Spelling Lesson

by Reem Faruqi

We have a new art teacher who has crayon yellow hair and she is helping us make cards for Father’s Day and most of us are Arab and Pakistani, different shades of beige, and the new teacher is helping our wobbly little hands write.

She looks at us one by one, asks What do you call your father?, and we look at her and we freeze.

We don’t say we call our father Baba or Abu or whatever we really call our fathers. So she prompts us, Daddy? And we nod so she takes our hands spells the letters: D-a-d-d-y.

I practice the correct answer in my head while I wait in the long line. A-b-b-a.

But she looks at me smiles and I freeze blink pause and when my father picks me up from school

I hand him his card.

Happy Father’s Day Daddy.

BIO

Reem Faruqi is the award-winning author of “Lailah’s Lunchbox,” a book based on her experiences immigrating to the United States. She’s the author of other picture books and middle grade novels, many received starred reviews. Reem's been featured in the New York Times, Coffee & Crumbs, Literary Mama, Fifty Word Stories, and is forthcoming in West Coast Review, WAYF Journal, and more. She lives in Atlanta with her husband and four daughters. Find her at ReemFaruqi.com. Currently, she is querying a book of micro-memoirs and is finishing her short story collection.