A THING by ALEXIS LEE
‘what’s your favourite memory with your sister,’
she says
this child in front of me asking the impossible questions! how am i to know my favourite memory with the devil i’ve spent a whopping 16 years of my life knowing!
do i tell her about the time i got hungry despite telling my parents i wasn’t gonna be, so she ran to the kfc next door and bought a bucket of chicken wings? do i tell her about the time we stayed up until 2am watching compilations of fictional couples and complaining about how lonely we were? do i tell her about the time i told her i wanted these pants and, despite constantly protesting about buying me shit, a glorious pair, wide legged and frayed at the edges, appeared in my closet? do i tell her about every time i cried and she wouldn’t go to bed until i stopped? do i tell her about every time i found out that i laughed differently when it was her that was making the joke?
but admitting that i even remember any of those, let alone that i remember them so well that i cradle them to my chest and call them my favourites, would mean that i feel.
so i say, no, i don’t, and i laugh it off.
Alexis Lee (she/her) is a pseudonym for a writer from Hong Kong. She usually takes ugly emotions and tries to turn them into beautiful things, but when that’s not possible (and it often isn’t), she resorts to being unusually good at Tetris and being less good at Twitter at @lessalexis.