The Children of Advertising

My brother bought a white Ford camper van and made a video of himself backing it out of a parking spot. Empty and claustrophobic. He plans to keep moving when he is not shuttling back and forth on the 10 minute ferry where he works 10 hour shifts. He already lives in vacation land on an island but he can't stop moving and can't hold a conversation or read a book because he's too filled up. It's because I was a preemie, He says. No It's because you were a prop to save a marriage of two people who hated each other. His parents are long dead but he is stuck at age 11 going on 61.

My sister is age 7 with the same three friends having drinks while her daughter has grown up and flown to a time zone 5 hours ahead. My sister visits her daughter every few years when she can visit her childhood babysitter. The 18 year old woman from Penrith who took care of her when she was 8 years old and called Mary Poppins on the phone. My sister wears my mother's dresses and posts them on instagram as if she can extract meaning from dead advertising parents.