Nine, Ten by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Author:Nora Raleigh Baskin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

September 10, 2001

9:45 p.m. EDT

Columbus, Ohio

That evening Naheed could not wash enough for wudu. Nouri was already finished. She didn’t need any help remembering. Face, hairline to chin. Forearms, elbow to fingertips, right then left. Scalp.

And lastly, feet. Right foot with right hand. Left foot with left. Toes to ankles.

Nouri ran water over the tops of her socks and called it a day. But Naheed couldn’t wash long or hard enough. Before you can pray, you need to wash. You need to be clean, not just of real dirt, but of all the bad things you might have done with your hands, your ears, your eyes, your mouth. Your words.

Annoying Eliza.

Annoying Eliza.

In her mind Naheed could see Eliza’s sad face while she was trying to eat her lunch in the cafeteria, even though Naheed hadn’t turned around to see her once. All Eliza needed was one friend and she could probably have handled the teasing. Maybe even laughed it off. But alone, it was a tsunami.

When Naheed crawled into bed that night, Nouri was already asleep. Naheed would get her own room back when Uncle Iman and Aunt Judith left the next day, but for now her little sister occupied the trundle bed right below.

Naheed’s mother appeared in the doorway. “Are you all tucked in?”

Naheed answered, and her voice cracked when she spoke. “Yeah, I am.”

Instead of moving away, her mother opened the door farther, letting light from the hall fall across the two beds, separating them right in half, light and dark. She stepped inside and sat down at the end of Naheed’s bed, careful not to rustle Nouri. There was really no need. Nouri had been known to fall asleep right at the dining-room table at late-night suppers and stay sleeping while everyone cleaned up.

Some trick, that was.

“What’s wrong?” Naheed’s mother asked.

Naheed wanted to say: Nothing. Because she wanted that to be the truth. And because the last thing Naheed needed was for her little sister to hear any of this, she said as softly as she could, “Something bad happened today.”

“Something bad?” her mother whispered back. She rubbed Naheed’s feet under the blankets. “At school?”

Only, just as Naheed was going to tell her mother about how she had been mean to Eliza because she didn’t want anyone to be mean to her, but then it had all gotten out of control and everyone started being mean to Eliza too, something entirely else came out of her mouth.

“Two boys were teasing me about my hijab,” Naheed said.

“Oh? What did they say?” her mother asked.

“Well, one of the boys wanted to know if it was hot under my scarf all the time. And the other boy said he thought I went bald in third grade and that’s why I had to keep my head covered.”

Her mother was quiet for a moment.

“And what did you tell them?”

“Nothing.” Which was sort of the truth.

“Nothing? You know we’ve talked about this, Naheed. People don’t understand, and it’s your job to show them that you are proud of who you are.

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