Love Hurts

When Amber and Kayla were little girls, sibling rivalry started to rear it's ugly head. Their small spats usually just consisted of raised voices yelling, "That's mine!" and "Gimme that back!" When the big guns were needed, I always heard "MOM!!!!", followed by "I'm gonna tell on you!"

Eventually Amber and Kayla tried to resort to physical force when their words didn't get the result they were looking for. I would try to let the girls work out their own disputes, but when hands, feet and toys became weapons of mass destruction, I drew the line.

As far back as I can remember, I always told them, "You will not hit your sister in this life or the next! And furthermore, if anyone is going to do any hitting around here, it's going to be ME in the form of a spanking!" As far as I was concerned, I had disabled the battlefield from being physical, back to just loud, noisy and irritating.

As my girls grew, it turned out they had taken sibling rivalry to a whole other level. Amber and Kayla's fighting started mirroring the covert missions of a secret military organization. All physical fighting was strictly designated to a time when their Dad and I were not around to hand out corporal punishment ourselves. As far as we knew, our sweet little angels were keeping their hands to themselves and working out their differences with love and respect for each other.

Richard and I were so proud of them when we felt they were old enough to be home alone for a couple of hours. Our girls were growing into mature and responsible young ladies... or so we thought. And then... there was the day when the truth started revealing itself.

Looking back, our first clue was the day Richard and I returned home to our living room pillows strewn about the room. The noise was so loud in the house, we couldn't hear each other speak. Music was blaring as loud as it could go, the television's volume was at the max, and Amber and Kayla were yelling at the top of their lungs at each other.

We found out Amber wanted Kayla to turn down the music so she could hear the TV. When she wouldn't oblige, Amber turned the volume up on the TV to protest. To compensate for the loud TV, Kayla turned her music up... and so it began.

One evening Richard and I had a dinner date and were returning home. We drove into the driveway and hit the garage door opener so we could pull in. As we sat in the car watching the garage door slowly rise, the kitchen door flies open and Amber and Kayla both came tumbling out. Both girls were screaming and crying, scrambling to get to us first before the other one had a chance to tell their side.

Richard and I still inside the car, turned and looked at each other. I didn't know whether to hit the door locks, or yell, "Shift this car in reverse and gun it!"

We finally exited the car to hear the prosecuting and defense sides of the case. Whatever the fight was about at the time was so intense, it made Amber put Kayla in a headlock. Kayla wasn't going down without a fight, and used the only weapon she had available to get free... her teeth.

The bite on Amber's arm drew blood and left a scar for the longest time . Amber was so shocked and angry she had been bitten, she had to retaliate. In a fit of rage, Amber grabbed Kayla by the head and slammed her head on the bed post, which in turn produced a giant goose egg on her forehead. I assure you, they were both hurting more than that when we were through with them.

One year I decided to have a garage sale. To entice Amber and Kayla to get rid of some things, I told them they could have the profit from their items. I had to leave for a while, but told them to have everything priced before I got back.

While I was gone, Amber and Kayla started arguing because Kayla wouldn't help price the garage sale items. Amber started to yell at Kayla, and Kayla resorted to calling Amber names. Amber told Kayla, "Don't call me that again..." What a perfect invitation to aggravate Amber some more. Of course Kayla called her the name again and the fight was on. In no time, Amber had pinned Kayla in a corner, balled up her fist and popped Kayla right in the eye. I came home to one of my girls with a black eye, a real shiner. By this time boxing gloves were looking really good for their next Christmas gifts.

We were on vacation in Arkansas one summer and the girls were not getting along at all. They had been arguing all day and Richard and I had all we could stand. We told Amber and Kayla we were going to dinner and they were to stay at the hotel and directly go to bed.

Making dinner last as long as we could, we finally convinced ourselves to go back to the hotel. Walking up to our room door, it sounded like World War III was going on inside. Hearing screaming and things hitting the walls, we couldn't get the door opened fast enough. Amber and Kayla were fighting like they had joined the World Wrestling Federation. I can only imagine the flying elbows and running kicks that happened before we got there. I am shocked to this day that no one reported the commotion and the hotel didn't ask us to leave.

On a summer afternoon, Richard was on the riding lawnmower mowing the front yard. I wasn't home, so Amber and Kayla were in the house alone. As Richard rounded the corner, he saw a sheriff's car pull into the driveway. He shut the mower off to see what the problem was. The sheriff's deputy asked Richard if there had been a 911 call from this address. Richard looking puzzled, said "No, I've been outside mowing and my two daughters are the only ones in the house". The deputy doing his job, asked to go inside to make sure everything was okay.

The deputy first stopped at Kayla's bedroom door and saw she was lying on her bed watching television. He then went to Amber's bedroom door and saw she was on her bed too. The officer asked each girl if they had called 911 and they both replied they didn't, and had no idea what he was talking about. The deputy gave them a talk about the importance of not calling 911 unless it was a true emergency, even though they both stuck by their
innocence plea.

When I returned home, I heard all about the incident. We could not understand how a 911 call had shown up from our address. After much discussion, we decided it must have been a mix up in the telephone lines. It was a strange thing to happen, but anything is possible.

It wasn't until recently, I found out what actually happened that day. Amber thinking I had been told about the 911 call years ago, started talking about the day the sheriff's deputy came to the house. I didn't let Amber know I had not heard the story yet and let her continue telling on herself.

I was constantly answering calls and taking messages for Amber and Kayla on our home phone. I didn't want to be their social secretary any longer, so a second phone line was the perfect solution. We had a separate phone line installed for the girls, complete with their own answering machine.

Amber and Kayla each had a phone in their own rooms, but they had to share the line. The phones had a receiver that was connected to the base by a curly cord. These prehistoric phones were invented right after the two tin cans on a string communication device wasn't working out so well.

Anyway, Amber started the story by saying that Kayla had been on the phone forever and she wanted to use the phone. Amber went into Kayla's room and politely asked Kayla to finish up her conversation, since she had already been on the phone for an eternity (remember this is Amber's version). Kayla being the rude person that she was, said she didn't have to get off the phone.

Amber asked nicely several times (Amber's version), and Kayla still would not give up the phone line. Amber decided to take matters into her own hands and grabbed the receiver from Kayla. Reacting to Amber's force, Kayla jumped up to grab the phone back and claim it as hers.

A struggle ensued with Amber and Kayla each fighting over the phone. One of them had the receiver and the other one picked up the base. The phone became their weapon of choice and they ended up hitting one another with the phone receiver and base. Amber and Kayla had each gone to their neutral corners by the time the deputy sheriff arrived. The lesson learned here is, when you hit someone at just the right angle on or about the head, there is a possibility the numbers 9-1-1 just might be pressed.

It only took about fifteen years for me to hear the true story of the 911 call. So I can only imagine how many fight stories I will never hear... and I've decided that's a good thing. They might have fought with their sister, but let anyone else say as much as a derogatory remark about the other one, and they were there to defend their sister to the end.

I still try to believe that my sweet angels had some maturity and some respect for each other while they were growing up, even if it was just a little bit. In this case, my ignorance is definitely my bliss.