“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.
“GI Jane and the Fairy Princess,” Sindi pointed at the photo. “It’s a game we used to play.”
“We? Correction, a game you used to force me to play!”
Sindi laughed. “It’s true. I did hold him hostage.”
“And I still bear the psychological scars of that,” Noah said on a long sigh.
“Oh, you turned out just fine,” she said, then turned to me. “Don’t you think?”
I looked at Noah, and a strange, warm feeling fluttered ever so slightly inside my belly. Suddenly I felt desperately shy. I wanted to look away and not answer, but Sindi seemed to be waiting for a response from me.
“Uh. Yes. He’s . . . great.” The word “great” came out sounding a little peculiar. In a tone I’d never heard myself use before. The tone was soft and breathy-sounding, with a slight lilt to it that made me sound younger than I was, although I had no idea what age I was. But Sindi looked pleased and gave her brother a pat on the back.
“See! I’ve trained you well. Right . . . give me a moment and then we’ll get you some clothes.” She scuttled down the passage and disappeared.
I turned to Noah. “Thank you. For having me. For feeding me. For not sending me to a care home, for thinking about the fact I might need clothes and then coming all this way to get some for me.”
“I don’t mind. Honestly.”
I felt my insides warm up even more. The fact that he didn’t mind made his gesture even more meaningful. It was such an act of kindness and compassion and I felt I could never take this for granted.
“I . . . I’ll find a way to repay you, when I figure out who I am,” I promised.
“No need. Really, I’m happy to help.”
I was about to open my mouth and protest when his sister returned, this time wearing a pair of bright pink sunglasses and neon-yellow sneakers.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“The roof. All the apartments have storerooms up there. That’s where I keep the clothes. No space for them here.”
I followed Noah and Sindi up the stairs and onto the roof. The view was incredible from up here.