✅ My Sister's Problem

80. Playtime

I blushed as soon as we heard that. I knew the shop she meant; it was a massive superstore dedicated entirely to baby and toddler stuff. When we were younger we'd loved to visit, simply to browse a toy aisle with a truly incredible range. We had both been too old for the place really when we used to bug Mum and Dad to go there, and had spent an hour looking through all kinds of things that we might have enjoyed playing with a couple of years before. Somehow, the sheer number of different things on display more than made up for the fact that there was almost certainly nothing we actually wanted. But now... it had been years since we actually considered going to that store, and I didn't even know if it was still there. I would be utterly humiliated if they said anything to imply that they were buying things for me there; I was old enough now that passers by would be more likely to assume I had a kid of my own, although that would be almost as hard to believe.

Anyone who saw us would know it was a joke, wouldn't they? And Lindy probably wasn't serious in any case. I told myself that it wouldn't be that embarrassing. Even if Lindy talked to me like I was her little sister, any bystanders who happened to hear would assume it was some kind of private joke. The alternative was just too strange to even believe.

"You sure you want to go there?" Mum asked. "I don't think you'll find anything old enough for you."

"Don't be silly, Moooom!" Lindy protested, and then broke down in giggles. I didn't remember the exact words; we had only had a couple of years of begging to go into the largest store we'd ever seen before I wasn't old enough to even pretend I might find toys to interest me. But I was sure Mum had said something very similar a few years before, when Lindy and I had both been insistent that we wanted to buy toys from the baby shop. "Anyway, it's different this time. Sally's a baby, isn't she? So if we go to the youngest toy aisle, we'll get a clue what kind of toys are appropriate."

"Okay, if you're sure. I've got a couple of things I want to sort out first, though. Can you look after your sister while I nip out for half an hour?"

I looked up at her, silently pleading. I was pretty sure she would be going to the farm shop a little way down the coast, to get some eggs and vegetables for the rest of the week's dinners. And that was something I usually went with her for, because carrying a couple of bags on foot was so much easier than taking the car down a rutted farm track. Would she leave me at home just to give Lindy power over me? I was sure that I would be more useful helping with the shopping, but Mum just patted me on the head and told me to be good for Lindy.

Mum put her jacket on and hurried out, quickly confirming my suspicions. I was getting nervous again, even without any idea what Lindy had in store for me. I watched out of the window as Mum drove off in the car, and kept staring out along the beach for a few minutes afterwards.

"Come here, baby," Lindy called, and it took me a second to realise that she was talking to me. When I turned around, she had managed to assemble a small group of toys. She'd fetched Lincoln and Mr Muggins down from my room, and had added Bosnia to the group as well. I hadn't realised that she'd brought him with us, but somehow it cheered me up a little to think that my sister was still willing to share her toys. Even after all her protests that she wasn't a baby now, I knew that she still cared about that little gerbil. It was a sign that she still wanted to be friends, somehow, in some strange and cryptic form of communication.

"I'm going to watch Live From Palmerston!" Lindy said, and sat down on the couch. She picked up the TV remote, and was scrolling through the menus while she was still talking to me. "I think you're too much of a baby to understand that, but you can come and play with your stuffies. Just stay where I can see you, and don't make too much noise. Okay?"

I nodded, still not sure if I was allowed to take the pacifier out of my mouth, and walked unsteadily over to the middle of the lounge. Lindy had arranged the toys on the floor, and her intention was clear. I could have gathered them up and climbed onto the couch, but I guessed that she would probably tell Mum was soon as she got back if I didn't comply with her instructions in the way she had expected. So I sat down on the floor, leaning back against the edge of the couch cushions, and did my best to arrange a couple of teddy bears and a treasured gerbil in my lap. Lindy was sprawled out on the couch behind me, where she could watch the TV in more comfort and also see everything that I was doing. Just like she would with a real child.

I wasn't really familiar with Live From Palmerston!, although I'd heard friends talking about it before. It was about some funny guys on a road trip, as far as I understood, but somehow I hadn't caught it. Lindy had started watching it fairly recently, and I'd caught a few seconds of the show as I walked through the lounge, but this would probably be my first time actually watching it.

"You should play with your stuffies," Lindy advised me as the opening titles rolled. "I know you're not excited about this, but you're just a little baby now. And the more you play the part, the less extra punishment you'll get. You need to accept that you've lost, and you're not going to get out of this by trying to be clever. But be a good baby, play with your toys, show me that you can do what you're told, and maybe I'll ask Mum to give you a break before the end of the week. Who knows, maybe you'll even be allowed to use the bathroom like a big girl again. But you're a baby now, so show me what a good baby you can be."

I wanted to argue; or to protest that this wasn't a competition to be won or lost. But I knew she wasn't in the mood to listen, and Mum had already told me not to do that, so I kept sucking on my pacifier now. It was oddly relaxing. I played with the toys, making them walk across the rug and talk to each other while I kept one eye on the TV and tried to understand the story. And it turned out that I'd given Lincoln and Mr Muggins enough of a personality already; I could guess how they might react if they were watching a comedy show like this with me. So I let myself imagine the conversations between the bears, and I could find a little secret smile. After all the anxiety I had started the day with, this punishment didn't seem to be so bad after all.