The Other Side of the Sister I Never Knew

Since young, I always imagined my youngest sister to be a generous and kind person. This trip changes everything I thought about her.

I never knew she was such a petty person who takes things personally. 

She asked me for the train ticket details. I specifically told her and my mother that it was Carriage 25. However, when she saw me getting into Carriage 25, she led my mother to the earlier carriage. Under normal circumstances, one would have followed her family member, or informed the family member that she had gone in the wrong carriage (if she thinks that family members had gotten into the wrong carriage. 

Instead, she silently took my mother to Carriage 23. They were going further and further from me so I shouted for them to come back. She explained that she thought it was Carriage 24. I told her,”But you were going to Carriage 23.” She insisted she didn’t but I knew she did because after getting up at Carriage 25, which was behind me, I found myself in Carriage 24 trying to catch up with them. And they were backfacing me and walking towards the Carriage before 24. 

When she came to her seat, she was upset that I said I saw her going to Carriage 23. She said,”Ya! You know everything!” I replied,”Ya, because I saw it happening.” 

Then out of the blue, she gave me a luggage lock and told me to go lock our luggage. The lock is hers. The idea of locking luggage together is hers. She has the number combi. Why would she ask me to go lock it? 

I told her I don’t know how to do it. She ignored what I said and left it with me. Of course. I will give her the benefit of the doubt and take it that she didn’t hear it. But you know people do things deliberately to find fault with you, right?

So after some time, she asked me if I had locked the luggage, just so that she could use “Wah lau eh” to ridicule me for being useless.

Well, I am not the one who went to ITE. I am not the one who gets upset about paying for my own trip. 

Throughout the trip, she keeps trying to turn my mother against me, complaining about the trip all the time, asking my mother if she was tired and if she needed breaks. Then return to tell me that my trip is too rushed and should have breaks. In short, she thinks we should spend at least half the day in the hotel to sleep.

Well, I really wouldn’t mind that if someone else is paying for my trip. But then again, I believe I am more appreciative of someone else’s effort, time and money than the average person. I wouldn’t take these for granted.

She also keeps saying “Mother and I do not want to do this.” “Mother and I feel (this way and that way)””Mother and I are not going to do this. If you want, you do it yourself.”

Are we not family? Why are you dividing our mother and me? Why is there a need to form an alliance and turn our mother against me?

When someone was in the toilet and couldn’t open the door, and my mother needed to use the toilet, she accused me of being a useless daughter.

I was the one who planned four full pages of itinerary and whose plan got dismissed as being brainless and inconsiderate.

The trip makes me see how ugly, selfish, rude, inconsiderate and insensitive she is. Nice and friendly to strangers but nasty to a sister who does not lose her temper. 

I hate to say this but we are able to gauge a person’s character and values by his educational level to a large extent. 

At the planning stage, she was avoiding work by deliberately leaving in advance when she knew I was looking for her to firm up plans or ask for her opinions. She refused to book anything when it was agreed that she would book first while I pay her back, since she doesn’t have an active income. 

Only someone who has planned an itinerary before would know how much thought and effort had gone into it.

The amount of nastiness and meanness that I have been receiving from her within these few days is enough for me to unfriend her on Facebook, together with her ITE friends. For the ingratitude that she’s so freely exhibited, I’ll probably stop teaching her son as well. 

I never thought it would come to this. I thought she was the only one who would not take advantage of my kindness. Looks like the Chinese proverb has its wisdom: 人善被人欺. No exception about it. Even your family do it.