Siblings

"God help the Mister who comes between me and my sister/ And God help the sister who comes between me and my man."
So sang the two film sisters in "White Christmas". Good verse by Irving Berlin: clever and truthful.
Christopher Hitchens has written an article for Vanity Fair on sibling rivalry; in some cases it's more like sibling war. Two brothers, twins, find themselves on opposite sides in the American Civil War - apparently captured in a painting in a large canvas in Atlanta depicting the great fire there (yes, I remember it well: Clark Gable with his pony and trap and Vivian Leigh beside him braving the flames to get away to safety). Then he mentions Olivia de Havilland and her sister Joan Fontaine who hated each so much that on an Oscar night one stood at one end of a line of Oscar winners and the other stood at the other end; also Olivia refused to accept her Oscar from her sister and flounced off leaving Joan standing there Oscar in hand not knowing what to do - she'd have probably liked to throw it at her sister. Fontaine wrote, in her biography, "I married first, won the Oscar before Olivia did; and if I die first, she'll undoubtedly be livid because I beat her to it."
There is no greater lack of affection bettween the two Hitchens brothers: Christopher is on the left politically and Peter on the right.
I am looking back to see if there was much of this rivalry between me and my older brother. There wasn't much I recall.... O yes, there was the matter of the apple. My father gave us an apple between us and said one of you can cut it, the other choose which half he wants. My brother chose to cut it; he did so with infinite care so that you could hardly distinguish between the two halves. Now came my opportunity to choose my "half". Hand aiming for one piece, I hesitated when I saw a thin smile appear on my brother's lips; I hesitated more when his smile disappeared as I reached towards the other half - he may be bluffing, I thought. Eventually when I did make my choice he laughed and said"You chose the smaller; this one's the bigger," and took a great big bite of his piece.
I cried.