Great Things

Standing on our front porch, I watched Nina run home from school.
She was at least twenty steps ahead of the other children. It was the
Wednesday leading into our Easter vacation, and all the kids were
carrying the chocolate bunnies given to them by their teachers. They
were all happy, but Nina looked especially excited. She ran past me and
into the house, smacking the screen door into the refrigerator. I
followed her inside.

"Mom, guess what," she said as she dropped her chocolate onto the
counter. She hadn't even opened it yet.

"What is it, dear?"

"I won, mom! I'm going to be in the spelling bee!" Nina handed my mom
a piece of paper. My mom scanned it, and her eyes opened wider with
each sentence.

"Oh, my God! Gabriel! Nina's going to be representing her school in
the Montana State Middle School Spelling Bee!" She jumped up and seized
Nina. "I'm so proud of you, baby."

"That's great," I said, unwrapping her chocolate bunny.

"Gabriel!" My mom swatted me with her dishcloth.

"He can have it. I don't care." Nina picked up her book bag and headed
upstairs. My mom and I looked at her as she moved. When I turned to my
mom, I could see that her eyes were full of joy.

"That sister of yours is something special. She's going to do great
things," she said as she resumed kneading the dough.

"That reminds me," I said. "I got an A+ on my vocabulary test."

"That's wonderful, Gabriel. Boy, I must have the two smartest kids in
all of Montana."

I smiled. My A+ was nothing compared to Nina's spelling bee, but it
was the most I was capable of doing. I would just try my hardest to
match her. The same thing happened when her poem was printed in the
Medicine Lake Gazette. My mom went out and bought a dozen copies, while
I tried to write a poem myself. It didn't come out quite as good as
Nina's, though. It never did.

Throughout the entire Easter vacation, my mom had Nina practicing for
the spelling bee. She even purchased an unabridged dictionary from the
used bookshop.

"Nina, spell jurisdiction," my mom said, folding the corner of the
page.

"J&;#8230;U&;#8230;R&;#8230;I&;#8230;" Nina knew her words
inside and out. She even knew some that stumped my mom and me.

"Gnome. G&;#8230;N&;#8230;O&;#8230;M&;#8230;E.
Gnome."

"There's a G in gnome?" I asked as I copied each word she spelled into
my notebook.

"Of course there's a G," Nina said, tapping her heels against the hard
wood floor. "I just think to myself, Gee, that gnome is ugly!"

"How clever!" My mom got up and ran over to hug Nina. "Nina, you're
going to do this family proud."

I continued to write in my notebook and didn't look up. My mom was
right. Nina was going to do great things. She was one of the few people
in our family who Fate smiled upon. But where did that leave me?

It was Easter Sunday and three days before the big event. While my mom
and Aunt Arlene prepared the feast, Nina and I played outside on the
two tire swings. We couldn't get dirty, so we just sat on the tires and
talked.

"Tomorrow I'm going to ride my bike down to the stream and collect
rocks for my science project. You can come if you want," I said.

"No," she responded. "I want to practice more for the spelling
bee."

"Oh." The smile on my face quickly faded. "You know, we haven't done
anything all vacation. You're too worried about this dumb spelling
bee."

"It's not dumb. The prize is $500 and a trophy."

"Big deal. Anyone can spell those words." I tried not to get too loud.
I didn't want my mom to hear us.

"I don't care. I'm going inside." Nina began to dismount from the
tire. However, before her feet touched the ground, I swung my tire into
hers. Nina lost her balance and fell down on her knees.

"Nina! I'm sorry! Are you okay?" I quickly jumped up to help
her.

"Gabriel! Why did you do that?" She looked down at her scraped knees.
"I'm bleeding."

"I&;#8230; I didn't know you would fall down. I'm sorry." I tried
to hold back tears, as Nina gave way to hers.

"What happened? Gabriel, what did you do?" My mom came out and tended
to Nina. "Why did you hurt your sister?"

"I don't know," I answered. I did know why I hurt her, though. I
wanted to knock her down a peg. Instead, I just knocked her down.

"Come on in. Dinner's ready." My mom led Nina into the kitchen and
bandaged her bloody knees. I took my seat at the table between Uncle
David and Aunt Arlene and kept silent the entire dinner.

That night, I sat outside on my tire swing and tossed pebbles at Uncle
David's old Buick. My mom took a break from cleaning up and came to
talk to me.

"Is something wrong, honey?"

"No."

"Are you angry at Nina?"

"Not really. I'm just sick of this stupid spelling bee. It's all I've
heard about all vacation."

"I know. It's just really important to your sister."

"And to you."

"Things like this never happened to me when I was a kid. I guess I'm
just reliving my youth through her."

"What if Nina loses?"

"Don't say that, Gabriel!" My mom playfully slapped me on the leg.
"Now come inside. It's getting cold out."

We walked into the house. Nina was hunched over the dictionary
highlighting words that the judges would probably ask her to spell. My
mom sat next to her and pointed out words she had overlooked. I sat
across from them, picked up a notepad, and began writing.

The day of the Montana State Middle School Spelling Bee arrived. My
mom, Aunt Arlene, and I waited at the bottom of the stairs for Nina to
emerge. When she did, it was like the arrival of a Hollywood celebrity.
My mom snapped photographs as Nina descended the steps in her new
purple dress. The dress came about halfway down her legs, revealing her
scabbed knees. Nina didn't have a pair of stockings, but my mom said
that no one would notice. I noticed, maybe because it was my
fault.

"I wish we had one of those video recorders," my mom said. "We could
document the whole event."

"Come on, Lorraine," Uncle David called to my mom. "We have to leave
now or we won't make it to the auditorium in time."

"It's only a fifteen mile drive," Aunt Arlene said.

"Better safe than sorry. Come on, kids. Gabriel, get your coat. Nina,
you look stunning. This is going to be great!" My mom hurried us out
the door and into Uncle David's old Buick.

The car ride wasn't that pleasant. Everyone was both excited and
nervous. Nina had her eyes closed, as if going over every word of the
English language in her mind. My mom looked down at her legs, probably
reciting prayers to herself. I thought that I should break the silence
with some encouraging words.

"Nina, I hope you do good."

As soon as those words left my mouth, the car stopped in its tracks.
My mom grabbed Uncle David's shoulder.

"What's wrong? Why did you stop?"

"I &;#8230; I don't know. I think it's the engine." He got out of
the car and opened the hood.

"Are we going to be late for the spelling bee?"

"No, Nina. We'll get there." My mom patted her on the leg. "We won't
miss it."

"The engine's dead." Uncle David popped his head through the window.
"We're not going anywhere. We're going to have to walk back
home."

"No! We're walking towards town. Towards the auditorium," my mom
yelled.

"Lorraine, it's almost ten miles away. We'll never make it there in
time."

"No! We have to get there now!" My mom began to cry.

"Don't cry, mom." Nina looked at her with a smile. "It's only a
spelling bee. Another one will come along."

I was about to agree with her, but I didn't want to speak. I had
gotten my way. Nina would surely lose the spelling bee, considering she
wasn't going to show up. I watched Nina as she smoothed out her
dress.

"I guess I'll save this for my birthday," she said.

"I'm sorry, Nina," I muttered.

"It's not your fault, Gabriel."

I needed to hear that. A moment later, my mom led us out of the car,
and we trudged back to our house to call a mechanic.

Nina wasn't at all affected by the turn of events. The next week at
school she was chosen to play Dorothy in her class production of The
Wizard Of Oz. My mom once again made a big deal out of it, even sewing
the blue-and-white checkered dress herself. In an attempt to match my
sister's success, I showed the notebook that I had been carrying around
to my teacher. Mrs. Brady entered one of my old poems in a contest, and
it won. My poem was printed in the Medicine Lake Gazette, and my mom
went out and bought several copies. Maybe Nina wasn't the only one
destined for great things.