My family came to town to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival last weekend, since I could not go back.

Not having seen me for a couple of months, my baby sister insisted that she sleep with me on my bed for the night. Although the bed here is much smaller than the one in my own home in Danjiangkou, I happily agreed. Mother warned me that my sis had been suffering from a slight cold for some days. After we settled down in bed, Mother came over and tucked us in. She covered my baby sis with a light quilt.

Around midnight, I felt something hitting my stomach. I knew it was my sister’s leg because she is used to shifting her position a lot while asleep. Having taken her leg off my belly, I went back to sleep. Some time later, her foot hit my face. As heavy-eyed as I was, I still managed to reach over to check whether the quilt was still on her. Well, she was not covered by anything this time. Then I made a conscious effort to put the quilt back. The scene where I stopped my sis from slipping off the bed happened at least 10 times during the course of the night. Thus, my sleep ended up broken and fitful.

The next morning, when I woke up, the first thought on my mind was that Mum is really great. My sis was with me for just one night and I suffered so much. Every other night, Mother was there taking care of her. What trouble Mother had taken!

These days, I keep imagining what I will do with my own baby in the future. I guess I might put it under the bed!