Ariel's Quiet Light

d in the narrow space behind her ribs where she kept things too important to say aloud. Kofi knew enough to keep his mouth clos

e afternoon, "Why do you always have such strange luck?" Ariel smiled and deflected: "Just practice," she

o tie her shoe. He froze, staring with the narrow focus of someone who had never had to wonder about

he pendant hung beneath her collar like a

ressed, and his tone was a lad

ave found it. Instead, she chose the partial truth she had been practicing limiting the spread of

ity someone else's advantage could become your debt. He shrugged and the matter see

ices low and conspiratorial. They tossed ideas back and forth not about the necklace specifically, but about opportunities, about someone who might hav

never praised her. A piece of gossip appeared about a girl in the neighborhood who "knew someone who could arrange" a scholarship. Aunt

ollow in her shoe, a tin among the aunt's cooking supplies. But hiding had its costs: the pendant would sometimes warm in its hiding place as if agitated, and Ariel w

her hand and gave it a squeeze that felt like a small anchor. "If they find

admitted. "They will

ust choose carefully w

people's fate. The pendant's light would draw hands like moths. Ariel, who had learned survival as

ned her to memory and steadiness; now it demanded discretion. Ariel made a new list people she could tr

time in weeks she prayed not for miracles but for wisdom. The necklace humme