From Twinkle, With Love(13)
“Great things are coming your way, Twinkle,” she said, like that was any kind of answer to my two very sensible questions. Her eyes glinted in the dim light. I was awed for a second, goose bumps rippling down my skin. Her words sounded … fortuitous. Like she knew something the rest of us didn’t. I was captivated, struck silent.
Until I saw the fortune cookie wrapper. She crumpled up the fortune she’d been reading and slipped it into her pocket.
I sighed. “Dadi …”
Dadi grabbed my arm and yanked me closer to the tub. “Dekho. Look. And stop making your skeptical face. Don’t you see them? Hamaare poorvaj.”
Hamaare poorvaj. Our ancestors. I raised an eyebrow and watched my reflection doing the same. Huh. Dadi was right; my skeptical face was very skeptical. “Our ancestors are … floating in the water?”
Dadi sighed. “Twinkle. The water is a conductor of the heavens. I’m listening for messages.”
I tried to smooth my eyebrow down and only partly succeeded. “Right. Messages.” Dadi was afraid of the voice mail feature on our landline, but sure, messages coming through water from our ancestors she had no problem with.
She grabbed my face with her cold hands. Her soft, iron-gray hair undulated in waves. Dadi was very pretty, even if she was around sixty-five. I bet she was a total babe when she was my age. “The decision you were asking me about yesterday? It will change your life. Our lives. They have spoken.”
Okay, so I knew this was all nonsense. I knew better than to put stock in what Dadi said after one of her “sessions.” I was a girl with a modern education, with parents who were both thinkers and readers, and a best friend who was the next Marie Curie. But I couldn’t help it. I was immediately sucked in. “Really?” I breathed. “They said that?”
Dadi nodded sagely. “Indeed they did. But you must be unafraid, Twinkle. You must live life as if you cannot get hurt.”
“I will, Dadi,” I said, feeling a ripple of excitement pass through me. “I will.”
And I wasn’t only saying that, either. I am director, hear me roar.
Love,
Twinkle
Thursday, June 4
Library
Dear Haifaa al-Mansour,
Mrs. Mears sent me and Brij to the library. You know why? Because we’re the only two people in class who haven’t completely lost our sense of humanity.
Mrs. Mears and the school board are evil. They want us to dissect fetal pigs.
I tried telling Mrs. Mears that pigs are social, intelligent creatures. Some scientists think they’re even more intelligent than dogs. I mean, there’s a reason I don’t eat bacon. Then Brij said, “And also? They’re gross. My family is Brahmin, and therefore vegetarian.”
So she told us that we could both be excused. Brij on the grounds of religious tolerance and me on account of I’m a conscientious objector. We’re supposed to do a report on germ line cell mutations in fruit flies instead. To which I say, fine, school board and Mrs. Mears. You can take away my will to live, but you can never take away my conscience.
Brij keeps looking at me over his computer. He-he. Let me see if I can get a rise out of him about Maddie.
Ten minutes later, still the library …
Brij Nath is so into Maddie. This was how our conversation went:
Me, sitting in the empty chair next to Brij’s: “Hey. How are ya?”
Him, looking at me with big eyes: “Um … good?”
I smiled. “So, I liked your econ binder. Maddie, too.”
He continued staring at me. (Probably overcome with the mention of Maddie.)
Me: “So … do you organize all kinds of stuff? Or only econ notes?”
He actually gulped. Like in the cartoons. “N-no, I organize everything. Math notes, computer science notes, bio notes. Oh, and my MTG cards.”
Okay, I had no idea what MTG cards were. But I rallied. “So notes of every kind, then.” He and Maddie have so much in common. “Do you have, say, special markers?”
He was still staring at me like he couldn’t believe we were having this conversation. It was cute. You know, in a completely fraternal way. “I do,” he said faintly.
“And how many different kinds of Post-it notes do you have?” If it was beginning to sound like an interview, that’s because it was. I was hatching this genius plan while we talked. It had started out fun and games, but imagine if Maddie and Brij did go out? She’d be forced to spend more time with the groundlings. And maybe the Twinkle-Maddie unit would even make a comeback. And what if Neil and I start to go out? What if the groundlings and the silk feathered hats start mixing because of Maddie going out with Brij and me going out with Neil? The entire social structure at PPC would collapse and chaos would reign! (but in a good way). Like how much healthy chaos you caused by becoming the first female Saudi director, Haifaa. Disruption can be really good, right? I could get my best friend back. This had to happen. I was going to make it happen. I mean, sure, Brij was no tattooed Japanese-American artist, but love did weird things to people.
“Thirty-six kinds of Post-it notes,” Brij said, still staring at me in wonder. Just wait till I told him what I had planned. I felt like a modern-day fairy godmother from Cinderella, only without that silly outfit. “And I have four different kinds of flags. And this.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out an actual personalized memo pad with NATH written across the top in this cursive font.