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Closer
A. Gautam
My sister Natalie wanted to grow up in seconds and not in years. I was left behind to catch up in real time. Only two years apart, I also felt decades away from her. Natalie wanted privacy, personal room, and mother’s pretty possessions at ten. I longed for her cuddles, which she only dispensed when she had upset me and was sorry. I loved my big sister with every ounce of my being though she felt weighed down by my displays of affection.
“When I was your age, your aunt Jen and I weren’t close,” our mother confessed. “Now, we can’t get enough of each other. Your grandparents are really old, and we share our worries and responsibilities, you know.”
I wasn’t ready to think about that—my beautiful mother being frail or my towering father using a cane. I suspected Natalie would be ahead in the care arrangements and that I would try to play catch-up. I wondered if I would always be just a shadow in Natalie’s life until the day I caught her sobbing in the hallway.
“You didn’t see anything,” Natalie said between sobs and rushed to her room, which she didn’t seal with a locked door.
Entering her neat room, which was a furniture catalog, was a privilege. The veneer of the green curtains added a layer of beauty to the windows. Except for crumbled tissues in the trashcan, nothing seemed unkempt. What had been bothering my perfect sister?
“What’s wrong?” I asked and sat on the edge of the bed to take up the smallest possible space. Then, I spotted a broken friendship bracelet by the night lamp. How could I have not noticed before? Carly hadn’t come over in months. Natalie wasn’t on the phone every free minute of Saturday and Sunday. I had been buried in books and band practice and failed to see my big sister’s loneliness. “Do you want to watch Zombie Cheer together? We don’t have to talk. We can just be…together.”
Natalie lunged at me to hold me tight and wailed until my hair was damp. I let her. Then, she dried her face with tissues and took me by the hand to the living room. Mother had already set up two big bowls of popcorn, which looked like heaps of comfort. Mother always knew everything.
Question
A theme in the story is love can be expressed without using words. Select two statements that highlight the development of this theme throughout the passage.
Responses
A Mother had already set up two big bowls of popcorn, which looked like heaps of comfort. Mother had already set up two big bowls of popcorn, which looked like heaps of comfort.
B Natalie wasn’t on the phone every free minute of Saturday and Sunday. Natalie wasn’t on the phone every free minute of Saturday and Sunday.
C “We don’t have to talk. We can just be…together.” “We don’t have to talk. We can just be…together.”
D Entering her neat room, which was a furniture catalog, was a privilege. Entering her neat room, which was a furniture catalog, was a privilege.
E My sister Natalie wanted to grow up in seconds and not in years. My sister Natalie wanted to grow up in seconds and not in years.
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C “We don’t have to talk. We can just be…together.”
D Entering her neat room, which was a furniture catalog, was a privilege.