My Sister’s Keeper

Anna reflects on how, when she was young, she was more fascinated with why babies were made than how. For instance, she wondered why certain families had more children than others, and now that she’s 13, she finds people’s reasons for having children even more baffling, mostly since most pregnancies seem to be accidental. This question fascinates Anna because, unlike many children, her parents deliberately conceived her for a specific purpose. When she was young and went to her parents after her big brother Jesse told her where babies came from, her parents not only gave her the usual discussion but explained to her how she was conceived via in vitro fertilization to save her sister Kate. Anna muses that, if Kate never got sick, she likely never would have been born. Thus, she feels that if the reason for her conception disappears, she will disappear too.

Anna goes to a pawnshop, where she prepares to sell a sentimental item. She takes out a locket that her father gave her when she was six after she donated bone marrow to Kate, since her father felt that she deserved a major present for the present she gave her sister. The pawn shop owner offers her 20 dollars, which Anna balks at but ultimately accepts. When she struggles to let go of the locket, the owner softens and tells her to tell her family she lost it.

Anna describes herself as a “freak” due to her appearance: skinny and flat-chested, mousy brown hair, and freckles. She theorizes that her odd appearance fits with her odd household. Although her parents tried to make things normal, Anna never really got a childhood due to her sister Kate’s diagnosis, which meant her entire family always had death on the mind. Kate was diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia when she was two and is now 16. While she is currently in remission, her cancer is likely to come back at some point. Anna is her allogeneic donor, meaning that she is a perfect genetic match who donates whatever Kate needs for her treatment. Anna tells the reader that this background means that they should not trust anything they hear about her, especially whatever she tells them.

Anna comes up the stairs of her house and encounters her mother, Sara, who is wearing a ball gown. Anna describes her mother as someone who could have been beautiful in another life, with long dark hair and a slender frame, but her expression is always on edge due to Kate’s condition. She spends her small amount of free time buying evening dresses off of Bluefly.com. The one she shows off now is the color of the sunset and made of swishy material, “totally not the dress code for a suburban house in Upper Darby, RI.” When Sara asks Anna how she looks, the only word Anna can think of is “tired,” although she does not say this out loud.

Sara freezes suddenly, claiming she’s heard something from Kate and Anna’s room. The two of them go there to find Kate sobbing, at which point Anna feels the world collapse again. She describes how her father Brian, an amateur astronomer, explained to her how black holes are so heavy that they absorb everything around them. Moments like this, Anna explains, are just like black holes; anyone around is sucked into them.

Sara frantically asks Kate what’s wrong while Anna waits in the doorway in case she needs to call someone. Kate is sweaty and her breathing is tight as she cries, but as Sara frantically tries to figure out what’s wrong, Kate begins to cry about “Preston leaving Serena for good,” at which point Sara and Anna realize she’s crying over a soap opera. She sits down at the edge of Kate’s bed—she’s taller than Kate, although she’s only 13—and mentally recounts the various soap opera stars Kate has had crushes on over the summer.

Anna and Kate discuss all of the soap opera’s various plots, including an entire story line that Anna followed because she taped the episodes during Kate’s dialysis sessions. Eventually, Kate notices Sara’s dress and asks her what she’s wearing; Sara says that she’s sending it back and stands so that Anna can undo the zipper. Anna states that, although Sara’s behavior is compulsive, it’s more of a “healthy break” by her standards, given the intensity of Kate’s illness. She wonders if Sara buys the dresses because she enjoys pretending to be someone else, or if she just likes being able to send back clothes that don’t fit her.

Sara leaves, after which Kate wilts slightly in her bed; Anna feels that she is fading bit by bit and fears that one day she won’t be able to see her at all. Kate tells Anna to stop blocking the TV, to which Anna retorts that it’s only commercials for other shows; to this, Kate says, “[I]f I die tonight I want to know what I’m missing.” They watch TV together—with Kate getting the more comfortable pillows—and tease each other about their crushes on the actors. Eventually, though, Kate stops talking and rubs her lower back. Although she says it’s fine, Anna knows it’s her kidneys. The two of them hold their hands out to each other in an attempt to touch in the space between their beds. Anna recounts a nightmare where she’s cut into so many pieces that she can’t be put back together.

Anna recounts when Brian told her that a fire will burn itself out without oxygen. She muses that this might be what she’s doing, but that sometimes one has to break a wall to escape a fire, too. After Kate falls asleep, she takes a binder that she hides under her mattress—she knows Kate’s been snooping in it, but nothing’s missing—and takes it into the bathroom. She counts her money, which comes to $136.87 with the 20 dollars from the pawnshop. It isn’t enough, but she wonders if she can get a loan, although she doubts her parents will cosign it, given what she’s planning on using it for (which remains unclear). After counting her money, she reads newspaper clippings about a man named Campbell Alexander, who she says has a good track record.

Anna goes to her brother Jesse’s room, which is located in the attic over the garage. The stairs are blocked with various objects, which Anna speculates Jesse uses to keep people out. Inside, Jesse’s room is a mess aside from a collection of car hood ornaments that Anna believes he stole. Anna explains that it’s not that her parents don’t care about Jesse’s delinquency, but that they don’t have time to deal with it. Anna spots a batch of moonshine Jesse is making in a Crock-Pot. He offers her some, but when she sips it, it's so strong that she falls back onto his couch.

Jesse asks Anna what she wants. When she challenges his assumption that she wants something, he claims that “no one comes up here on a social call,” and he would already know if it was something about Kate. Anna responds that it is about Kate in a sense; with this, she hands him the newspaper clippings, which she believes will explain the situation better than any words. Jesse looks over the clippings, then looks at Anna and warns her not to step outside of her role in the family: “Kate plays the Martyr. I’m the Lost Cause. And you, you’re the Peacekeeper.” Anna looks at him and asks who decided these roles.

Jesse drives Anna to Campbell Alexander, Esquire’s office, agreeing to wait for her in the parking lot. Campbell’s office is gaudy and luxurious, making Anna self-conscious about her casual appearance. When she enters, she finds the secretary on a heated phone call. The secretary eventually addresses Anna, who cites her four o’clock appointment with Campbell. The secretary responds by stating that she didn’t realize how young Anna was and that the office does not try juvenile cases, but Anna interrupts and cites multiple juvenile cases that Campbell has tried in the past year. The secretary, impressed, allows Anna to wait in Campbell’s office.

Campbell’s office is full of books, and his desk is extremely neat. However, Anna is intrigued by an out-of-place mug of water on the floor and begins to come up with various theories as to its purpose, such as a swimming pool for ants or a humidifier. As she speculates, Campbell enters with a German shepherd who makes a beeline to the mug and drinks from it. Campbell is tall and dark-haired; he takes off his suit jacket and removes a file from his cabinet without looking at Anna. As he sits, he tells her that he doesn’t want Girl Scout Cookies and pages his secretary to ask why Anna is here. Anna tells him that she wants to retain him. Campbell immediately refuses her, but she says he doesn’t even know if she has a case.

Anna steps towards Campbell’s dog and notices it’s wearing a vest with a red cross on it. She reaches out to pet it, and Campbell immediately tells her not to because the dog, Judge, is a service dog. Anna points out that Campbell isn’t blind; Campbell sarcastically thanks her for letting him know. Anna asks Campbell what’s wrong with him, then immediately regrets it, recalling all the times Kate has received similarly invasive questions. Campbell tells her that he has an iron lung and that Judge keeps him from getting too close to magnets, then tells her to leave so that Kerri can get her a referral to another attorney.

Anna takes out her newspaper clippings and asks Campbell if he really sued God. Campbell explains that no, he didn’t. He sued Providence’s Diocese on behalf of a child in an orphanage, Dylan Jerome, who needed experimental treatment using fetal tissue, which the Church would not approve of. However, “suing God” made a better headline, and Campbell concedes that the boy wanted to sue God for not caring enough about him. Anna explains that Kate has leukemia, to which Campbell replies that she can’t file a case on Kate’s behalf. Anna doesn’t know how to explain the years of painful donations she’s undergone and the major decision her family is about to make without her, so she simply tells Campbell the simple version: she wants to sue her parents for the right to her own body.