The Sister Attach

Over the weekend, in a rush of whispered excitement, Ella confided that she had made up something called the "sister attach" for Sadie. It all started because Sadie was upset about something or other, and the "sister attach" was born of Ella's attempt to calm Sadie down. I didn't really hear exactly what the sister attach entailed (whispering is an art form that the girls still haven't mastered--Sadie whispers too loud for it to be a secret, and Ella whispers too frantically to be heard), but I did hear the part where Ella told me not to tell Sadie it was all made up. Since then, I've gotten the gist of the sister attach, which is basically that when Ella hurts her knee, Sadie hurts hers too. When Sadie is sad, Ella is sad. Basically, what happens to one of them happens to both of them. Otherwise known to the rest of us as a bond or as love or as compassion or as empathy.

The sister attach, which Ella has dreamed up and is so sure is imaginary is, in fact, quite real. I see it in the way Ella can sometimes calm Sadie down when I simply can't (or when I just don't have the patience to do so). Or in the way Ella sometimes takes her sister's hand for no reason at all. I see it when Ella is at school and Sadie introduces herself to a child at the park by way of, "I have a sister named Ella who is six." I see it in the whispered secrets the two share and in the way they can sometimes play together for hours, keeping each other happy and entertained in a way that I can't rival. Of course, it's not always like this. And I know that this isn't even the case for all siblings. But in my house, at least, the sister attach is alive and well--at least for *parts* of the day.