Your Opinion Matters

Perhaps you’ve read “Moe’s Story” and met my baby sister Moe. If not, let me introduce you now. I grew up with a tight group of siblings. “Three of each” our parents proudly declared. For just as long as “Lean On Me” has been our ‘family song’ we’ve been there for each other. My siblings were my best friends from the day we were born, especially my sisters.

We grew up, but we still haven’t quit playing together.

A few years ago my Blister and I (baby + sister) had the occasion to become very well acquainted with several of the local medical establishments. We didn’t want to be there; we sure did make the most of it.

We’re so close in age and nearly identical to Mom in appearance so it didn’t surprise us when we were asked if we were twins. It did surprise us how often we were asked, and that there was one who never actually believed us that we weren’t. Our fault really. We played it off the first time so when we finally came clean and confessed we’re not twins, they figured we were kidding with them and wouldn’t believe us.

I suppose we did fancy ourselves a bit like our favorite set of twins, one we never met/ only met as an infant and the other our mother but for far too short a time to remember her. I’m so grateful for the stories and memories we share within the family. Many of them are about the antics the twins would get up to. It was a well-known fact they were playful and pranksters. So I imagine as we played our way through her chemo sessions and other medical appointments we both likely had them both in our minds, perhaps channeling their playful energy.

We got to know all the usual faces in the place and they sure knew when we’d arrived. They could likely track our presence as the laughter moved down the hall with us. There was the one who loved horses and helped us pass a good deal of time with stories of “horse olympics” in the mountains. There was Joe, the extremely kind and gentle student there to assist. And there was Auburn. The fun and playful Auburn University College Football fan who seemed to have heard “game on” the first day, and every day after, Moe walked in with all her Crimson Tide Alabama gear: blanket, socks, bag, hat, sunglasses, and I kid you not, a Big Al stuffed elephant Pet Pillow. Those two had so much fun teasing and pranking. I think the best was when Moe convinced Joe to tape a sign to Auburn’s computer that she’d made. A simple paper with Roll Tide! written large enough to fill the page.

And we were like this everywhere we went that summer. Every time we went out we played a game or cut up and acted silly. To keep her laughing with no time for tears, I sure would make a fool of myself in public being silly. If we saw an opportunity to have a bit of fun we rarely let it pass quietly by.

Chic-Fil-A became a common stop due to it being right there at the medical facility. If we didn’t arrive early enough to eat there before we generally stopped after. We pulled a couple of pranks there, including her daring me to take one of the Chic-Fil-A umbrellas out to hold over the head of an employee who was in the rain in the drive-through. She totally had a rain jacket and was fine but I knew she’d play along. They were all super great to us there. It was so fun to go pick up that umbrella on my way out the door to the drive-through and hear my sister’s peals of laughter being muffled behind me.

So it was with this sort of hilarity we arrived for her first appointment at what was to become her radiologist’s office. We checked in, did a few bits with the staff, got a few giggles, and had a seat to ‘wait for her name to be called.’ The room was a small and narrow rectangle with chairs fully lining the wall on our side, with the exception of the entry door. There was a door to the rest of the office directly across from the entry door. The glass window was on one end, and there were chairs lining the other end. The wall across from us had many chairs, a small table with printed materials on it, and a few bare areas with only space.

In our review of the room, I think we saw it at the same time. There passed between us a full and silent conversation using facial expressions, eyeball movement, and a bit of lip-reading. It was another challenge silently presented, and an opportunity to earn major props for a particularly daring part of the plan. As usual, I was happy to let Baby Sister “talk” me into it. If I could pull it off without getting caught she would get such a laugh. If I got caught, well, she would get such a laugh!

As soon as we sat down in that otherwise empty waiting room we both looked up to see a small plastic sign on the wall across from us. It was mounted just a bit higher than the tabletop, making it apparent the table had once been located directly under this sign. At some point, though, things had been rearranged and there were chairs along that section of the wall, with the table and other spaces further down.

The challenge was the person who’d helped us when we came in sat facing the room, with a glass window slid closed in front of her. It was difficult but not impossible. I had to be patient, take advantage of any moment her attention focused elsewhere. Can you imagine how difficult it is to nonchalantly nudge an entire row of waiting room chairs several feet to one side of the sign or the other? To ensure you leave a space directly in front of the sign for one last thing you need to carefully move?

You see, just under the glass window where the person sat, pushed up against the wall, much like it would be in its new location, was a small lined and empty wastebasket. I knew the lady had to step away for a human moment at some time, and based on the jumbo size of the drink they’d been slurping it was likely to be soon.

No idea where they went or why, but at some point the body rose and walked away. I rushed over super fast and picked up that wastebasket, dropping it off against the wall under the sign so quickly my hands almost bounced off of it as I jumped quickly back and right back down into my seat, ready to continue my part in the conversation my sister was holding with me alone as though I’d been there listening the whole time.

We sat back and admired my handiwork laughing even harder at our efforts to muffle our hysterics. We took our photo evidence for the blog and composed ourselves to complete the charade without any suspicion. I really wish I could have been there to see the looks on the faces of the folks who came in next. I truly hope they got a giggle when they discovered a sign on the wall asking them to Place Patient Surveys In This Box with an arrow pointing down, to the wastebasket below.

One of my favorite inside jokes, of many, with one of my favorite people in the world, my blister.