The Garden of My Imaan by Farhana Zia Read Free Book Online Page A

her favorite grandchild.
    “Couldn’t we please skip Urdu today?” I asked.
    My great-grandmother turned and scowled at me. “Come quickly!” she commanded. “Juldi!”
    Last year Badi Amma had insisted that Zayd and I study Urdu with her every day for an hour. We had protested loudly. It had taken a lot of haggling but we’d finally got her to agree to forty minutes three days a week. We tried to get her to cut it down further but she didn’t budge an inch even when I reminded her about after-school math and all the homework I had to do.
    “Do I have to, Mom?” Zayd asked. “Urdu’s hard and it’s too squiggly to write!”
    “When Badi Amma calls, you say, ‘Here I come, Badi Amma!’“ Mom told him. “And you better run, mister!” She glared at me. “That goes for you too!”
    “Here I come, Badi Amma!” Zayd shouted. I followed him into our great-grandmother’s room for another lesson on the thirty-two letters in the Urdu alphabet and how to write from right to left without leaving any gaps.

Spilled Lunch
    I t doesn’t make any sense,” Winnie said. “Why is it an independent study project if Mrs. Doyle allows us to work with partners?”
    “Maybe because we can do our parts independently and bring them together?” Actually, I thought it was a pretty good idea. Working with Winnie would make it a whole lot easier.
    Only three hands went up when Mrs. Doyle asked if we had started working on the project: Juliana’s, Nicole’s, and Morgan’s. Winnie and I looked at each other and shook our heads. Neither of us had made any headway yet.
    As we left the classroom, I overheard Juliana talking with Nicole and Morgan about their projects. I walked closer to them, hoping to get some ideas for mine and Winnie’s.
    Juliana whirled around. “Excuse me,” she demanded. “Are you trying to steal our plans?”
    “I’m not stealing anything,” I said. “I’m just walking to lunch.”
    “Yeah, right! Why would you walk so close to us if you weren’t trying to eavesdrop?” She rolled her eyes. I heard the girls giggle as they hurried on down the hall.
    Winnie caught up with me. “What are they laughing about now?” she asked.
    “Juliana thought I was trying to steal their fabulous ideas. As if our project won’t be just as good as theirs.”
    “I don’t know why you worry so much about what she says. I’m sure we’ll come up with something even better. I know—let’s do something about lefties and righties! Adam’s a lefty and I’m a righty. I could collect a lot of data at home and we could do a comparison and submit surveys and graphs.”
    “I don’t know if that’s such a great idea,” I said.
    “Why not? The project is about differences. Left-handed people are different. I can tell you that from experience— my brother’s a lefty and he’s so different, he borders on being weird!”
    “I don’t know, Winnie,” I said. “It’ll end up being only about you and Adam because everyone in my family is right-handed. Anyway, you’d be doing all the work.”
    The closer we got to the cafeteria, the more crowded the halls got.
    “I really hope we don’t have to wait forever to get lunch,” I said. “I’m famished.”
    As I turned the corner I slammed into Austin. The impact knocked his lunch bag to the floor and his apple rolled away.
    “What the …?” He turned around. “Hey, weirdo, are you trying to kill me?”
    “I’m sorry,” I apologized. “It was an accident.”
    I could hear people laughing as he dropped to his knees, trying to rescue his apple. “I’ll get you for this,” he snarled. “Just you wait!”
    “Come on,” said Winnie, pulling me away. “He knows you didn’t mean to run into him.” We got into the lunch line and inched forward, putting food on our trays. Winnie headed to our table while I was still digging in my pockets for my lunch money. “Wait up!” I cried, but she was already gone. I glanced around the cafeteria.
    Marwa was sitting