When I was nine years old, I thought I had only three siblings: two boys and a girl. All of them were older than me and almost with their lives already made. Suddenly, and subtly, I became aware of something strange; something that was going to happen very soon and that my whole family knew about; except me.
One day, just like any other day, I was getting ready for school. I remember that I had not slept well and I was very tired, like every day when I was forced to get up early. When I was about to go out with my older sister, we received an unexpected visit from a girl, very tall and thin; with physical features very similar to ours.
"Could it be a cousin I don't know?" That was what I thought. The girl entered the house and smiled at me, stroked my hair tenderly, and then went on her way. I looked at her with a bit of indifference; I didn't even ask my sister who she was, I think it was because at that moment I didn't care much about her. That day I went about my routine normally and forgot about it.
When I came back from school, I noticed that the girl was still in the house. She was talking to my parents in a very pleasant way and, when they saw me, they all smiled at the same time.
"Son, sit down for a moment..." my father said to me; there was a tone of mystery in his voice, but I paid heed and sat down on the sofa with them.
"I want to introduce you to your sister, Karelis," he continued subsequently, at which point my mind was filled with unknowns:
Sister? What do you mean sister? I only have one sister and two brothers.
Until I was nine years old I always had this conception that, from a very early age, you already know who your family is, but my parents showed me the opposite. At that time I was thinking, "If she was my sister, why do I know her until now?"
It was at that instant that my parents began to explain to me what happened between them before I was born. My siblings were just kids, but they remember very well what happened back then. My parents were separated, as my father had fallen in love with another woman, and lived with her for a while until he couldn't bear the guilt of abandoning my siblings, and came back to ask my mom for forgiveness.
My mother was reluctant to forgive him, but in the end, she did, warning my father that it was his last chance, and it was a good thing my parents reconciled, otherwise, I would not have been born.
My father did not mention to my mother that he had impregnated that woman until much later. I was already born and my parents already had a new life, but that revealed secret made my mother very angry and that's when the displeasure and verbal fights between them began.
I never understood why, but after knowing that secret I knew it. My brothers on my mother's side did not know my half-sister in person either; although they already knew of her existence, they were all as surprised as I was when they saw her.
Karelis was not a shy and unreliable young woman, she was very kind and cordial; it did not take us long to get attached to her; after all, she was our sister and it was not her fault what had happened with our parents. I remember that she for a while started taking me to school, then she would look for me and take me to her house with her mother and they would both bring me candy and cake until my other sister would come to pick me up.
In my childhood days, after meeting her, I remember her very fondly. I never wondered why my father hid her for so long from us, he probably thought my mother would dislike her, but it was just the opposite; we all had a good relationship with Karelis.
This is something we only know among ourselves; neither my uncles nor my cousins know about it. We decided to keep it a secret and continue our lives as if nothing happened until now. Currently, my sister Karelis is far away from us; I don't even have her contact number. She went to live in another city and we haven't heard from her again, I just hope she is well.
Now that I live far away from my family, I don't know exactly if my sister's existence is still a secret; knowing my mother, I think it will remain so. If someday my sister comes back and wants to share with us again, I would be very happy, even if I can't share in person with them.
