“Haleemah! How are you? How is your family? God has blessed me with seeing you!”

Mama shows Muneer the second stain on her skin, this one from Karamah.

“Your daughter—how old is she?” Mama asked.

“Seventeen. Graduating from high school this year.”

Mama said her son was thirty-two.

“That’s not how old I am, Mama,” Muneer tells her.

“Oh?” she says. “I confuse you and your brothers sometimes.”

Mama wondered if Karamah had heard about her feud with Faizah, but the woman seemed open, friendly.

“Can we meet your daughter?” Mama said.

“Ah. Yes of course. We can welcome you tomorrow afternoon.”

The girl was whispering something to her friend.

Muneer stops Mama’s story. “She’s too young.”

“That is not the end of it,” Mama says. “Something else happened tonight.”

She goes on: Karamah squealed. Confused, Mama touched the corner of her own lips, rubbed her lips against her teeth. Was something the matter with how she looked? But it was a squeal of delight. For what?

“Your sister! Shall we greet her?”

Faizah. Mama’s heart flattened. Her limbs moved as though stirring thick syrup. Karamah rushed to the far side of the hall and embraced Faizah. Muneer’s aunt wore a sequined peach dress, Bahraini freshwater pearls at her throat, large gold earrings that nearly reached her shoulders, high-heeled shoes that matched her dress.

“She looked so tacky! So badawi!” Mama tells Muneer.

Mama, in her plain silk, made her way to Lena. Mama took a deep breath and said a quick prayer before speaking. “I thought my sister was not invited.”

“God protect you. I hope we haven’t offended you.”

Before Mama could say anything further, Lena caught the arm of a woman she apparently hadn’t greeted yet and left Mama behind.

Mama didn’t want to leave until they fed her. But she guessed the food wouldn’t be ready for at least an hour. Her belly tight with hunger, she opened a mesh pouch and chose a smooth silver almond. It tasted like nothing until the sweet coating began to dissolve in her mouth. She bit, and pain shot through her gum. She heard the crack of her tooth and grabbed her jaw. No one noticed her wincing, though her face felt transformed by the pain. Her sister and Karamah sat at a table in the far corner of the hall. What were they talking about?

She found herself caught in her sister’s gaze.