“True or false, it may be” - Naive by The Kooks
My brother, Alec, is one of my best friends. There’s a 150% chance he knows me better than I know myself. He can tell when things are going to set me off and how pull me out of those situations. He knows how to calm me down when my emotions go through the roof, but he also knows how to pick me up when I’m down, how to have a good time and is the keeper of some of my darkest secrets (I’d like to think I’m the same to him).
We created a program, if you will, to protect ourselves from anyone finding out about such secrets: The Sibling Protection Program. This really goes into effect when we don’t want our parents to find out about a certain experiences and situations we’ve been through. There are just some things parents shouldn’t know!
My immediate family is very close-knit - we talk on a daily basis. So, when Alec studied abroad in the fall of 2018, it was tough on all of us. The lack of Wi-Fi meant minimal conversations. There were times, I would go weeks without talking to him, but one of my parents would hear from him. Then there would be times I heard from him a few times in a week; he usually used that time to confide in me about anything – my favorite story he trusted me with is the morning he woke up in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park after a big night of…hydrating, and had no idea how he got there (don’t worry – mom and dad know this story now and are obviously proud). I’ve always thought the best part of this story is that he woke up in a bush - surrounded by his friends sleeping in other bushes. This is when The Sibling Protection Program initiated.
My parents used to ask if I’d heard from Alec while he was overseas – sometimes I had and other times he would go radio silent for God knows how long. Naturally, they would ask how he was doing, if he was focusing on his schoolwork, what sites he’d seen, etc. and they always managed to squeeze in one last question: Anything else we should know about?
That’s when I would hit them with the infamous quote in their house. Sibling Protection Program. My mom would always try to get me to reveal some kind of information.
“Come on, Ab. Give me some kind of information on my boy!”
“Sibling Protection Program.”
“What is he doing that you can’t say?!”
“Sibling Protection Program.”
“This is making me anxious. He’s in a foreign country! Why won’t you tell me?!”
“Sibling Protection Program.”
This conversation happened a handful of times and was usually followed by an eye roll from mom. Now, keep in mind he was studying abroad in London. Yes, England is a foreign country, but it’s definitely not as foreign as they get. He originally wanted to study in South Africa. Could you imagine what she would be like if he was in Africa?
Immediately after my mom asked all those questions (and that’s only about 1/8 of what she would normally ask), my dad would step in and try to stop her interrogation. What a guy.
Alec came back from his study abroad program, and mom immediately started asking for all the dirty details of the stories he had ‘forgotten’ to share. I’m pretty sure at that exact moment he decided the jet lag was too much and went to bed. I became the knower of all secrets around the dinner table at that point, so I’m sure you can imagine what happened next –
“Abbie, what is he hiding?”
“Sibling Protection Program.”
As most people do, Alec has started to open up about his time in London (and other things) that he didn’t want mom and dad to know, but some things will remain in the black hole of secrets.
The pressure that was on me to reveal his secrets? Extreme.
The looks I got when our parents hear the secrets I’ve been hiding? Priceless.