Repeat After Me

A rented room above a pharmacy. One tube light, one ceiling fan turning too slow to matter. Shurovi, sixteen, sits with a workbook open to a page she has not written on. Miss Ruba, her teacher, late twenties, marks a different student’s paper without looking up. MISS RUBA: Read the first line. The one under “Daily Routine.” SHUROVI: “Every morning, I wake up at six o’clock and brush my teeth.” MISS RUBA: Do you? SHUROVI: No, miss. I wake up at ten past five. For the water. MISS RUBA: (still marking) Then write that. SHUROVI: It’s not in the book.