"1821 Garden Loop, here you go, miss." said the cabbie, bringing the lemon-yellow Checker to a halt in front of the driveway. He turned to the young brunette in the back seat, and smiled as a father would at his own daughter. "Home for the summer, huh?"
"Yeah," Karen said. "My sister is graduating high school next week and we're spending one last summer together before she goes off to college."
"That's really sweet of ya," the cab driver said. "Sisters need to stay close. I got two younger sisters out in Oregon and they're never apart."
Karen looked up at the house. "Yeah, my sister's a sweet girl." She ran her fingers through her impossibly long, straight, brown locks, arranging her hair around her shoulders.
"Sounds like you miss her as much as you think she's gonna miss you. Do ya need any help with your bags?"
"No, thanks, I got it. Here, keep the change." Karen said, passing a twenty-dollar bill through the partition to the front. It was at least a 30% tip. The cab driver smiled.
"Thanks, miss, much obliged. Enjoy your summer vacation, OK?"
Karen climbed out of the taxi, pulled her suitcase from the trunk, and rolled it up the drive. The cab was gone before she had time to look over her shoulder, off in search of his next fare. Through the screen door, she could see a silhouette, another young woman, a little shorter, a little bustier, hair tied tight in a ponytail. As she approached the porch, the door burst open and her sister Sarah leapt from the doorframe.
"Kerrrriiiiiiiiiiii!" "Shii-Shiiiiiiiii!"
The girls had always greeted each other this way since they could remember, with high-pitched squeals and joyful hugs. They jumped up and down, arms wrapped tight around one another; a week's or a year's time could have passed and the greeting would have been the same. Born about five years apart, they could have been mistaken for fraternal twins had Karen not looked twenty-five - they were that close.
"C'mon, let's get your bags inside. Mom made chicken salad sandwiches." Sarah said, kissing Karen on the cheek and grabbing her tote.
"Red grapes or green?"
"Red. With walnuts. Duh."
"Mmm." Karen licked her lips. "Beats the burger I had at the airport."
They walked through the house, a small two-story house on a quiet suburban street, one their mother had found as a fixer-upper when they moved here. She'd raised them as a single parent; the girls remembered little about their father, but they never really missed having a man around. Mom worked as a photographer for the newspaper and did glamour shots on the side, a lucrative business that had allowed her to give the girls a comfortable childhood.
"Moooom! Karen's home!" Sarah called loudly as they walked into the kitchen. Their mother was indeed making sandwiches, which she quickly abandoned to walk around the kitchen island and give her daughter a big welcome home hug.
"Hi sweetie! Oh, it's so good to have you back home for the summer."
"Hi mom. It's good to see you, too."
They talked about the weather, the flight, the cab ride from the airport as they munched on sandwiches and pickle spears grown fresh in the backyard garden. Sarah and Mom peppered Karen with questions about her apartment, roommates, not that they hadn't all been asked before over e-mail, the phone, or letters traded between all of them. But the same stories were different coming from the other side of the kitchen table, better somehow, more fun, more interesting.
"You've been hitting the beach, Sis, that tan suits you," Sarah quipped.
"Sure you don't want to come down and go to school in Tampa?" Karen asked. "I know some of the people on the steering committee."
"What, and live in your shadow? No thank you. I gotta be my own woman, Sis." Sarah joked.
Karen feigned shock. "As if you weren't always a better student than me anyway, Miss Valedictorian."
Their mom interjected. "You two. If I had my way you'd both be staying here. And not just because it's cheaper to go to State."
The girls gave their mother an indignant look. "Mom, you know we're going to way better schools than State." Karen said.
"I know... but you know I'm going to miss both of you when you're off conquering the world."
