There’s a particularly cheesy looking section of the carnival that you happen to pass by, requesting you take one of the provided slips of colored paper and write down a favorite holiday memory and pin it to the excessively large festively decorated tree stationed in the corner, near the children’s play area. Maybe you’re feeling nostalgic, maybe you’re doing it to humor a companion but for whatever reason, you find yourself jotting down a memory. Regardless of whether or not the memory you've written down is true, you find yourself dreaming of this memory in your sleep that evening, very vividly. Maybe you're reliving the memory, maybe you're standing in the background and watching it all unfold. Maybe this fabricated memory has you regretting writing down anything at all, as you experience this for yourself. Either way, guess it was on your mind for longer than you thought!

Dria took the slip of paper and thought about it for a while, as it took some time to come up with a good one. Last year was just… awkward. The four years before that, lonely, or painful. She struggled to come up with one. Just before she went missing, yes. Just before the plane crash, when they were altogether, in Egypt. Yes, altogether. Mom, Dad, Grams, Granpa, Aunt Dia, Drew, Dani and she herself. Oh, and Great Uncle Darwishi, whom they had met for the first time, and hopefully not the last time. Great Uncle Darwishi was Granpa’s brother, a citizen of Egypt, and surprisingly, Aunt Claudia’s biological father. (Aunt Claudia (Aunt Dia) was internationally adopted by Grams and Granpa (Dad’s parents) when she was just a baby, because her family was badly sick with some deadly virus, and she was not (the adoption was allowed for to save her life). Fortunately, Great-Uncle Darwishi survived after many years of being treated by great international doctors like his brother, Granpa. She wrote the memory down and went on her way.
That night, when she went to sleep, she was there, back in Egypt, back in that night watching from the side. She could not change what was happening. Just watch it. And this time, she saw it from a different angle. Great-Uncle Darwishi called Aunt Dia off to another room. When they were alone he said, “Dia, oh my Dia. I am so sorry.” “Sorry for what, Uncle Darwishi?” She obviously had not been told yet. He told her. “No.. “ “Yes, and to make it worse, I have lost your twin sister as well.” Twin sister? Aunt Dia had a twin too? “Uh…” Aunt Dia was having trouble dealing with the shock. “Her name is Adeelah. Or was, I no longer know if she is even alive.” He showed her a faded family picture. There was a much younger Great-Uncle Darwishi, a woman that must have been his wife, and two infants. “Your mother’s name was Isis.” Wow. Aunt Dia must have been going through a lot in the last few years – not just the family falling apart and having to raise Dani. “Dia, stay with me, your true father. At least for some time. Let us get to know each other better.”
Aunt Dia, still shaking, said, “I’ll have to think about it.” But Aunt Dia came home with us. Why? I guess she knew we needed her. And we would in the years to come, even now. But why does she not go to him now? The view changed to later, as Aunt Dia chewed Grams and Granpa out for not telling her the truth. She has a point, Dria thought, she’s like what, 23? No wonder she is not so close to Grams now. Later it showed Aunt Dia making up with Granpa, just before his death. But she never got the chance to with Grams? Strange, Grams is still alive. Maybe she still will. And with that, Dria awoke with newfound knowledge.

Word Count: 507