By Louise VancisicMore than anything, ten-year-old Cynthia Kim wanted to have the respect and friendship of her younger sister, Jessi. It saddened her deeply that she had neither. At school she was friends with a girl named Emily whose family’s disciplinary practices were very much like the Kim’s. Emily also had a younger sister, almost the same age as Jessi. But here the similarity ended. Emily and Lauren were best friends as well as sisters. They stuck up for each other and always tried to get the other out of trouble. And when they couldn’t, and one of them was spanked, the other felt only sympathy.Cynthia and Emily were grateful to have found each other and readily confided in each other their deepest secrets. Cynthia told her friend how much she admired her sibling relationship and how she envied it. “I don’t know why Jessi is so mean to me.”Emily gave her friend’s hand a sympathetic squeeze and told her how once she had confessed to something her sister had done and for which a v...
