My sister

'PUT MY FUCKING CAR DOWN NOW' She screamed as she climbed on the tow tray and into her car. It had become a clearway 20 minutes ago. 'Ma'am, get down off the tow tray. You’re parked illegally.' His voice was American and his face was fat. 

'WHAT! It's just after 7 and I told you before you towed my car. Put it down now!'  Her foot stamped the ground of the car and it shook.  She was ready for war. The council guy was in her direct line of fire but got paid on commission, so he wasn't having a bar of it. She called Evan. Evan was Dan's brother. Evan was a policeman. I always found it funny that a relative of Dan's made a living upholding the law. 

‘They’re not talking to you very nicely’. The tow away guys had begun yelling back at her, trying to force her off the tow tray. Evan spoke calmly in an attempt to make her relax. ‘Here. Talk to my friend, he's a policeman’ She tried to throw the phone at the guy operating the tow truck, but he was fed up and refusing. She tossed it to the side, readjusted and came in from a different angle. 'If you don’t put my car down RIGHT now, I’m going to sue you for talking to me like this AND for breaking my mirror.'  She had parked illegally, and been hurling abuse at the the guy for twenty minutes now. Just getting warmed up.

Two hours later, and she was sitting at the police station. '$450? She screamed. ‘No fucking way’. You broke my mirror. My mirror has been snapped off my car.' 'Sorry ma'am, we can't help you. You climbed onto the back of the tow truck and we have the whole thing on film. That's illegal.'  Fat face sported a smug look with his dumb accent.  She put up a solid 45 minute argument before giving up. 'You can fuck off now.' She flipped him the bird and  stomped out of the station.

On Tuesday morning I woke up at 7:36 to the sound of my alarm. I always made sure my alarm was turned on in odd increments.  I turned to the side and the dog was staring at me. I picked up my phone from it’s normal spot on the ground. Can you come meet me in Smith street for a coffee? A text from her.  Can’t, I responded. I'll call you shortly.

'I’m going to be on the news.' She cried into the phone. I moved into the photocopy room so I could talk back without everyone in the office listening to my conversation. ‘I can’t remember when they took me to the police station. I think it was a rage blackout.’ She had suffered from rage blackouts a few times before, but maybe not like this. Her sobs grew stronger as the conversation continued.  

She'd had had a shitty week to say the least and this was the icing on the cake. Already in debt, She was working two jobs and trying to get her business off the ground. She had stamina. Way more than I did, but she had just been hit with a $450 fine, had to buy a new mirror and her car was still at the towers. Her enthusiasm was beginning to drain.

We were opposites,  but we mainly got on. There was the occasional screaming fight where she would call me a brainwashed moron and I would respond with YOU’RE A CUNT from the top of the stairs. My dad got annoyed when I called my sister a cunt but I always found it most fitting to describe her.  Very occasionally we would hit each other. Once I threw all her bed sheets and pillows off the balcony in a fit of rage. But she usually won. I hated admitting but it was reality. She was much stronger than I was.  Smaller, but stronger. Shortest of the three, golden not chocolate, big dark eyebrows and light brown eyes. Sometimes they were green in the summer.

She got angry when people left a mess, when dishes weren't cleaned properly, when people were lazy. She was a good runner, knew how to cook. Inherited all the good genes probably. Me, I was messy and wired most of the time. Left things everywhere, ripped, broke or misplaced my belongings. Forever disorganised. She ran marathons and got on with it. She'd be the richest out of everyone because she wouldn't settle for anything less. She just watched, unaffected as people around her work their steady jobs, buy property and get hitched. But she just keeps running, very slowly but very surely building her empire.