You're six and your clothes are too small, and your shoes have holes, and you're so excited that you couldn't sleep the night before. Your mother tried to shush you to sleep, but your father insisted you be allowed to stay up if you wanted. He smelled of whiskey and tobacco, and you'd made him stay awake with you and tell you about your sister all over again.
She's twice your age, and you're worried that she's going to think you're very small, but that fear isn't enough to dampen the excitement of meeting her for the first time. You're too young to realize the meeting will be awkward, that your father owes money and other things, and that your sister's mother is as crazy as yours is unhappy. You don't know yet that both of those conditions result in meanness, and right now none of it matters.
The meeting place is a 7-11, and it's not in the best part of town, but you don't even notice. When they arrive, you give the adult woman a cursory glance, but your attention is glued to the girl in front of you. She looks like a girl on a magazine cover to you, and you don't even realize her shoes are worn through more than your own. You cling to your father's leg as you smile at her.
All her attention is focused on your father, and you're too young to understand.