I got to leave early today. It was right during math, so I was happy. I like my friends, my teacher too, but I don’t like school. It’s so tiny and all the bullies are there. They say that I’m a “runt”. I don’t know what that means though, so I just smile and nod. They laugh too.

I told Mr. Farah that it wasn’t time for me to go home yet. But he said that mama had sent ayah to pick me up. He said something about my dad, but it was too quiet to hear. That’s when I remembered. Dada was supposed to come home today. That’s why they were letting me go home.

Dada was a hero. Mama told me so. She said that he was in another city fighting the evil wizards. I don’t remember much about him though. Whenever he came, he would only stay for two or three days. And we would always play “Donkey”. Though, he said they weren’t donkeys. He would call the “horses”. But I think he’s just making up stories. I saw one once and it looked just like a big donkey.

The road home was rocky. Ayah let me sit on her shoulder though, so I didn’t feel anything. She was a strong ayah, almost as tall as dada. But I know I’ll be stronger than her one day. Boys were always stronger. I knew that because dada had told me the last time he came home. He told me that mama and ayah were strong, but I needed to be strong, to protect them. Maybe that’s why I was going home. Maybe dada had finally come home to train me to fight the wizards. He would take my place at home and it would be my turn.

I saw the front gate of our house. It was a tall gate, black and shiny too. There were a lot of people standing outside the house. For a minute, I couldn’t see them against the black gate. I knew my friends liked black, but I guess mamas and dadas can too.
I couldn’t see mama though. She was probably inside. But when I saw the people, I knew I was right. They had come to thank dada. He was probably inside. Dada never talked much. He said that real heroes talked only to say spells to stop the evil wizards. I was still learning so I talked a lot, but I’ve been learning how to be quiet.

As ayah walked went inside, I felt their eyes following us. The people were scary. I saw one man look at me and he got a really weird look on his face. A bump of water came to his eyes, kind of like he was going to cry. But men don’t cry, so he must have been making a spell. He probably worked with dada and was jealous that I was going to help him. He probably wanted me to take his place. So when he reached out his hands to pick me up, I ran away inside the house. Dada was there and they wouldn’t dare try anything with him around.

Dada was there. He was lying down on the ground wearing a white sheet, kind of like a caterpillar before it became a butterfly (Mr. Farah told us about them). It must have been some sort of spell. There were more people with him, but they didn’t stop me. I walked up to him and told him that it was time to get up. I was here and he didn’t have to try so hard to fight the evil wizards anymore. He was going to teach me and I was going to help him.

Mama came over and knelt down next to me. She said that dada wasn’t going to get up. She said that an evil wizard had cast the “boom” spell on himself while dada was close to him and dada had gotten hurt because of the spell range. I knew that spell. It was very dangerous and dada had told me that if I ever thought anyone was going to use it, I should run. I told mama so, but she just hugged me. I told her it was going to be okay and asked her how many of his friends had also gotten hit.
“Seven”, she told me. She was shaking, so she was probably scared. “They were in a bus and the ‘boom’ had gotten them.”

With Dada, that was eight. Eight was a large number. But it was a good number. It was even. Nine might have been too much. I knew that I could work with eight. It wasn’t so bad. I would just use the “revive” spell. I told mama she didn’t have to be scared. As soon as I trained some more, I would bring dada back. She’d see. I would bring him back and take off that cocoon he was in and we’d fly to fight the wizards. I told mama not to be scared. I wasn’t scared of the “boom