Love from A to Z(35)

It was evident that she was an interesting person.

“For the past couple of months, I’ve been doing this art project on sexual assault, high-profile cases. It’s called Buried, and it’s focused on that word and how it ties in with sexual violence. Like how stories about girls getting hurt are buried, how even victims’ testimonies are buried, or how they’re literally buried, in the case of those criminals who keep their victims in cellars or dungeons to prey on them.”

“Ugh.”

“Like in the movie The Lovely Bones, which was based on a book, which was loosely based on true events. And that Austrian man who kept his daughter in a dungeon, raping her, for over twenty years.”

I closed my eyes.

I opened them because there was silence.

“I’m sorry,” Noemi said, wiping away tears. She took a breath. “So, I’m working on this project, and, in the midst of me doing a painting of the entrance to the Austrian girl’s prison, built by her father, I remind you, Fencer gives us the handout about the buried Turkish girl. And while I was reading it, I thought, yeah, I could use this in my project. And then Fencer goes and makes it a Muslim problem. I just lost it inside. How the fuck are you saying this is a Muslim problem, to be cruel to girls, when I’ve just literally spent hours amassing evidence that it’s a world problem, Fencer? Then you spoke up in class and confirmed what I’d been thinking, that it’s not a part of being Muslim. At that point, I knew that Fencer was an asshole, a racist, a . . . a . . .”

“Islamophobe,” Kavi helped.

“An Islamophobe.” Noemi dropped her legs from the table and crossed her arms. “And then I realized I’d drunk the Kool-Aid, thinking that somehow some women were more oppressed than others due to their background.”

“She came running to me. To apologize.” Kavi laughed. “Because, you know, I’m a brown woman, and I stand for all brown women?”

“Well, I gotta start somewhere!” Noemi laughed too, though her eyes were still glistening from tears. “Apologies to you, too, Zayneb. Because the first time I saw you in class, I did feel sorry for you. Because of your scarf.”

“Fencer? It was Fencer?” I shook my head, a smile breaking out on my face. “I can’t believe Fencer woke you. All this time I’m burning up in class, thinking he’s using his own hatred to make more Islamophobes out of the other students, get them riled up against Muslims, and then this happens?”

“Zayneb, hate to break it to you, but Noemi is a special case,” Kavi pointed out. “Most of the other people in class just sit there like sponges. Best-case scenario is if they’re tuned out, so then they’re sitting there like rocks. The stuff Fencer spews just circulates around them. They don’t question it.”

“True.” Noemi nodded. “Really true. The only reason I didn’t fall for it is because I’m doing this art project.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to survive two and a half more months of Fencer.” I drew my legs up and wrapped my arms around them. I couldn’t even think of seeing his face again.

But I’m supposed to change myself. Like, learn to process things without overheating.

“Anyway, I just need to chill. That’s why I’m here.” I let go of my legs and crossed them. “I’m on my suspension vacation.”

“I get you, Zayneb. You taking Fencer on like that,” Noemi said. “Every time he talks in class now, it grates on my nerves. I feel like a wrecking ball, ready to smash his lesson plans.”

“Wreck-it-Noemi,” Kavi deadpanned.

“Well, children, don’t be like me. Give peace a chance. Kumbaya and so forth,” I reminded them.

“Yeah, that’s not happening,” Noemi said. “EatThemAlive version two is going live soon.”

Kavi looked at Noemi pointedly, then witheringly, but Noemi didn’t see it. Or pretended not to.

When Kavi turned to me, I gave her the same look she’d given Noemi.

“I told her about it. Because I want to keep it going,” Kavi said firmly. “We need to help Ayaan. Prove that she was doing something right.”

“But that’ll just get everyone in more trouble!” I stared at Kavi. “One suspension, one removal from student council . . . do you want an expulsion next?”

“Zayneb, we’re not involving you, so don’t worry about it!” Kavi said. “Just enjoy your vacay.”

She tilted her head and stuck her jaw out.

That meant not to mess with her. Kavi is the kindest friend in my life, but she can also be extremely steely.

But you only see that when you come close to her sacred truths. Like justice.

She isn’t loud about it like me, but she’s consistent.

Like a determined beaver chipping away at a tree, I don’t doubt her ability to fell Fencer.





MARVEL: AUNTIE NANDY


Exhibit A: The swimsuit Auntie Nandy held out after immediately knocking on my door when she returned home.

“Why didn’t you tell me what happened at the pool this morning?” she asked, holding a billowy, black diving suit up in front of her.

“What’s that?” I’d been trying to finish watching Little Women and pressed pause on Jo arguing with a circle of men on a woman’s right to vote and slid my headphones off.