
“Why did you tell me I had a sister?” I asked at the kitchen table. My mother turned around with eyes of the devil.
“She is not your sister!” she barked, “She is that woman’s daughter!” My mother never enjoyed the fact that my father remarried and had a baby by her. She made the really clear to Sun-Ling on the day she arrived. My mother stuck up her nose and snorted at her.
“Daughter of a whore,” she muttered. Her mistreatment didn’t end there. My mother made it no secret that she didn’t like Sun-Ling. She went out of her way to make it clear to the poor girl. My sister never understood why. She spent many a night in her room crying. It didn’t take me long to try and do something about it.
One night, I heard Sun-Ling crying again in her room. Something inside of me told me that tonight was the night to change things. I snuck into her room and sat on her bed.
“What’s the matter?” I whispered. Sun Ling looked up at me with those big, teary eyes.
“She hates me,” she whimpered, “I don’t understand why.” I rubbed her on the back.
“I don’t hate you,” I whispered. My younger sister looked up at me with surprise written all over her face.
In my mind, I matched Sun-Ling up with the Sun card. She brought a positive energy into my life. When my mother mistreated her, she turned to me for comfort. In the course of six months, my sympathy turned into rather inappropriate feelings for Sun-Ling.
My need to protect her gave into a desire to be with her always. I tried my best not to scare her off with my feelings. However, I couldn’t help but notice that I started to defend her more often from my mother. The empress herself didn’t like what she was seeing.
“Are you in love with her?” she asked me one night when I was seventeen years old, “Are you in love with that woman’s daughter?!?” The only I could do was give her the answer that I thought was correct.
“No!” I blurted out. My mother’s face turned just as red.
“Liar!” she screamed. I gave her a puzzled look on his face.
“What?!?” he yelled.
“You’re in love with her!” she yelled, “Admit it!” My own face burned bright red.
“What if I do?!?” I shouted back. My mother’s eyes widened at my sort-of confession.
“So it is true!” she yelled. I was about to speak when we heard a little shuffle in the doorway. Mother and I looked up to see Sun-Ling peeking in the doorway. All of the color drained from her face.
“Sun-Ling…” I said, reaching out to her. My mother took a step forward, smirking.
“You’re just a filthy whore!” she screamed, “Just like your mother!”
“Mother!” I cried. Too late as Sun-Ling turned and ran to her room in tears. My mother sat down at the table with a smirk on her face. My dear beloved sister avoided me from then on. My heart ached when she didn’t even want anything to do with me anymore. Just days before I graduated from high school, Sun-Ling ran away from house back to my now-widowed father. Sun-Ling isn’t one of those wounds that I haven’t learned to recover from to this day.
Sins of Women
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