BROKEN

The Meeting

This had to be a coincidence. Faisal couldn't be my brother.

"Hooyo did my dad have another wife?" I asked.

"Not that I know of. Why do you ask?" she asked.

"I know a guy from school that told me that his dad was coming and that he would meet him on Saturday."

Aunt Nadira and my mother looked at each other in shock.

"Could it be a coincidence?" asked Aunt Nadira.

"Do you have this boy's number?" my mother asked.

"Yes."

"Call him right now and ask him his father's name."

I took out my phone and called Faisal.

"Hey Warsan what's up?" he asked.

"I have a question that might sound a little weird."

"Ask me."

"What's your father's name?"

"Why?" he laughed.

"Answer my question and then I'll tell you."

"Ibrahim Warsame."

"Okay let me call you back." I hung up and told them the name he gave me.

"That's him." my mother said.

"Maybe he had another wife." Aunt Nadira shrugged. "We never knew him that well. He wasn't around Amina often."

"Maybe that's why." my mother sighed. "He was older than her and we didn't know much about their marriage."

"Do you think she knew?"

"I don't know."

I watched them talk in silence. My mother finally turned to me.

"Do you want to meet him tomorrow?" she asked.

"I don't know." I said. Does aabo know about all of this?"

"Yes we talked to him first."

"What did he say?"

"He said that if you are to meet him I have to go with you."

"Let me think about it for a bit and tell you tonight."

---

I paced back and forth in my room and thought about if I actually wanted to go through with this. I decided that I wasn't going to tell anybody about this except Faisal. It would just be too hard to explain. My phone rang, it was him.

"Hey why did you ask me that?" he asked.

I took a deep breath and explained all of the events that took place since the beginning of summer. I told him about how my dad came back to Ohio with a new wife and kids, how my parents are no longer together, how I found out I was adopted, and how I found out that my mother was dead and my father was alive somewhere in the world. He sat quietly and listened to everything that I said.

"So we have the same dad?" he finally asked.

"That's what it looks like."

"Wow." There was an awkward silence for a few moments. "So are you going to meet him?" he finally asked.

"I don't know. Are you?"

"Yes but I think we should do it together."

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah my brothers aren't coming with me so I at least want my sister there. Plus it would be good for us to know who our dad is."

Until he referred to me as his sister, it had not hit me that I had a brother. Not just one, but three.