✅ My Sister's Problem

62. Pranks and Consequences

As we headed down the narrow road that would take us back onto the highway, Mum had one more thing to say to us.

"Now, I know you two have been teasing each other a lot over the summer. And perhaps there have been some little tricks that I've not noticed. But I want you to be nice over this week, okay? This is our time to remember your father, and all the things that have brought us together. But I'm also going to handle discipline the way your father did for this week. So first off, I'll say that I expect both of you to clean up your own little accidents, and be mature enough to ask for help if you need it. If I catch either of you teasing the other, I'm going to try to see if she's actually upset. Right? And if I find any evidence that one of you is playing silly beggars, doing anything to make it harder for your sister to manage this problem, there will be a reckoning." That got a deep breath from both of us. That was a word that Grandpa Bernstein had used a lot when we got to see him regularly; and we'd heard Dad threaten it a couple of times. He'd only had to follow through on that promise twice in our lives, and that was enough to convince both of us that we never wanted to face it again. "You can either agree on a punishment between the two of you, or I'll hand down the strictest discipline possible to convince you that cruelty to your little sister is completely unacceptable. If you haven't learned the price of sisterhood already, you will both know it this week. Understand?"

"Yes, Mum," we both answered.

"Good. Now, I think I see an oasis ahead. Do you want to stop for refreshments?" The background sound app was playing something that could have been the sound of desert winds; with the faintest strains of music from some bedouin travellers just over the next dune. And descending back into out roleplay convinced me that the warning had just been a warning; so that Lindy couldn't say she was just playing when she was caught with a bowl of water tonight. Of course, I would ask Mum to go easy on her anyway. I didn't like wetting the bed, but the way my sister teased me in the morning made it worth it to me. Maybe she would get away with it, maybe she wouldn't, but so long as those pictures didn't find their way to my friends I could live with it.

Over the next three locations in our fantasy mystery tour, my opinion rapidly changed. Whatever herbs she had heard about from Harper, they really worked. Inside of an hour I was desperate to pee. More than I'd ever been in my life; even the time when I'd had two exams back to back last year and had no time to use the bathroom between because I'd headed in the direction of the wrong classroom for the second one.

It wasn't just the desperation, or even the pain. It was the fact that after Mum offered another rest stop and I declined, Lindy had made pointed jokes about putting me in diapers. It was humiliating, and exactly what I wanted, but it was always malice rather than care in her voice, and that didn't sit well with me. It made me think she needed to be on the receiving end, so she'd know how it felt to be bullied. And more than anything what got to me was the fact that she needed to bring up Hugo given even the slightest excuse. How I was dumb to think I ever had a chance, like a little baby crushing on an older boy. How he could never respect me while I was in diapers. How he must have heard from his sister that I had diapers in the car, and had listened in because he wanted to know whether to pity or laugh at me.

I almost started crying the last time, but Mum always managed to get the conversation back to something less stressful without breaking the surface impression that this was a joke between us. A gentle warning. I knew that if I said I'd had enough, Lindy would be told in no uncertain terms that she was to stop now. But as her behaviour got worse, and Lindy suggested that I be put in diapers and pictures sent to the Eisens to prove those weren't for her, I knew that Mum just telling her to stop wouldn't be enough. She needed to regret this path.

Some time during the next scene, where we imagined crossing a creaking, rickety bridge, I noticed that Lindy hadn't mentioned diapers this time. In fact, she hadn't said much at all. A tiny red glow on her wrist told me why; after a restless night, the monotony of the road had put her to sleep. I was torn then, between asking for us to stop and playing along with my sister's crazy rules. If my phone said she was deeply asleep, she might think that it was Mum who had decided to stop; or she might not wake up at all. But when I thought about all the things she'd said, carefully calculated to make me feel bad, I knew that it couldn't end that easily. But I still felt bad about turning this around.

I decided that I would leave her punishment to chance. That way it was fair, and maybe I'd be able to cope with the taunts a little more easily. It wouldn't be me taking revenge, I told myself. Just creating a situation where Lindy might have to face some truths about her own behaviour.

I looked at the queue for our background sound. There were three more on there, so it could choose our next scene at random. I added one more, using custom tracks from my phone. I didn't remember the filenames, but I knew when I saw four mp3s with cryptic letter-and-number combinations for their filenames that I was in the right place. These were things I needed to hide from anyone who looked over my phone by chance, creating plausible deniability. Waterfall sounds, and a river, and whatever the others were. I didn't put them up next; I told it to combine them into a twenty minute track, and add it to the random selection. I estimated that even if it came up next, the odds of that audio being active when she shifted from beta to theta sleep was probably less than fifty-fifty. And there was a good chance she would wake up while one of the others was playing anyway.

"You okay baby?" Mum asked. "You haven't said much since we passed the sheep station. If you're really uncomfortable, we should stop. I saw your sister adding her coffee to your cup, which I now realise wasn't a generous act. Has she said you're not allowed to ask for a potty break?"

"Yeah," I mumbled. Of course, Mum had already figured it out.

"Well, that's okay. I need a break myself, I'll say so the next time I see she's awake. Can you wait until Wellingborough?"

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"Silence worried me. I thought you might be in pain."

"Not really, just distracted. Actually getting a bit sleepy, Must have been counting all those sheep." Of course, I couldn't tell her I'd been laser-focused on finding a way to make Lindy wet herself in the car. Or just to give a chance of it happening, so I wouldn't feel like a bully.

"Could be. They got Lindy, didn't they?" I chuckled, but didn't say much. It was easier not to talk while I fought the pressure in my bladder, and Mum wasn't pushing it. Five minutes later, Mum reached out to push the 'next' button on the stereo; and the display on my phone updated too. A custom track, starting with a blend of river noises and wind blowing through branches. My luck was in, so it was time to see whether Lindy would be deep enough in sleep to completely ignore the sounds.

I didn't think she would wake up easily. The sounds were so soothing now. I hadn't been up half the night, and I could still see how easy it would be to just nod off. The white noise of a recorded river was so different from the white noise of the open road, even if I didn't understand all the differences. I was leaning with my head on the window, and the vibrations travelling down seemed to numb my entire body. In fact, Lindy's prank was probably the only thing keeping me awake now, a hot dagger of pressure from my bladder demanding constant attention, not allowing me to sink into sleep. Everything else was so calming, from the livestock drifting past outside the windows, to the gentle thrum of the engine noise, to the calming cadence of recorded tree branches, and the pleasant melody of the chimes hanging from them.

"Sounds like there might be a temple ahead," Mum said cheerfully, but I was too lethargic to answer. Wind chimes could mean a temple, I knew that was true. They could also mean I'd chosen the wrong file, and I needed to change it right now. I promised myself that I would press 'next' the first moment I could open my eyes, before I let the most relaxing sleep imaginable claim me. Even the clouds, or the sounds, or the gentle purr of the engine carried through the car's body, couldn't possibly be as relaxing as the sudden release of all that pressure inside me. It was gone now, and I could sleep like a baby.

Author's Note: This was the final scene in my original plan; so it would have ended either here, or in the next chapter with Willow putting them both in diapers until school resumes. But the characters have developed a lot since then, so I think there's a much more satisfying way this can go now.