CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: GINNY FELL DOWN
My sister Ginny Weasley is a very fierce girl. She’s fierce to me and she’s fierce to Mother and Father. But if she had nice things to eat, she would let me have some. Like last week, when she bought a bag of cookies, she let me have one. So I was never angry with her. Mother would always say, “Your sister is the closest to you in the whole wide world, so if your Father and I die, you’ll have to depend on her.”
And when Ginny heard that, she would say, “Why am I always the unlucky one?”
Father would scold her, saying, “This family is created and brought together by fate. You must cherish it.”
Ginny would scowl and would look very ugly when she said, “Then my fate is just friggin’ cruddy. Why can’t the other brothers have their share of being unlucky? Why does it have to be me?”
Mother sighed and shook her head, saying, “Your other brothers left the house as soon as they knew they could get away with murder. They never really cared about your brother Ron, not even at the minute he was born and was diagnosed that he was mentally disabled. All they thought about was traveling, being powerful and earning money. You’re the only one left who actually puts up with Ron. And don’t think that you’re smart you can just talk back at us. Your brother Ron maybe dumb but he’s obedient. He’s far better than you are.”
Ginny would stop talking and glared at me.
To tell the truth, I have a lot of older brothers before Ginny. But they’ve all moved out of the house one by one as soon as they finished high school. Bill and Charlie went off traveling—Mother said they were trying to be the next Jeff Corwin or Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter—and Percy went off trying to be the next President Bush. Fred and George didn’t finish high school all the way. They stopped somewhere in the middle and decided to be the next Donald Trump. Why did Mother compare them with people from TV, I’ll never know. I remembered very little about them anyway. I remembered Bill and Charlie being very adventurous and liked to read books on animals never been caught or found, and Percy having many posters of very important people that often came on in the news on his wall. The most I remembered was Fred and George. They were very naughty kids and liked to play practical jokes on just about everyone, but they never let me join in the fun. In fact, they were the ones who laughed at me and played practical jokes on me the most among all my brothers. Percy was cold and never let me in his room—chased me out the last time I sneaked in to look at the posters on his wall—and Bill and Charlie were just too busy to pay any attention to me, and when they see me touching their books they would go running to complain to Mother. After Fred and George left, I’ve never seen any of them since, well, except during Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner, and then they’ll leave almost immediately the next morning. They never stay more than one day.
Ginny also told Mother that she would never study in the same high school as mine because she was afraid she wouldn’t have any friends. When Mother heard it, she got angry and said, “Which is more important, the outside or your brother? Don’t you think it’s cruel that even you don’t look out for your brother? What do you learn at school anyway?”
Whenever we go out, Ginny would warn me quietly, “Don’t let anyone else know I’m your sister. Keep the hell away from me!”
So I never dared to stand any closer to her.
One Saturday afternoon, Mother made some chocolate waffles and packed a basket of fruit and told us to bring it to our aunt’s place. Ginny walked all the way to a corner and gave me the box of waffles while she held the basket of fruit. She told me that she wanted to walk in front.
We walked past the park and saw someone playing ball. It was Cedric. He saw me and asked me to play with him, but I shook my head and said, “I can’t. Ginny and I…” Then I remembered that Ginny didn’t like me talking about her, so I said instead, “I have to bring these waffles to my aunt. Just me, not Ginny.”
Ginny was in front of me and walked very fast, but she heard me and glared at me. What did I say wrong? What else am I supposed to say?
When Ginny was about to turn around and continue walking, she suddenly slipped. She fell all the way to the ground and the fruit in the basket rolled all over the place.
I quickly ran towards her, but Ginny said not to go near her. So I ran back to where I was before.
I stood beside the seesaw at the park, not knowing what to do.
Ginny seemed rather painful as she rubbed her knee. She had one hand on the ground and looked like she was trying to get up. I cheered her on inside my heart and hope that she could get up. But she never made it. She rubbed her knee, then rubbed her eyes. Oh no! She looked like she was crying. I said in my heart: Don’t cry, Ginny.
I stood there holding my waffles and watched Ginny. The fruit were still rolling out of her basket and there were other kids watching her. I was angry. I scolded them in my mind: What are you looking at? What’s to look at someone falling down?
Finally, Ginny got up. She picked up the fruit one by one and put them into her basket and slowly continued walking. I quickly followed behind her.
When we passed by the church, I looked around and made sure that there was no one around before going up to Ginny and asked, “Does it hurt?”
“It hurts real bad,” Ginny replied, her eyes and nose looking very red. She held her knee and said, “It might be bleeding.”
I said, “Let me carry the basket for you.” So she gave me her basket.
“You should’ve picked me up when you saw me fell, stupid!” Ginny scolded me.
I get it. I can be her brother again if she fell down.
I said, “I’ll pick you up if you fall down next time.”
“Are you cursing me?” Ginny glared at me, but she was also smiling at the same time.
Suddenly I had a wish that Ginny could fall down more, so that I can be her brother more.
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