From this confusing encounter, the truth emerged: the two women were twin sisters who’d been separated at birth after their parents’ divorce. One had been raised by their mother in Tokyo, the other by their father in Boston. The sisters were both architects, enjoyed ice-skating, and had married their co-workers (also both architects). And both of them had chosen to honeymoon in Niagara Falls. After the accidental reunion, the sisters called each other every day and visited each other twice a year. Their mother had died years before, but their father was still alive. When he met his long-lost daughter, it was the first time in his life that he’d wept in front of another person.

Another memorable story concerned a young married couple who were featured on a medical TV show in Germany. They wanted to get pregnant, so they took a screening test to rule out the possibility of genetic defects in their future child. This couple believed that they were made for each other. They had met at the same company (both were engineers), had the same taste in food and music, and even had the same allergies. The screening test revealed why they were such a perfect match; over a quarter of their genes were the same. They eventually discovered that both of their mothers had lived in the same neighborhood and had received sperm from the same donor to conceive a child. At the time, the procedure was very new and there were very few sperm donors available, so sperm banks gave out the same donors in the same area. Confronted with the knowledge that they were half-siblings, and facing enormous societal pressure, the couple split up. However, six months later, rumors surfaced of the couple reuniting and running away to England.

The article had ended there, but Granny Ng longed to know more. She wanted to know what had become of them, if they had succeeded in eluding their interfering families and friends. Perhaps they’d assumed new identities? Would this mean they wouldn’t be able to get the same kind of work? Or maybe they had a sympathetic boss who helped connect them with another engineering firm in England. And what about children? Despite her concerns, Granny Ng liked to imagine that the couple was living quietly and happily in their newfound anonymity. She wished she hadn’t listened to Kitty, who had made her leave the scrapbook behind when she was helping her pack for the tent village. “Don’t worry, Granny. You can collect more stories,” she’d told her.

Granny Ng didn’t know how long she’d been asleep. She came around to the faint smell of urine and the sound of a woman gasping thirstily for air. A man’s grunts and moans joined the woman’s gasps, which got faster and throatier. A prickly warmth spread across Granny Ng’s cheeks and she covered her ears, then stuck her fingers in them, after which she could only hear the thumping of her pulse. After a few minutes of this, she took her fingers out of her ears. The sounds had completely ceased. She wondered if the young man had left the room. Then it came—his quiet, crushing moan like a wounded animal in its death throes.