Helene and Jane

Even though Helene was two years younger everyone would ask her,

You're older than your sister, right?

One day their parents left to go do something and they were in the house alone. Jane came down the red carpeted stairs. 

"You twit," Jane said to Helene, trying to start a fight. 

Jane was always bullying Helene. She recently sneaked into Helene's bedroom and deliberately tangled the yarn and yanked apart Helene's first attempts at knitting a scarf. 

Helene just took the abuse. She didn't even think like a fighter. She was a complete introvert. She just hung out in her room and drew pictures or listened to the radio.

But something unusual took over on this day. Helene reached over and grabbed Jane's beaded turquoise necklace, she gripped it in her fist, held it motionless at her sister's throat, ready to rip it off.

Jane burst into tears.

Helene let go. 

At that moment Helene knew she had all the power. 

That was fifty four years ago, and it's still true to this day