I’ve always debated about the middle child syndrome! I was constantly vying for my older siblings’ approval & my younger sibling’s respect and most of all my parents’ attention. So it was no surprise that every time any of my siblings wanted something from me, they could blackmail their way into getting it. What can i say… I was a vulnerable, gullible & weird teenager!

Back in the day the purse strings were always tight so when a gilded gift arrived from my grandfather for me, I was elated! Finally I had my own pair of gold earrings!! No more begging the older sis or mom to lend me their pretty earrings. But then as fate would have it, my older sis reaaaalllly liked the earrings too so it was her turn to do the begging for stuff from me. I felt powerful and important for the first time in the hierarchy of siblings! I told her she can’t have it, at least not today for it was still so new for me. She got so furious with me that she called me selfish and swore she’d never speak to me again and that I was ungrateful etc. Of course my plan had backfired for I didn’t want to be in her bad books so whilst she was getting ready to go to school, I quietly placed the earrings in a small paper packet into her school shoes. She’d definitely see them there and then she’d be delighted surely or so I thought. What happened next was something I never expected.

The house was being mopped at that time by the cleaner & after she left, my sister wore her shoes and marched out. I followed her to ask her why she hadn’t worn the earrings. She looked at me and yelled at me not to speak to her as I hadn’t given her the earrings.

‘But..but i put it into your shoe..the one you’re wearing’, I said.

‘What!!!’ she snapped.

Hurriedly she removed her shoe but there was no sign of the earrings of course. We ran back to her room to look for the earrings. Perhaps it fell into another shoe. We turned the entire shoe rack upside down and still there was no sign of it. My mother who sensed a commotion came to investigate. I broke down in tears and panic and explained what happened. She was so furious with me and then both of us. She called the cleaner & we all rummaged through trash but still didnt find anything. She even asked the cleaner if she had taken it and that if she had, to please return it as it was special and we wouldn’t press charges or hold it against her. The cleaner denied everything and behaved like she was being strangled by nettles.

Never found the earrings. My mom stayed cross with me for almost a month for losing it. My elder sister just went about her life as usual. Later on we did find other random things missing from our house till we finally let go of the cleaner. I moped about feeling horrible for a really long time after… it gets to me till this day that no one really saw my intent.