Sister I know there’ve been times when you didn't think
I was a very good friend
Sister you must think I'm out of my mind
It's a struggle sometimes to pretend
But I know what I'm doing
I know who I am
I know how it works and I'll see where it ends

Callie stared at the screen; a picture pulled up from a flash drive that displayed her face. A nice smile even if the girl in the picture hated her look. One doesn’t get to argue much with the march of time, you know. Add to that a missed opportunity here and a lost chance there, and that sense of self-loathing is compounded; maybe ten-fold, as they used to say. She shook her head and cursed at the picture.

Sister I need you more now than I ever did
I've been thinking again
I've been thinking again

Life can be tricky and sneak up on you like a tiger looking for
pray
And we've had our share of surprises,
There must be a good one coming our way
Because we're really all looking, we're really all lost
The less we expect, the smaller the costs

“Hello?” the words popped up under a very nice icon that displayed charm and whimsy. It was the nicest thing Callie would see that day, or any other over several days over the course of the next week. It wasn’t that life was so ugly; it was beautiful every single day, in fact. But life itself often struggles to convince us to feel as good about ourselves as we feel about others. The woman of the nice icon proved that.

“I’ve been worried about you. Are you okay?” It would have been good just to see those words all by themselves. Attached to the smile that beamed at her from the screen, they drew even more hope out of her reserve, and her heart lifted up from her self-imposed retreat.

Sister I miss you more now then I ever did
I've been thinking again
I've been thinking again

“You know that I know, right?” Callie could almost hear her voice; a recent addition to their connection. The tones from both were a bit deeper than most would accept in regard to each self-image, but there wasn’t a single doubt in Callie’s mind that her friend was as kind and as gentle and as caring a woman she would ever know. It wasn’t that Patti was any more of a sister than the other beautiful women she had come to know. But it was only the third time she had spoken to someone just like herself. It made all the difference in the world, and gave her strength to reach out to others as Patti had reached out to her.

Things that aren't funny, are funny with you
So I'm better when you are around
And I might say I don't need any advice
But I wear the clothes that I found
In the back of your closet, wherever you hide
Secrets that nobody ever will find

It was funny…. That feeling that you get when you hear someone for the first time; the voice itself doesn’t sound familiar at all, but the heart shouts a big and friendly hello that you’ve known all your life. Callie looked at her own picture and closed the window. Maybe only here? Maybe someday out in the open? But for sure, Patti’s love helped Callie see herself once again as the woman portrayed by her avatar. At one time she felt inauthentic and even a liar for using someone else’ face, but the strength and hope she had received from Patti helped her see that we all have faces we cannot bear to share with others. And we all have faces we care to display; not because they look like we’d like to look, but rather because they look exactly how we feel about ourselves when we’re not cast down in doubt and shame.

“Dennis?” The voice called from the front door; the dog pushed against the screen to invite his Mommy in.

“I have to go.” Callie said.

“I understand perfectly,” Patti wrote, followed by a word of too-painful if wonderful commonality, saying at last,

“Sigh.”

Sister I love you more, then I ever did
I've been thinking again
I've been thinking again

Sister I love you more, then I ever did
I've been thinking again
I've been thinking again

Sister
From the Album,
Scream
Words and music by the performer,
Sarah Bettens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y36xczxitg