Red_Roses_and_Black_Dahlias_-_Macy_T

something to drink and brought us tea over.
“This is called chai!” Valentina exclaimed, snuggling between me and
Maddox on the couch. “It means tea in Arabian!”
A small smile graced my lips, she seemed so proud to be teaching us
something she, herself, must’ve learned only yesterday.
“Arabic, love. Arabian is an adjective, the correct term to refer to the
language is Arabic.” Aisha smiled down at her and corrected her ever so
patiently.
“Oh. Right, sorry.” Valentina offered her a sheepish smile and leaned her
head on Maddox’s shoulder.
The atmosphere was really light, we spoke mainly of Valentina and all the
things she had learned about Middle Eastern culture since yesterday.
My sister told me the headscarf Aisha was wearing was called a hijab,
that they ate something called maqlooba yesterday for dinner, and that they
had chai almost right after— which she found weird because mom and dad
wouldn’t let us have tea after dinner. Or anything sweet for that matter.
For a second it was as if we were just having tea at a family friend’s
house, catching up and telling stories. Aisha was a fashion designer and her
husband was an engineer. They both immigrated here from Palestine right
after they got married. Sameera was their only daughter so far but they were
trying for another one. She didn’t say it explicitly but I got the feeling they
were having trouble getting pregnant and that was the reason they became a
foster family.
Even though I still wasn’t happy about my sister being taken away from
me and spending the night with strangers, I was glad she was put into their
care. They seemed like good people, and we needed good people in our
lives. Especially Valentina, she needed friends, and Sameera was a good
start for that.