Excerpt from Chapter 1 of “The Transparents”:
His pen hovered over the desk as if levitating; he wiggled his fingers to make the pen wiggle, but he couldn’t see them. He felt his palms get sweaty and wiped them off on his unseen jeans. His breathing shortened.
What’s going on?!
“Nick, please come to the board,” Miss Lopez said.
Her voice made him nearly jump out of his seat. He watched his dark-haired friend frown, get up from his desk and walk to the front of the room in his baggy jeans and oversized plaid shirt. If he turns around, will he see me? Daniel wondered. Can anyone see me?
Nick took one quick look over his shoulder toward Daniel’s desk but his expression didn’t change. Did he notice?
Daniel searched the room for anyone staring in his direction. Everyone either watched Nick and Miss Lopez, or stared down at their desks. A slight tingle in his hand pulled his attention downward. His fingers slowly faded in. He breathed a sigh of relief. The feeling didn’t last, however, as the fingers disappeared once again.
“No,” he let escape in a strangled whisper. This couldn’t be happening. Why can’t I see myself? He tried to think back to what he had been doing right before the sneeze, but his mind wouldn’t work properly.
“Miss Lopez?”
Daniel whipped his head to the right again. Jojo’s squeaky voice sent a shudder through him.
“Yes, Jojo?” Miss Lopez turned away from the blackboard. Nick turned, too.
“Where did Daniel go…”
“So I’d better get back. I don’t want to miss my carpet race.” Layla swung around looking for the best place to poof out of the garden.
“Oh, I think you’ll miss more than that,” a voice said from somewhere beyond the tallest fountain. A large, rounded figure in purple veils strode forward.
“Madam Fatima,” Layla breathed. “Oh no.”
“Oh yes, you willful genie,” Madam Fatima said with a toothy smile. “I have caught you in one of the worst transgressions a genie in training can commit. Thanks to Ibrahim.”
“Ibrahim?” Layla asked.
A boy genie stepped out from behind the purple veils, meanness glinting out of brown eyes. “Hello, Layla.”
Layla stared open-mouthed at her classmate and their teacher.
“Are these more genies?” Sarah asked, looking from one to another. “What’s going on?” She scrambled to her feet and stood next to Layla.
“Caught with a human,” Madam Fatima said, raising one thick eyebrow, and completely ignoring Sarah. “A young human girl. Are you giving away all our genie secrets, Layla?”
Layla couldn’t think of anything to say. Getting caught hurt enough, but by Madam Fatima and Ibrahim… Well, she thought there was no worse fate.
She was wrong.
Excerpt from Chapter 6 of “Kwizera Means Hope”:
A man half-ran, half-stumbled past me, wailing and shouting.
“Hagirimana!”
I got out of the vehicle and followed him. Without thinking about who he was, why he was so obviously upset, or what I was doing. I knew that he was stumbling toward the place where two children lay injured by a land mine, and one or both could be my family. My legs moved of their own accord.
Suddenly everything slowed down.
The stumbling man looked like he was swimming. Teddy inched toward me, arms out. Kneeling men and a woman stood up in slow motion, angling toward me and the swimmer.
A space opened up around the children.
Teddy’s mouth opened in an “o” and a low growl came out that I couldn’t understand.
My eyes slanted from Teddy to the children. To the sight of blood and torn clothing. A shirt ripped away from a swollen stomach dotted with brown holes. Jagged shorts not quite covering a leg that ended in a bloody stump where a knee should have been.
The man dropped to his own knees next to one of the boys. And the realization hit me. Torn shorts meant boys. My sisters wore skirts to school, just like the other girls.
The scene sped up to normal and the pressure in my chest eased a little, knowing my sisters were safe. I said a silent prayer of thanks. Then I blinked away a few tears, watching the man with his son.
