The Invisible Middle Child Left In The Snow

Summary

I was the middle child, the one our family learned to look right through. The Invisible Man.

My older brother, Jason, and my younger sister, Charlie, had their birthdays circled in permanent marker on the kitchen calendar. Mine was a date my parents perpetually forgot. Jason got the latest sports jacket, Charlie had her princess dresses, but somehow, they always "meant" to buy me new clothes and just... ran out of time. Jason and Charlie got crisp holiday cash envelopes every year; my pocket was always empty.

And today, on the highway heading to Grandma Carol’s for the New Year’s celebration, with the temperature plunging below zero, my parents had, once again, forgotten me at a desolate rest stop.