With my mother, someone or something always has to be at fault. Nothing can just happen. Nothing can just be. For instance, my sister can't just be a bad seed; there is a specific reason for her transgressions. There must be a reason that she lies and steals. There must be a reason that she has no conscience. A reason that she doesn't seem to care about her children, her mother, herself. There must be a reason.
My mother thinks the reason came when my sister was only 9. She almost died from a hole in her pancreas. The tail of her pancreas had to be removed; she was hospitalized for close to a year. My mother says that the scar left on her belly is nothing compared to the scare the surgeries left on her psyche. My mother believes that my sister didn't go bad until after the accident, but I'm not too sure. I have just as many memories of her torturing me before and after 1980.
