The Fox Brooch’s Destiny
The Bridgeland Middle School was basically in our backyard. You could see it from my mother’s balcony and hear the screams of excited children on the playground when we opened the door to our small square garden. Ms. Ruth Ambery was therefore puzzled by my constant lateness. She settled her hazel brown eyes on me when I opened the door to the classroom with my head hanging low in embarrassment but she gestured me to find my assigned seat. She was a tall woman with long ashy brown hair that almost reached her hips, though this was hard to tell when she was sitting behind the desk in front of the blackboard. She looked like a woman taken out from a seventies movie with her orange blazers and long printed shirts. She always had three chains hanging down from her neck with amber pendants and silver rings on each hand with more amber stones attached. Sometimes she remind me of cartoon characters who always wore the same outfit.
“Zoha, can I talk to you?” She called after me as the others were leaving for recess.
“Yes, Ms. Ambery”
Ms. Ambery waited until each child had left but Jessica stood by the door, waiting for me. Her brown hair was straight like boiled spaghetti and framed her round face, unlike my hair that looked like wavy noodles tied into a ponytail. My eyes were lighter and my face had a more oval shape but people still asked if we were sisters. In the beginning we thought it was our friendship that caused this question. Later, we understood that our darker skin tone made us look related in a crowd of Caucasian students, especially when we were always walking together.
Our teacher spoke to her gently, “She will be there in a minute, dear. Can you close the door behind you?”
Jessica was hesitant. Her eyes moved from her to me before she slowly pushed the door shut. Ms. Ambery turned her attention to me and smiled, “how are you, dear?”
“I am good”
“That is quite a statement.”
“I am sorry for being late, Ms. Ambery”
“Yes, I know”
I looked down at my shoes, feeling my cheek warming from inside. My heart felt a little heavier in my chest and my shoulders began to cave in on themselves.
“Are you happy to be here?”
I was stumped. I wanted to say something but nothing would come out and I ended up just staring at her with wide-open eyes while my lips pressed into a tight line like I was holding back a word. She nodded empathetically as if she had gotten the exact answer she expected.
A thumping sound broke the silence between us. Both our heads jolted toward the window where Jessica’s hair and fingertips were peaking up from the bottom. The rest of her face was hidden underneath the sill.
Ms. Ambery broke into laughter, “Friends are a wonderful thing, aren’t they?”
My lips curled into a smile.
“I have heard that you love foxes.”
“It is my favorite animal, Miss.”
She opened one of the drawers and pulled out an orange brownish brooch shaped like a fox with rhinestones embedded into the tail that was wrapped was around its body. It looked peaceful with its eyes shut and head bowed down as it was sleeping in an upright position. She handed it to me.
“Is this yours?”
“N-No, Miss. I don’t own a brooch.”
“Well, that is odd. Look at the engraving on the spine.”
I turned it around to read the small cursive letters that clearly stated Zoha Akram.
“It seems like it belongs to you, my dear.”
“But, Ms. Ambery, it isn’t mine! I can’t take it.”
“Sometimes things that don’t belong to us find a way to us, and I believe that in those situations we are obliged to accept them.”
“What does that mean?”
“I have no idea. My headmistress said it once and I keep repeating it to my students, hoping that it will make sense.”
“But then it will just mean something different each time.”
“That is quite true, isn’t it?” she smiled.
“What does it mean in my case, Miss?”
“I think it means that something wonderfully coincidental has happened and it might just be that it was supposed to happen.”
Mr. Amberly took my hands in hers and closed them around the brooch. I could not stop myself from grinning. The tight muscles in my chest loosened and the heavy sinking feeling turned into a warm vaporizing sensation running through my entire body.
“Thank you, Ms. Ambery!”
“Don’t thank me for something that was meant for you, dear. Now get on with your day.”
