"I imagine Dina and I were like a lot of sisters.  When we were younger we shared a laundry basket and chores.  We couldn't veer farther from each other than a closed bedroom door.  But we were getting older.  We no longer shared a home, and no longer saw each other every day.  Yet our bond was indisputable.  There was a tacit quality to our closeness, an abiding undercurrent of security, unaffected by physical distance or the frequency of our phone calls.  I often consider all the possibilities, the ways the bond between sisters is developed.  For Dina and me, perhaps it can be traced to the length of time we'd known each other?  The familiarity of each other's face, skin, smell, or voice?  Our shared gene pool or shared past experiences?   Or maybe, as the younger sister, I was (and continue to be) bound to Dina because I know no world without her in it. 

Still, I wanted to feel like a friend to Dina, not a perpetual little sister.  I'd hoped the different between our ages would feel more narrow the further we traveled into our futures.  But even in our mid-twenties, I didn't feel like it had.  Moreover, I felt more self-conscious with her than with anyone else.  I tried not to be, but trying not to be self-conscious is like trying not to yawn.  I was even anxious talking to dina on the phone.  If I knew she was going to call I'd construct a mental list of discussion topics, news I could share with her and questions I could ask her."
-Voices Lessons by Cara Mentzel