Old Enough to Know

Chapter One: Lost Tooth

Mohammed stared down at his red sneakers and bit his pinkie fingernail.

“Mom, I can do this myself. I am not a baby. I’m in fourth grade.”

His mother called from the hall. “Wait for your sister.”

He lifted his chin up high as if he was blowing his trumpet and strode down the front stairs, shaking his hips from side to side, his blue and gray backpack clunking each time a red sneaker hit another step, one shoelace already coming untied.

“I-will-find-a-friend,” he chanted on each step. “I will blend-blend-blend.”

His grandmother, his sitti, rushed out the front door. She tucked some stray hairs into her hijab, wiped her hands on her apron, and started waving.

“Good luck habibi, darling.”

Mohammed looked up and whispered. “Sitti, please go inside.”

“Sweetheart, tonight I will cook your favorite chicken, just how you like it, she yelled. “You will be fine today. Maqluba, I promise.”

His 16-year-old sister Zaynab, dashed down the stairs. “You think this is fun for me?” she glared. “I got better things to do on day one than drag you to school.” She tucked her cell phone into the fold of her hijab, pressed it against her ear, and started jabbering with her old friend Monica.

Mohammed glanced back at his grandmother, then looked up and down the street. He spotted a lanky kid with a shock of hair hanging over his eyes, arms swinging loosely, striding quickly along the sidewalk. Mohammed’s face reddened. “Please Sitti, pleease go inside.”

Zaynab glared at him, “Oh, get over yourself. It’s only chicken.”