When I was a little girl my absolute most favorite thing to do on Sundays was to read my way through a great big stack of books. I remember the librarians shaking their heads in disbelief as I checked out my weekly pile of books -- such a little kid, so many books -- until they realized that I was, in fact, reading them all.
Anyway, every Sunday morning I'd wake up early and settle into a comfy chair in the living room and start working my way down through the pile of books I'd chosen that week. As I recall, my earliest choices were about dinosaurs, but later I moved into the more traditional horse stories, and stayed in that genre for many years.
On this particular Sunday I'd already been reading for a few hours when my parents decided to do some shopping. They asked me if I'd like to come along, but of course I refused. Too much reading left to do. This meant that my older sister Judy had to stay home with me, which really wasn't a problem for her since she was a teenager and HER favorite way to spend a Sunday was on the telephone with her friends.
So Mom & Dad left the house, I was happily reading books in my comfy chair by the window and Judy was on the phone with her best friend Diana.
At some point in her phone conversation, Judy told Diana how funny it was that I'd had my nose in a book for several hours. And I don't know for sure how it happened, maybe Diana suggested it or maybe Judy just got the idea herself, but the two of them decided that it was time for me to quit reading and do something else. So Judy bent over my book, got right up in my face and started bugging me, trying to get me to pay attention to her.
Without even thinking about it, I drew my knees up to my chest and shoved Judy backwards with my feet. And holey moley, did she ever fly! All the way across the room and right into the wall. She was wheezing and gasping for breath with the telephone in her hand. I was terrified that she would die and that I'd be in BIG trouble when Mom and Dad got home.
I grabbed the phone out of her hand yelled to Diana, "Hang up and call an ambulance! I think I just killed Judy!"
