My maternal grandfather bought his first video camera in
1993, a few weeks before the birth of his first grandchild, me. From the moment
I was born, to the moment he passed away in 2009, he documented mine and
Emily’s lives. Watching the tapes now is simply magical, though we’ve had to
convert them to DVDs.
There is a section on one of these tapes which is of
particular interest to my Father and I, as we believe it shows my grandfather
accidently capturing Emily’s inner cheekiness at the tender age of two and a
half years old.
Emily and I would often sit in our grandparent’s dining room
to paint. We loved it. As the elder sister, the video depicts me concentrating
over my paint by numbers book, straining with the effort, attempting to keep
all of my brush strokes within the designated lines.
Emily, on the other hand, appears to have adopted more of a
splodge and smear technique to her paper.
My granddad is happily chatting away to us, making us giggle
and asking us questions about what we are doing in order to elicit a response.
He then places the camera down on his tripod in order to go
and do something in the kitchen. I think perhaps it was to get Emily a drink,
or to ask my Grandma for some paper towels.
The camera continues to roll, and in doing so captures Emily
in her devious act!
Spectators see her slowly dip her brush into a black paint
pot, and reach over so stealthily that I fail to notice any movement at all
over to the right hand side of me, (engrossed as I was in my painting).
With the movement of her arm, her huge blue eyes grow even
wider with excitement. A curl of a smile appears on her lips. She paints a
short, bold black line on my face. Right down my cheek.
She whips her head back down to her paper.
Naturally, I retaliate.
Just as my grandfather comes back into the room.
''BETH! DON’T DO THAT TO YOUR LITTLE SISTER!!!!''
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