Kevin Callahan wrote:

I'm aware that "Oneechan no Madoka" has no name. I have tried to breath life
into the character, as she will become important in my works later.
Hopefully I did a good job with what is ultimately a literary character
sketch.

Shadows
A KOR Shortfic by
Kevin M. Callahan

   Ayukawa Misako looked across the table at Madoka.  Misako's hand lay
gently in the hand of her husband of seven years. She loved him, but...  He
was no charmer.  He didn't have a sense of spontaneity.  She didn't either.
No, she had always been the perfect one of the family.  The perfectly bland
one.  Destined to marry a perfectly bland man...  The spontaneous one was
Madoka.  Madoka always had been like their parents: musical, wild, and
brilliant beyond Misako's pitiful "academia" that was such hard work.
Madoka never had to work for anything.  She didn't even show the signs of
being caucasian like Misako.  Their father was American so they both had
that stigma.  And it was a stigma. Oh, the Japanese seemed all in love with
being western, but there was an undercurrent of dissapproval for anyone who
married and produced children with foreigners.  Their parents had met when
they performed together in New York, where they both lived for the most of
the year.

   Misako had light brown hair from her father.  It was almost a stigma.
Madoka had raven black hair.  Hair black as a winter night.  Hair that went
perfectly with Japan.  Misako's eyes too were slightly round. Her eyes,
though, that was her worst feature.  They were a beautiful shade of blue.
She'd once been complimented on her style...until the person realized she
wasn't wearing contacts.  Madoka's eyes were this shade of green that no one
seemed to find out of place even if they were the most obvious link to her
blood.  Misako sighed.  Madoka was destined to be a star.  Misako was to
stay a housewife.  She had never been employed, but she had practically
raised Madoka.  What had she recieved for it?  A ticket to doing the same

received ("i" before "e" except after "c")

thing with her kids, when she and her husband finally had them.  Although
she was the older sister, she would forever be in the shadow of Madoka.  She
grew up an average Japanese girl, struggling to get the best grades while
still being submissive to all.  And that's the way she had niavely wanted it

naively

to be.  When she was perfect, smart, and submissive everyone loved her.  How
had she misunderstood how shallow that was?  She had glowed when her tomboy
sister had been reprimanded for her misdeeds with a "Why can't you be more
like Misako?"  Now it was all praise for her sister's music and "heartfelt
thanks" that Misako was "doing her duty."  She wanted more despite the love

more, despite

she felt for her husband.  She was tired of being average.  

Sounds like she's ripe for an affair.  

She lived with

an average man who had an average job in an average apartment and drove an
average car.  

Wait...actually that car was pretty damn good.  But the rest was average.  

Incidentally, what kind of average job happens in an average apartment?  

Madoka had picked a whimsical man by the name of Kasuga

Kyosuke who was a combat journalist.  

combat photojournalist.  

They both lived alone in the large

Ayukawa house.  Outside of the Mini, Madoka also had a motorcycle and
Kasuga, a moped.

Well I'd hope so.  How could she fit a motorcycle into a Mini?  

   Misako's husband flashed her a look.  She apologized for clenching her
fist.  Maybe it wasn't Madoka's fault.  Misako had never asked for anything
because had she done so, she would have lost the perfect image she had
crafted.  Money was no issue. She could have had anything she wanted.  Like
Madoka.  Was that fair? Madoka went out drinking, partying, driving
recklessly and hanging out with gang members, and she got the Mini?  

Misako's envious of a Mini?  Wow. She's got it bad.  

The

bike? The *house*?  What kind of deal was that?  Wasn't Misako the little
princess?  Wasn't she the one who did everything they asked without any
discord?  Her jaw pushed up as she watched her sister rise, splendid in her
purple kimono.  She held up a glass and tapped it. Her face was full of a
love that Misako had not felt when she was in Madoka's place.  Still, Misako
willed herself to listen.  Madoka's eyes glistened.

   "Friends, family, guests, this is the happiest day of my life. Today
Kyosuke asked me something I've been wanting him to ask since we were in
high school.  

"Can I wear one of your dresses to the party?"

Since that day that we met on the stairs."  She smiled.  "If

we haven't already bored you with that story, I can assure you, you're going
to hear it before the night is out.  If you already have, you're going to
hear it again."  There were chuckles all around.  Misako didn't laugh.
"There are people I want to thank before I make the announcement.  Of
course, I want to thank my parents.  Without them I wouldn't be here.  And
Kyosuke's parents for the same reason in regards to him."  More laughs.
"I'd also like thank a very special person to both of us.  You all know
Hikaru.  She was once a force that drove us apart.  We don't blame you for
it at all."  

And that's why I'm warning that I accidentally put poison in your glass,
but if you hurry to the hospital you can get your stomach pumped...

Misako looked to Hikaru who smiled through her tears.  Whether

Hikaru was crying from sorrow or joy, Misako couldn't tell.  She didn't
really know Hikaru, although she'd been to the house often. "But there's on
more person I need to thank."

   Misako felt Madoka's eyes upon her and looked up. "My sister doesn't know
that she's responsible for this.  She took care of me when our parents
couldn't.  She brought me up when our parents' absence brought me down.  I'm
not saying our parents let us down.  They did what they thought was best.

But you might want to carpool with Hikaru to the hospital...



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