Many years ago, my mother and father purchased a modest two-bedroom flat for my sister and me. They always said that one day, we might be able to sell it and exchange it for two small one-bedroom flats, so that each of us could, in time, have her own home.
Later on, my sister met a gentleman and soon enough, she married him. She wondered whether her husband and she might move in with me, and share our little flat. I agreed without much fuss.
For a while, all was well. But everything began to change the moment my sister discovered she was expecting a child. Since then, she and her husband have pressed me to move out of the flat so that their baby might have the space that is currently my room. They talk of it as if it is the most natural thing as though I ought to give up my home for them without question. Tell me, is this truly reasonable? Why should I be required to leave, when, by rights, I own half the flat? I am still studying, and what little money I have comes from a scholarship and a part-time job. I certainly cannot afford to rent another place, not on what I earn.
At first, they merely suggested I move out, but soon it became the chief topic over dinner, spoken of almost as a foregone conclusion. My sister is already dreaming up how she will arrange the cot in my room, and what colour the walls will be. She talks as though my years living there mean nothing at all. But I have no intention of leaving my homeI own half of it, after all.
I told my parents about what was happening, and my mother simply made a little joke, saying that expecting mothers get notions like this, and that it will all fade with time. She asked me to pay it no mind. But thats easier said than done, when Im made to feel unwelcome in my own home nearly every day.
Lately, it seems as though Im a stranger in my own flat, and my sister gives not the slightest sign she might reconsider her stance. What, I wonder now, ought I to do?
