Noah the Drunkard, and My Sister the Tramp
I had always thought of Noah (of the book of Genesis) as an
exemplary human
being. Of course, he wasn't perfect as no one is, but out of a world
populated with
corruption and evil, only he and his
family were
spared. A voice came out of the
sky! It told him to
build a boat in a place far from any large body of water. Over the
years that he built it, he took a lot of crap. He was
mocked, and
accused of being
crazy, but through faith he continued his work. Then God, in turn, saved him. Even
if you only believe it to be a story, that's freakin' inspiring.
(after the flood...)
"And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard.
Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and he became uncovered in his
tent." Genesis 9:20-1
Some hero.
My sister was always perfect. She recieved
good grades, she was in the highly gifted
magnet, captain of the
science bowl team, and never got in a
speck of trouble. She
wanted to go the senior end-of-the-year party. She had been to
parties before, of
course, those were basically parties of close friends. The police were never called in
and no one got drunk. This party, however, was not just close friends. Basically the
whole 12th grade was invited. This wasn't a dance, and it was not school organized.
She didn't come home that night, atleast not before I went to sleep (around 11:00).
That was fairly understandable. These types of parties have been known to go to 1:00
am or even later. Most of these
highschool students considered themselves adults.
Most of them were eighteen and thought they were
responsible enough to drink...
ok, maybe they knew they shouldn't drink, but hey: they were graduating! No more
homework, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks! Anyway, she wasn't home
when I woke up. My mother was sitting at our
breakfast table with her hands over
her mouth and the phone right at her side. As soon I walked in, I saw her eyes well up
with tears as she signaled me over with her arms to give her a hug. I knew something
was wrong, but I couldn't tell the level of
seriousness yet.
My sister was at the doctor having some tests done. Atleast that's what I was told.
They were holding her after being seriously injured. She was also meeting with some
sort of
psychologist.
This is all what I've pieced together from what I've heard. No one ever told me a full
version of the story. Even when they did tell me something I never knew if it was true.
I was eleven. My sister saw the guy that she liked that night and went over to ask him
to dance. He didn't really want to dance, but he had no problem with drinking. He
offered her one but she refused. Remember,
goody two shoes' don't
break the law.
When she went to the bathroom there was an uproar of laughter from the group of
guys she was hanging with and when she got back the had some juice prepared for
her. Of course, it was "non-alchoholic". I can't believe my sister. That she would just
trust this guy even though this was
basically her first time meeting him shocked
me. She knows all of the stories. She even attended some walk informing females
about violent crimes against women. And she accepted a drink from this guy??
I wanted to talk to my sister but every time I walked into her room, she didn't say
anything. She just layed in her bed facing the wall without saying a word. I just ran
back out shutting the door behind me. Sometimes she would come down to eat
something. Once or twice a day. Her skin looked so pale and it was so hard to see her
pretty blue eyes contrasting against it. Her
hair was
dirty and
mangled, mostly
from the endless tossing and turning she did. My room was right next to her's and I
could tell that she was restless. I would wake up in the middle of the night and hear
her crying. Out of nowhere.
I could see several bottles and pills in a mess around the bathroom counter. Not just
the regular decongestants. "Anti-Depression", "Sedatives", "Energy Enhancement"?
The same
nightgown she wore had stains on it and she always looked like she was
decaying. She had
bags under her
eyes and looked like she wanted to shout out to
the world, but she never yelled. Ever. I got so sick just thinking about it sometimes
that I just had to run into the
bathroom and
vomit.
One day, I was playing with our
computer in our living room and my sister walked
in. She said we needed to have a talk. She told me "the real story". It wasn't the guy
she liked. It was some girls that didn't like her. Then they told the guy to go over to
her, and he took
advantage of her. She said she still had small flasbacks of that
night and that they were horrible; that she felt like she had left her body and was
watching herself as it happened. She had already told mom, but mom didn't want to
tell me so I shouldn't mention it around her.
I could hear my mother retelling the story on the phone many times when she
thought I wasn't around. Now, I think they might have been lawyers or family
members. It wasn't until she first spoke to our
pastor, that I finally heard her retell
the story, except
she didn't cry. It was such a relief to see her smile. I hadn't seen
that in a while. When my sister told me, she
smiled too. Both of these things nearly
made me cry. I
exhaled for the first time in a while and felt satisfied with the
breath.
My sister wasn't to
blame. She was a
victim, but the guy was charged with a few
years in prison and got out. It wasn't much. My mother kept fighting for more until
my sister had to ask her to stop. It had gone on too long and realized tha she could
never recover if they couldn't let it all go sometime, not that she forgt. No, she would
never forget. For the few months that she still lived with us after that she would still
wake up often in a
cold sweat, crying. It was hard for all of us. She tried hypnosis,
which seemed to work but she just
called my house last night saying that it had
come back.
I continued reading on,
"And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of
his father and told his brothers outside...they did not see their father's
nakednesss."
Because of the change in climate, their had been an unexpected fermentation. That
is what leads to drunkenness. Noah did not become drunk on purpose. It was not
his fault. But while he was asleep and naked, his son saw him and even though it
was not written, it was implied that he had sinful thoughts about him. Perhaps he
thought he had finally caught his father in a sinful act and was trying to rub it in his
face by telling his brothers. Ham had tried to fabricate a lie while his father was
vulnerable.