Page 39 - The Muse 2019-20 Issue

to the Nigeria exhibit could not pass quickly enough, and the walk over to the sculptures took less than a minute.
Within a few seconds, Noor could see behind the display case a pair of carved wooden statues that looked just like the one in her parents’ office. The description of the artifacts told the story of the Ibeji twins, and in that moment, Noor recognized the name of the file she had kept marked Project Ibeji. Noor burst into her aunt’s office with gusto and rage. Jehan’s assistant Karl didn’t have the time to warn Noor that her aunt was actually in the middle of her afternoon Muslim prayers called Asr. Noor walked into the office and waited for her aunt to finish her prayers.
Jehan looked up at Noor and said, “Salaams sweetie. surprise seeing you here in the middle of the day.”
Noor, glaring at her aunt, responded with, “Don’t call me sweetie. Don’t speak to me like that. I have a question for you. Who is Noura?”
Jehan looked stunned and confused by the question and quickly sat down on the couch in her office while motioning to Noor to sit down. “Noor. That is a very long story that truthfully belonged to your parents to tell you. I was waiting until you were eighteen to tell you that story, but since you asked, I will share. Noura is the name of the child your parents had many years ago before they left Trinidad for England. She was a girl they had before they got married, and because of social shame, they passed Noura off to a friend named Uncle Ricky and his wife Priya to raise. Your parents could not take responsibility for raising Noura because of the pressures they faced and the admissions they had just gotten to Oxford and Cambridge. They departed from her life when she was about three years old and left Trinidad, never to return to see her again.”
With that revelation, Noor was both shaken and relieved at the same time. The idea of having a sister was something that excited her in a way she had never felt before. Noor could not comprehend the idea of having a sister. Noor blurted out in response to her aunt’s story “I want to go see her. I have to meet my sister.”
Jehan, realizing that Noor was moved and upset, said, “Noor. I don’t think that is such a good idea. The situation with Noura is a complex one. She didn’t have a real relationship of any kind with your parents. Your mom told me that they only kept in contact with Nour via Uncle Ricky and mainly focused on ensuring she had the financial resources for life.”
Noor responded, “I don’t think it is up to you to decide whether I can go to visit a sister that I never knew existed. I am going to go, and there is nothing you can do to stop me.”
Jehan looked back in shock at her niece’s words and said, “Noor. You can’t go. The situation is much more complicated than you realize. I won’t allow you to go.”
With that final warning, Noor stormed out of her aunt’s office and headed straight to the townhouse via an Uber. Within seconds of her arrival at home, she instructed Rinko to pack a travel bag for her. Rinko looked at Noor and detected based upon her body language how upset she was, and he tried to comfort her. Within less than thirty minutes of being at the townhouse, Noor was out the door headed to Reagan National Airport for a flight to Trinidad. On the plane ride to Trinidad, Noor began to pore over the Project Ibeji file. Each time she read through the document, she kept coming back to the part that read N1 and N2 are 100% match. This time when she read the file, she saw another piece of paper that showed the matching date was from when she was eight years old. There appeared to be older readouts that showed matching levels at a lower level and somehow this particular document with the 100% match stood out to Noor.
Once in Port of Spain, Noor realized she would have to spend a night before she took a smaller plane the next morning to Tobago. The scents and smells of Trinidad were not unfamiliar to her, as her parents had taken her many times to the island nation during her tween years. She fondly recalled eating doubles (a spicy doughy concoction with a chick pea curry filling) from roadside vendors and washing it down with sugary cream soda. Noor made a quick call to her friend Kat but got her voicemail. “Kat. I am here in Trinidad and I just discovered I have a sister. Crazy, I know. I will be calling you tomorrow with the full details.” Noor also took the time to text her aunt a one-line message “I love you. Thank you for understanding.”
The following morning was a blur as Noor head back to Piarco Airport and took the small plane over to the island of Tobago. Once at the Tobago airport, she hailed a taxi and headed straight to the
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