“Get out of my way! Are you too busy to see your sister, Keith?”

She is a pressure cooker that has gone beyond its designed limitation, the gauge is indicating dangerously red zone, abort to explode. The security personnel and Protectors are trying hard to restrain her without actually getting physical with her, after all, everyone in this room knows she is my sister — although we are not usually to be addressed if not necessary — and I am the Prime Inserter.

Even her brother is holding one of the most important positions in this mysterious organization, she can’t do whatever she wants to do and go wherever she wishes to go. Definitely not this place, where not only the low ranking Inserters can’t enter without a permission and getting past the system and many people. I thought this room is the most secured place in the universe, apparently, she has found a way to get through without even triggering the alarms and other security measures. We might be having her to test our facility, if she would spare my life.

The assistants have quickly turned off the projections and displays as Kate is awkwardly being hold at the opened door, scanning the entire room, up and down, left to right, like a sophisticated radar, seat by seat, trying to locate me.

The room is a round hall, there is a center stage where the information is presented, next to it is the ground row of seats, where the brass is seated, the outer ring, the higher and away from the center, where the lower ranks members are seated.

There is about a hundred of people in the room, but it only takes a second before she saw me. She has never been here, but she still could find me quickly, I wonder if she has a locater planted in me that I didn’t know.

I am not sitting with others, alone at my personal corner, directly facing the door. I rarely get into the discussions, I just sit there and listen, and they don’t ask me about anything unless I initiate. To everyone, I am just an invisible person sitting on an empty seat.

She is giving me a death ray stare.

We are in the middle of a regular meeting, nothing significant to catch my attention, simple routine reports. It’s boring if I am being honest, but she has been bugging me and I could use this meeting to avoid her for a few hours. So I thought I could.

“I want to see mom and dad! Am I still your sister, or your prisoner?”

She really is pissed off, and probably is the only one who dares to yell at me beside that six-year-old-looking Director, who is the other person I’d like to avoid other than Kate, the only person I can’t figure out, just like everyone else. No one knows the Director really is, even her name and actual age.

Standing right there demanding an answer from her brother, in front of a room of skillful people, having no fear.

“Could you guys give us some space?” I ask.

Waiting for a hundred of people to leave the room takes some time, I don’t know if it’s awkwarder for them or for us. They are like being evacuated, trying to get out of the room as fast as they can, it’s as if there was a storm brewing inside, a tornado is about to shred the room. In a sense, it is right at the door.

“Them, too!” she waves to point at the four Protectors around her, who probably would get reassigned, breaking a record of a few dozens, who had failed before.

I nod at them, they quietly leave the room and close the door while I am wondering if the door is thick enough to block the noise is about to be shouted, should I enable the security measure for my personal and family issue, or perhaps just for my own safety?

“Remember, you got to come in at 11:35. If you…,” I am just about to reiterate the importance of maintaining the timeline integrity.

We are hiding behind our neighbor’s truck — Mr. Jones is an elder eighty-something man — from the view of living room windows. It just snowed that morning. A few relatives’ vehicles are parked on the street and driveway, I can see my uncle and cousins through the window.

“I know, I know, that temporal disruption, interruption, distortion, blah, blah, blah,” eagerly staring at the house, she doesn’t care.

I’ve tried to teach her about temporal insertions, but she wasn’t interested in learning those complicated and mind-boggling theories.

I begin to think this is a huge mistake to bring her back to see our family, there is a reason for those protocols to make sure no reckless actions which might damage the timeline further more. I tried my best to make sure she would do what she supposes to do before I re-inserted myself back to my bedroom and wait for her to walk in through the front door.

‘Great, what have I done?’ I sigh as hearing the doorbell ringing.

There should be another five minutes before she walking through front door. She isn’t supposed to ring the door of her home, and it isn’t even locked. It’s been so long, even I have reminded her every detail prior to the insertion to this time.

“Mom, dad, I miss you so much, Amy, Jason, …,” she ecstatically greets everyone, a few of them she had met yesterday, such as our parents. Rest of family has visited us on Thanksgiving.

‘This is going to take lot of insertions to sort out every thread,’ I curse as I walk down stairs.

They are perplexed as she bear hugging each of them as if she just got out of life-and-death situation or hadn’t seen them for a decade, which is true from her perspective.

Kate moves onto next person, who is standing next to Amy, without a thought, she gives another hug and might just be a little bit too long. His name is Scott and is Amy’s new boyfriend. The first time visiting us, spending time with us for holiday, he must be thinking we are quite an affectionate family, but Amy’s facial expression telling me another story.

“Thank you, thank you so much!” she grabs me, pulls me — her next victim — into her arms, showing me how much she appreciates this chance to come home, grasping at my neck, kissing me left and right cheeks, back and forth like a mad woman kissing a dog or cat. In this case, I’m a cat, trying to get away from this crazy staff.

“Kate, is everything okay?” I cough, bringing her back to reality.

She is losing it, big time. Everyone is staring at her as if she is some kind of nutjob just walking into a random suburban house. After some not-so-convincing excuses, we all go back to whatever we were doing from her free hugs, although our sisters are worrying about her, one of them is wondering why Kate held her boyfriend so close at first time without an introduction. Poor guy, he would have some serious explanations to say, and I would have some critical things to fix. It was just an innocent hug for cry out loud.

Sitting in the couch alone, drinking a kid-friendly eggnog, which my aunt brings to Kate, other than just regular rum-blessed one, with her preschool nieces and nephews. I am surprised they are allowing her staying around the kids since they can’t trust her.

“Am I in trouble?” Kate looks at me with pleading, kitten eyes.

I have my cup of eggnog with me, squashing down a sea of toys next to Kate, those kids bring with them, and they would get even a few more. She knows how big the mess she has done, or maybe she has other intention with those cute, watery eyes, say the cup in my hand.

There is a reason why I picked this day to come home, I thought she would be more familiar with the timeline as she has been through once, even though a few details might be different.

“It’s okay, I just need to fix Amy’s marriage, and a few other things,” I reply, sipping the rum’d eggnog as Kate staring at me enjoying it. This is my first year to have alcohol, in fact, the very first time.

“Amy will marry Scott?” she gasps excitedly and everyone heard that, including the two persons are trying to reconcile for no wrongdoing between them.

It can’t get any worse, can it?

“So, Kate, how did you know Scott?” Amy starts the interrogation.

This Christmas eve dinner is going to be very entertaining. Kate glances at me for help, I give back a look which expressing ‘this ain’t my business.’ Everyone has quieted down, all eyes on the three parties. I am gonna enjoy this.

“Amy, I never met your sister before, you got to believe me,” the poor nearly-ex-boyfriend tries.

Two sisters are now fighting about a guy who is absolutely innocent, you can’t ask for a better real life soap show than this.

“Stop it, you two!” dad breaks his silence, finally.

Just before fights about to start between them. Dad looks at Kate, placing down the table knife on the right to the plate, then fork on the left. If you have known my father, you know he is thinking. Carefully adjusting the position to make sure they all line up perfectly.

“Kate, are you on medicine?”

Kate shakes her head, I don’t think she has taken any for very long time. He still stares at her, looking for trace before asking next question. He constantly moves the plate, eating utensils, and the wine glass. It’s getting very serious because now the wine glass is adjusted.

“Drugs?”

“What? Dad? How could you think of me that? I was a federal agent!”

“Was?”

Great, things do get worse. She can’t believe that our father would even suspect she is using drugs. I don’t think anyone can blame him even considering that outcome. She has been behaving strange, unusually happy for holiday which she hasn’t been, getting emotional on almost everything and everyone. She can’t even remember what her current job is.

“I mean I am, I just have a bad week, that’s all. Would you guys excuse me.”

She gets off chair and quickly disappears into upstairs.

“Oh, ain’t you getting all comfy and warm up there?” I says.

It’s a familiar line she had said to me long time ago.

She ran off and sought my old spot for comfort, couldn’t find her in her bedroom, took me a while to figure out where she is hiding out. Not sure how she cleared the snow on the roof, but where she is lying down is only place without snow. It’s cold outside, I quickly duck into the blanket.

“It’s just like old times, huh?”

She doesn’t answer, just staring into the dark sky, my wits don’t work.

“I shouldn’t have asked you to bring me back, I’ve ruined everything that possibly I can, even Amy’s marriage, and she hates me,” she cries.

All I can do is being a good brother, and waiting patiently for her to come to terms, telling her nothing would be ruined, just need some fixing. A simple good lie doesn’t hurt, she doesn’t need to know the scale of destruction that she has made today.

“I want to go home,” she says.

I tell her we are home, just wait for a few days, everything would be fine, but I worry she isn’t really well.

“I meant our home.”

Her voice tells me she would not want to come home, our parents’ place, anymore. She has given up.

I can no longer do this to her, I have to tell her the truth I should have told her long time ago.

“Kate, when you asked if you were my prisoner. You were right, you are. I was so scared after the first insertion. I should have let you be scrubbed and sent back, but I kept you there with me. I didn’t want to be alone, you are the only one I still have. But now I know I was selfish, don’t worry, you won’t notice a thing after… ouch!”

She slapped me.

The first insertion was to fix her timeline, we had to work together since she was, well, her self. I realized that I have power to do a lot of things, that includes keeping my own sister with me. There was no one else I knew but her, the only face I knew and trust. So, I lied to her, telling her it’s safer for her and me, if she stays, some might use her to get to me. We have a place together, I leave to work and she does her own things, with a few Protectors around her, I does worry about her safety.

“You are not going to scrub me! I am still your sister, how could you want to take these years from me? We have built our home together, those memories, we spent time together, celebrated our holidays, that’s our home, our life. I love you so much. This is my decision, and we will still live together until I don’t want anymore. Promise me that you will not do that to me without my consent, and don’t use those temporal excuses to trick me!”

After countless reassurances, she finally believes that I would not do it. We spent hours on the roof, watching the stars.

“We should go back in, it’s getting late, I really don’t want mom to yell at us. Again.”

“Kate, wake up, we are late!” I tried to wake her up.

Today is Christmas, big deal for our family, the morning is unwrapping time, but I guess they forgot to wake us up. I am probably too old to believe in Santa and she is still a person they want to avoid.

We go down to join our family, still in our pajamas as we should, there is no need to dress up for a beautiful Christmas morning. I could hear laughter and paper tearing noise, kids are yelling with excitement and joy. As we walk in and greeting them, there is something strange about them. The kids can only pay less attention to us, but the adults are awkwardly responding to us.

“Did you notice?” Kate whispers as she scoops scrambled egg onto my plate.

I can see the stares, especially Amy’s, just like Kate’s, her look can kill.

“Probably just residual of your excellent performance from yesterday, don’t worry about it.”

I might have forgotten to advise her to avoid her sister at all cost. If anything happens, I can always get her back. She wouldn’t know anything.

We have our plates and mugs of coffee, the window facing front lawn is only place empty, and far away from Amy. We sit down by the windows, I can see it’s even more snow than yesterday. The street is covered in inches of snow, everything is white, but you don’t feel cold, the Christmas decoration has warmed up everything.

“Oh, that one is Kate’s,” I say and take the box, handing to Kate.

She looks at me with a smile, putting down the plate next to her. Within a few seconds, the wrapper is gone, she opens the box.

“Keith, it’s beautiful,” she takes out a bracelet.

It’s a golden one with flower and foliage designs. There is a reason why I chose it, it’s not just a normal bracelet, though not like mine, either. It won’t shrinks down into her wrist, but it’s more than a jewelry to wear.

“Let me help you,” I say and help her to put it on her wrist.

“Thank you, Keith!” she examines it, wiggling to see if it fits well.

She certainly is happy with the gift, as I looking down at what she gave me, stuffed frog, this is the only thing she did well to fit into the timeline. I need to let her know changing a gift wouldn’t matter, at least telling her that I wasn’t six for very long time.

We just finished cleaning up the room, the wrappers, the toys, and gifts. I and Kate are sitting on couch alone, away from others, trying not to draw more unnecessary attentions, by her, mostly.

I am eating my grandma’s famous chocolate chip cookies, while hearing stories which I have heard every Christmas. Crunch outside, but chewy inside, the chocolate chip bits left on plate are my favorite, every bite into that cookie is one step farther into heaven.

Unfortunately, all good things come to an end, and turn into the worst.

“Why? You promised me no Protectors! No, I am not going home, not like this!” Kate is furious after finding out I still had them around her.

I was just about to have the third cookie, but I realized there is someone in the house with us, who has the ability to execute insertions. I know I have sent the Protectors away last night. There was none, at least I’d not sensed any until a moment ago. It might just be that I enjoyed the drama too much, so I failed to stay alert.

Discreetly telling Kate to leave the room with me, but she knows me better, began to ask questions, I had to tell her the reason, and the promise is more important than her own safety, she refused to go and went ballistic on me.

“Are you two okay?” mom asks worriedly.

Looking through other family members, who are curious what entertainment this episode would bring them. As I made eye contact with mom, I know it’s her, the one I sense. She slowly walks towards us. I don’t understand why her smile still feel like my mother’s.

“Kate, stay behind me!” yanking Kate off the couch, pushing her behind me to shield her.

“What’s going on, Keith?” Kate nervously asking behind me.

“She is not our mother. Who are you?” I yell.

They probably are thinking, ‘there was Kate, and now we have Keith. Maybe they were using drugs together?’

I call in Protectors. I know something is different about her, almost as if she is expecting my reaction, knowing what I would do. It doesn’t matter if others hear what I said and witness those Protectors appear in thin air, those can be fixed later, but not if you lose you lives.

They’ve surrounded her, but she is very calm, that only tells me I was right. Other relatives don’t really know what is going on, but one thing for sure, this would be the Christmas they would not forget.

She slowly untied the apron, neatly folding it, placing on the back of chair, just the way our mother used to do. Everything she did, the way she acted, the gestures she made, are telling me this is my mother. However, she can’t be, she has to be an impostor.

Her hands hold together in front of her chest, she looks towards me and Kate with a kindly and motherly smile. I am confused as she speaks next.

“I am your mother.”