Technically, I guess I knew what to expect, I’d heard my younger sister Kate had registered permanently naked three months earlier. But when we both came home for the holidays, I can’t say I was prepared for it mentally. Our parents weren’t exactly prepared for it either. They knew too, of course, but I got the impression they never really discussed it.
If you’ve never had family member decide to quit wearing clothes you might be wondering what there is to discuss. Well sleeping arrangements for one thing. That’s what what I found them talking about when the shuttle dropped me off. She had already arrived that morning, and evidently things hadn’t been going smoothly. After a quick break to welcome me home, and the most awkward hug of my life, I got to hear what the problem was.
When I went away to college, my room became a guest bedroom, and when Kate left, her room was turned into an office, or something, a computer room, basically. Anyway that meant one of us would have to sleep on the sofa bed. Everyone, including myself assumed that would be me. Girls need their privacy, right? Except as she was explaining to my parents, very logically, that being permanently naked she actually doesn’t have much use for privacy, and it was my room originally anyway, so I should have it. Mom and dad, however, were not keen on the idea of having a naked girl—their naked girl—sleeping in the middle of the living room, especially after she mentioned she doesn’t really care for blankets anymore.
This might seem like a silly thing to argue about, but what really struck me was how much she had changed. She had matured so much. Yes, physically, I looked, how can you not? But I hadn’t seen her naked in years, so that’s no surprise. But that’s not what I mean. I mean emotionally. Actually, that’s a good example, the last time I did see her naked it was because she’d been caught copying test answers in middle school. They took her clothes away, just for three days, but she was horribly embarrassed.
I remember when she came home, she had one arm across her chest and the other hand hiding her crotch and what little she came out of her room at all, she kept it up for the rest of the day. My parents actually started to worry she was hiding something… other than her body I mean. At breakfast the next morning, while Kate was trying to eat without moving her hands, Mom finally told her she wasn’t allowed to cover herself anymore. She was nearly in tears, but she did finally move her hands to reveal: No tattoos, no piercings, just little sister. Apparently to my mother’s surprise. It was for the best though. Once that was over with, she did get through the rest of her nude punishment with significantly less blushing.
Back to the present, I couldn’t imagine the new Kate—or Kathrine as I learned her friends call her now—blushing, ever. And more to the point, how she stood up for herself was impressive. The bedroom topic got a little heated until she finally shut it down by saying “Unless you’re going to kick me out and make me get a motel room, I’m sleeping on the couch, and that’s final. Jason (that’s me) can sleep where he wants, but his old room seems like the obvious choice.” And that’s what we did. I guess our parents finally realized it was a lost cause at that point.
