Ryuuko knew what firecrackers were but her big sister, Satsuki lost it when Ryuuko asked to go watch them with me. "No! No! No!" she screamed. Ryuuko's stubborn but she wasn't stubborn enough for that and said, "Okay, Sis, I'll stay here with you and Nui, then." That wasn't the first time Satsuki lost it over firecrackers. The last time that happened the noise made her go hide with her sisters.
I asked Mom if it had something to do with that story that Ryuuko-chan keeps telling, where their house burned down. "What else sounds like firecrackers?" I asked her, to which Mom told me she wasn't too sure but then it got quiet. Satsuki was in the doorway, looking at us with big eyes. After that, I found Ryuuko-chan in the corner and Satsuki was telling her, "We don't want to be taken away from here, you know this." When Satsuki left the room, I saw that Ryuuko was crying a bit.
After that, before the firecrackers, she was brushing Ryuuko's hair, telling her, "Dearest, I told you 'No' for your own good. I'm protecting you, please forgive me." Ryuuko was so sulky about everything to do with that story and firecrackers. I asked Mom to talk to Satsuki so Ryuuko and Nui won't have to play in the yard all the time.
"Satsuki, you could let your sisters go places beyond the yard."
"No! It's for their own good."
"Satsuki, whatever bad things that happened in your past doesn't have to control your present, dear."
"The world is dangerous and I'm trying to protect them."
"But Satsuki—"
"We've gone through so much and we don't want to jeopardize what we have now."
Satsuki still wouldn't budge and so Mom let her have her way, but Sats did say that Ryuuko and Nui can watch the firecrackers from the yard. Of course, Sats still went ballistic over hearing them at all and so they couldn't watch them for real long because of how upset she was. We couldn't tell how upset she was because she was just screaming but she sounded like she did when she first came here—Like a li'l girl.
It took all night for Mom to calm her down and, the next day, she acted like nothing's happened. Ryuuko told me, "Sis does that every time fireworks, fire, or whateva comes up." She was really sad about it, too.