The New Girl

DAISY PROM
Opinions Editor

So my sister has a new girlfriend. She’s talkative, friendly and intelligent; she even taught herself Japanese and Chinese. She’s independent and plans to join the army to fund her education. They’ve been dating for two weeks.
I don’t like her.
Maybe it’s because she’s my fragile, gullible sister, but I don’t trust this new girl. In these past two weeks, she’s called my mom “mom,” slept over in our living room and bragged about these depressing stories that would traumatize any other person. With this, I look up the tell-tale signs of pathological liars. The new girl thinks that depressing stories are first-dinner-with-the-girlfriend’s-family-conversation-piece worthy; I scratch out “Table Manners” on the list of traits I deem necessary for any girlfriend of my sister.
I also find her circumstances questionable. She lives at her ex-boyfriend’s house just down the street (a runaway from Wisconsin). After a week, she’s successfully buttered my sister up with a gift for each day–and it’s not even the 12 days of Christmas. I figure that a runaway living off of her ex with no job for herself shouldn’t have a lot of money, which reinforces the pathological liar thing.
However, while eavesdropping on their latest at-home date, I noticed something. My sister was having a conversation with someone. Though usually shy and socially withdrawn from most people, my sister was making jokes and laughing and enjoying someone’s company. Where I expected her to be awkward and closed-off, my sister was playful and enunciated her favorite band to her new friend.
My sister has a tendency to remain the silent partner in conversations. This sudden change in her personality is encouraging to those who have been trying to drag her out of her shell for the past 19 years. Could the new girl have this effect in just a week?
Savage animals are out there and my sister may be incapable of spotting them, but she’ll never know how it is to be close to someone–affection and harm included–if we never let her find out for herself. We can protect her and keep her safe inside her cage, but we’ll never know if she can survive on her own. If we don’t move away from the dolphin-in-captivity metaphor, then she may never know just how many fish there are in the sea.
Because this new girl seems to have redeeming qualities, I’ll let this one go. If she really is the person who is coaxing my sister into the social world, then I promise I won’t follow them on any future dates.