Dear Diary...

Their eyes get wide and there’s always one of them near her to watch.

Maxim Trevelyan
Writer, Ravenclaw

Dear Diary,

My sister Sarah is away a lot of times. I hate it when she goes away.

Mommy and daddy often tell me that I should be grateful that I am not as sick as she is. That I should be grateful that my brain is working right, where neurons are firing all the right ways. I mentioned to mommy that I am bored when Sarah is gone, that I have no one left to play with. She tells me that Sarah is likely worse off than I am, confined to a single room.

I beg mommy and daddy to let Sarah stay. They do, at first. Sarah comes home and for a few weeks, everything is awesome. But then valuables go missing and are found in Sarah’s chest of secrets and animals disappear and turn up almost unrecognizable in her hiding spots.

Mommy and daddy are scared of Sarah. I see it when Sarah comes home, every time shorter than the last. Their eyes get wide and there’s always one of them near her to watch. To see if she will be bad again.

They do not want to use “second chances” anymore. They use them very rarely now. I asked them why Sarah cannot come home that she’s always nice to me. Mommy told me that Sarah has an illness that makes her very nice, that she can fake being normal like Charlotte faked being my friend. That she knows how to make doctors believe that she does not need the hospital anymore. Daddy tells me that I will need to handle being bored if it means that we will be safe from Sarah.

I love my sister and I hate it when Sarah goes away. I have to pretend that I am a good girl until she comes back.

~Masha