“Oh, we’re a family of huggers,” she said quickly, pulling away. “Sooooo. Wow! I mean, wow. Noah told me what happened to you . . . unbelievable!”
I nodded. “I know.”
“It’s like a storyline from a soapie,” she said.
“Sindi!” Noah scolded her.
“It’s okay, it does sound like a storyline from a soapie,” I said with a smile of genuine amusement, as memories came rushing back to me from soapies that I’d watched. “But it’s not as unbelievable as the time Marlena was possessed by the devil onDays of our Lives.”
“She remembers TV shows more than anything else,” Noah explained to Sindi.
“I don’t remember that,” Sindi said. “I think that was before our time . . . wait, how old are you?”
“I don’t know,” I replied.
She stepped back and looked me up and down. “You can’t be older than thirty, unless you have some seriously good genes or know the secret to eternal youth.”
I reached up and touched my face, concentrating on the skin around my eyes, and then looked at the backs of my hands for a while. “Honestly, I have no idea. I could be fifty, for all I know.”
“Wow. That’s crazy.” She looked at me with wide brown eyes.
“It’s not crazy,” Noah quickly corrected.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that,” Sindi added.
“Don’t worry. I know what you mean. It is crazy that I don’t remember things like that.”
“It’s fairly common after a traumatic event. It’s the brain’s way of coping,” Noah said.
“Oh, stop being all medical for a moment.” She gave him a swat. “You’re cool to talk about it like this, aren’t you?” she asked me.
“I am. I’ve kind of gotten used to it these last few days, not knowing things. Not that it doesn’t freak me out sometimes, but I expect it now. And it’s quite nice to talk about it casually.”
“Great! Come inside and then we’ll see what we have for you.” She pulled the door open and gestured for me to come in. I followed her in and let out a happy gasp when I looked around.
“Wow! I love your place,” I said, running my hand over a bright green wall and then moving to run a hand over the yellow-and-green Shweshwe wallpaper.
“Thanks. I like color,” she replied.
“I think I do too,” I said and looked at her again. She wore a bright pink T-shirt tied at the midriff, exposing a flat stomach with a belly ring. Cut-off jeans exposed a big tattoo on her upper thigh and she was barefoot, except for the ring around her toe. Her dark hair was natural, almost a small Afro, and of course I’d noticed she was black and Noah was white, but for some reason this hadn’t struck me as being as different as the fact Noah was dressed so plainly, and his house was just as plain, whereas hers was vibrant and bursting with color. I looked from her to Noah and then back again.
“Yes, my brother and I have very different aesthetic sensibilities,” she said. “And he will never let me style him.” She huffed, as if this was something they argued about often.
He ran his eyes up and down her then gave her a stern, playful look. “That’s because you’ll probably make me grow a beard and get a topknot!”
“I would never do that to you. Give me some credit. I know what I’m doing.”
Noah smiled at her affectionately. “I don’t know, I still don’t trust you. Not after the way you dressed me up when we were young.”
Sindi reached forward and squeezed Noah’s cheeks. “But you made such a cute fairy princess.” She looked at me. “He really did. Want to see the photos?”
“WAIT. No!” Noah said.
“Yes!” I nodded.
“God, no. Please can you not do this, again?” Noah sounded defeated and he shook his head.
Sindi tsked and pulled a framed photo off the wall and handed it to me. A much younger version of Noah stared back at me. He was dressed in a pink dress, a tiara had been placed on top of his head and his face was smeared with pink makeup. Sitting next to him was a younger version of Sindi. She looked a lot younger than Noah in the photo, but despite that I could see she wore the pants in the family. Literally, she was dressed in a camo army outfit.
