She had six minutes before we sat down for cake, and even though she called earlier in the week to confirm the time, there was a chance that she wouldn’t show up. If Janet came at all, then she’d definitely be late. Last Thanksgiving we held dinner for two hours, waiting to see if she'd show. She did eventually, slurring apologies at the door and quickly taking her place at the table next to my mother. There were no arguments that night; we sat silently around the table eating dry turkey and crusty stuffing until Janet stood up, said she had an early work day and quickly left before dessert. My parents announced, after she kissed them each on the cheek and walked out the door, that she'd no longer be allowed in the house when she was drunk.

“I will not let that girl ruin another family dinner”, my mother said as she cleared the table, “I just can’t do it, she’s killing me.”

My father, in return, said “She thinks she’s such a big shot that she can come and go as she pleases? And come into my house smelling like some bum on the street? Well, no more!”

“She’s got problems, my Janet, but I just can’t sit here and let her ruin my life.”

“If she thinks that this is how she can act around this family, then she’s got another think coming.”

They volleyed Janet’s problems between them, a unified testament to her faults. I wondered why they couldn’t say all of this while she was here; she was the person who should have to listen to this, not me. But this wasn’t for Janet; she had already heard and long tuned out their threats. This was the vestiges of the arguments that she used to have with them, a one-sided phone call.

When I was five, she was in her mid-teens and spent a lot of her time out of the apartment and away from the family. The memories I have of her are vague; they’re mostly of her fighting with my parents and them threatening to kick her out again. At seventeen; a week after she graduated from high school, she left the apartment and didn't come home for six months. She returned for Christmas, a small gift for each of my parents and me, but no reasonable explanation of where she'd been or why she hadn't called. The years that followed, she came to the house for Christmas and Thanksgiving, and would call on everyone's birthdays, but this was the first time she had shown up on a non-holiday in years.

I heard the buzzer a few moments later, and ran to the intercom to let her in.

"Hi, come on up."

"Hi honey, can't wait to see you."

I turned from the door to face my parents staring back at me. My father sat in his tan corduroy barcalounger, turned to look from me to my mother, who stood in the entranceway to the kitchen with a dishrag in her hands. There was a synchronized sigh and rolling of the eyes between them, a gesture that seemed rehearsed. For a second I pictured them, practicing together in their bedroom to get it just right, the coordination of their reactions, but dismissed the idea and figured that this was just their automatic response to their only daughter. That this could be just another of Janet's breakable promises; she might decide halfway up to turn around and leave.

I opened the door to my sister throwing her arms around me. The smell of beer on her breath was slight, feint at best. Her auburn hair smelled like smoke, and the sleeve of her denim jacket was torn at the shoulder. Her red leather purse swung and rocked me as held me.

"Oh Jackie, it's so good to see you. Happy Birthday!"

"Thanks Jan, it's good to see you, too."

"Hi, Ma. Hi, Daddy." She said as she walked over to them. I saw my mother's nose crinkle as Janet's arms encircled her. Janet walked over to my father's recliner and kissed the top of his head from behind.

"How are you, Janet? You look good. How's work?" My mother asked.

"Work is good, Ma, no complaints."

"Good. Well, have a seat. I was just gonna put the coffee on."

"Here Jackie, I got something for you," Janet said as she rifled through her purse, "I wasn't sure what to get you, I mean, what do you get for an 18 year-old kid? So I got you what I wanted when I was 18."

My parents, again in unison, winced at the possibilities.

She pulled out a birthday card. Awesome, I thought, I could use the money and just hoped she hadn't written me a check, which would probably bounce. But the card looked bulkier than it would have if it contained money and felt weightier still when she pushed it into my hands. I opened the envelope and pulled the card out. Before I could flip the card open, a pair of gold keys on a silver key ring fell from it and dropped to my feet. Without reading the inside, I bent down to pick the keys up, and looked up confusingly, first to Janet, then my parents.

"They're keys to my place!" she said with a big smile on her face. "Now you can visit anytime! You could even stay with me for a while if you wanted. I was sorta hoping that you'd want to come live with me, now that you're an adult, about to graduate from high school. You could get a job, come and go as you please. It'd be fun, right?"

I didn't know what to say. Even if I had the words to express my confusion, they would've been drowned out by my parents' yelling.

"Are you out of your mind? Why would Jack want to live with you?" said my mother frantically.

“But Ma, it’s not…I didn’t…” Janet stammered.

"You can barely take care of yourself, you think you can take care of a kid?" my father shouted.

"Why would you do this? Who gives a gift like this?"

"There's no way Jack is coming to live with you and that's final."

But it wasn't final; they went back and forth between them while Janet and I stood quietly, alternately looking at each other and the floor. Janet's smile disappeared from her face and her cheeks turned bright red. She had been shamed by what she considered thoughtful.

"I'm sorry, Ma. Daddy, I just thought it'd be nice for him to have a place to go, if he wanted or needed to."

"Jack is happy here. He's a good boy. He doesn't give us agita." said my father accusingly.

"Jack is going to college after he graduates, isn't that right, Jackie?" said my mother, "Haven't we been looking at you going to some of the local schools in the fall?"

I stood there silently. I didn't want to live with Janet, but it would be nice to have an alternative place to go, when my folks got to be too much of a handful. To accept the gift would confuse and anger them, but to refuse it would hurt Janet.

"Janet, thank you for the gift. I'm gonna stay here with Mom and Dad, but I do think it'd be nice to stay over some night, see you more often. Plus, if you ever go away, I could use the keys to get your mail, feed your cat, whatever."

Janet's smile returned. "I'd like that Jackie, I really would." She turned to our parents, "I don't know what I was thinking. I'm not gonna stay for cake, Ma, I gotta get up early for work. Come here and give me a kiss Jackie, before I go."

I kissed my sister's cheek as I walked her to the door. My parents had retreated to the kitchen, where we could hear them talking quietly to themselves.

"I'll call you, Janet. We'll set something up."

"We'll do that, Jackie. Happy Birthday."