My Phantom Sister

An essay on longing

Photo by Benjamin Wedemeyer on Unsplash

My whole life I have longed for a sister, a confidante. I’ve known plenty of sisters who fought and chased each other down shaky staircases, yanking hair, precipitating a genuine brawl. Sisters who couldn’t stand each other.

As kids, my brother and I antagonized, jabbed, chased and yelled until one of us would inevitable accelerate the situation into real violence. We were at one…