A couple hours from now, actually this evening, and six years ago my family lived in Joostenbergvlakte in a double-storey house with a green roof. My mom was pregnant. Sometime in the evening my mom said her water broke and we got our stuff together and drove to Kenilworth. Which is, for those who know Cape Town, forever away from Joostenbergvlakte; it is a forty minute drive minimum.
It was several hours later, late into the night, like 03h00/04h00, when my mom finally gave birth to Emily. A shorter birth would've meant we were both born on the 23rd of a month, but as it is we share one quirky stat: being born twenty years apart. I'll always remember how old she is on her birthday.
I got very bored that night. I suppose I could've stayed at home. I didn't want to miss out on the momentous occasion, although I preferred not to be in the room when it actually happened. It wasn't really an option, but I was glad I wasn't there. Not something you want to say you shared with your mother.
While we waited Bubble Boy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, was on TV. It is an awful film, made even worse because it was broadcast on e-tv (not to be confused with E! Entertainment), a local television station that has frequent advert breaks at completely inappropriate moments in films. Breaks occur even in the middle of a conversation or a single sentence of dialogue. It is that bad.
Being bored wasn't so terrible. I like being awake outside the home late at night. Everything is so different. There is hardly anyone around, I love that. Being alone seems so natural in the artificial lighting and ever-present darkness outside. The noises of the night are more tolerable than the sounds of a city in sunlight. So just being in the hospital through the night was an adventure in itself. I might've also taken books with to read, can't remember what. But I was quite into Haruki Murakami, as I still am, and his books fit the late night atmosphere perfectly, I think.
My sister is six on Wednesday. Incredible to think there was a time in my life without her.
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