"Doors were invented for a reason!!" Helen snapped, going back to her chair and sitting down with a thump. She threw her walking stick in anger which landed with a crash against something, Helen didn't care what.
"This is much easier." Joseph chuckled as he climbed in from the window and slumped on Helen's bed.
Helen let out an angry breath and Joseph a chuckle. They sat in companionable silence for a few minutes before Joseph stood up, straightening the empty vase Helen's stick had overturned and walking over to her to the study table.
"This is so easy. I could help you with it, I cleared this exam months ago." Joseph spoke, peering over Helen's shoulder at the book she was reading. He had also learnt braille when Helen had done so.
"Please. You know I am better at you than theory." Helen replied with an eye roll, "Besides, the last thing I want is for you to say 'How can you be my sister? You don't even know this?!?!'" Joseph chuckled upon hearing this, "That does sound an awful lot like me."
He snapped her book and walked over to Helen's bed, calling to her, "Come on big sis. Don't ignore your little brother like that. Come over, we haven't had a chance to talk in ages." "And whose fault is that?" Helen replied with a snort, but she stood up and followed Joseph nevertheless.
The two siblings settled rather comfortably on Helen's bed, with Helen half-sitting, half-lying against the headboard and Joseph with his head on her lap.
"This feels nice. Just like old times." Helen let out a chuckle of satisfaction, playing with Joseph's hair.
"Yeah." Joseph said making a face, "But your bed, it's just . . . so uncomfortable. Mine is better." he added with a huff. He was rewarded with a light tap on his head and Helen saying, "Well not everyone can be a prodigy, can they? And you really should get a haircut, your hair has grown so long!!" she added.
Joseph rolled his eyes at her first sentence, he had actually believed himself to be a prodigy up until about an year ago. Then, well . . . then he had seen what real prodigies looked like. "I was planning to this time when we went home. You know how much I hate the barber at the academy." he replied to Helen's second statement.
"Well of course. Leave it to you to be picky. I still remember what a fuss you made that time, when that poor barber cut your hair an inch shorter. I even asked mother if you really were my younger sister in disguise." Helen laughed, remembering this. Joseph also chuckled as he sat up. "Well I was a kid. And it's not like you were any better. Remember when . . . . . "
The two of them stayed up quite some time, talking among themselves.
Joseph got up from the bed once Helen was peacefully asleep. He had planned to go back to his own room, but seeing that she started fidgeting as soon as he moved, Joseph sat back down again. "Now I'll have to spend the whole night here, making sure you don't get anymore nightmares. What a chore!" Joseph muttered to himself.