There was a pizza in the oven and custard in the fridge. That didn’t happen often, and could only mean one very exciting thing.
My sister and I were meticulously supervising the progress of the melting cheese when my parents announced they were leaving. Mom and dad were going to a holiday party, dapper, jolly, and perfumed. My sister and I attuned our ears waiting for the magical sound of the apartment door closing behind them. Then the elevator. Then a few more seconds just to be extra sure they hadn’t forgotten anything… Finally! We looked at each other and smiled: we were alone for the night!
Our grand plans included pizza, custard, and a movie. My sister was in charge of the oven, of course, being five years older. I was allowed to help with the custard, but the remote was my sister’s domain as well. We didn’t have a VHS player back then, so we were at the mercy of network programming. She didn’t hesitate in her choosing, though. She said she had already watched the movie, but it was pretty cool. I was amazed by all the wonderful things my sister had done, seen, and learned during the years before I was born, or during the time I was too little to remember we actually did things together. We both snuggled under the blanket and ate our custard.
If only you knew the power of the dark side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.
The movie hypnotized me. I was confused at the beginning, but my sister told me it was ok, as there was a first part I hadn’t seen yet. I kept watching, and then there were spaceships, and magic, and treason, and friendships, and robots! Oh! Mom and dad would have never picked that movie! I felt exhilarated. I kept asking questions, and my sister smiled and said “You’ll see.” During some scenes, she actually looked at me with an amused look, waiting for my reaction. “Vader is Luke’s father!?“ I was actually scared during that one, and she hugged me. My eyes were stuck on the screen, and my heart and stomach were going up and down. “Luke and Leia are brother and sister!? And Leia has powers, too!” I yelled. My sister didn’t say anything, she just nodded very slowly as her big-sis smile widened from ear to ear. “But why is the movie ending his way?!” I was about to cry. My sister promised me there was another one, and she had to swear over her new stereo that Han was alive so that I stopped begging for information. She gave me some custard she had saved “for later” and we both went to bed, we dreamed, and we grew up.
Someone asked me recently what was my favorite movie. I replied without hesitating: “The Empire Strikes Back.” “Ah, you like fantasy movies, then?” They said, and I replied that yes, that I do like fantasy and science fiction, and I said to myself that I also like homemade pizza, and custard, and snuggling under a blanket, and hugs.
