My English teacher once told twelve-year-old me that I had "the face of an owl" and that English wasn't for me.

I still have no idea what the owl part meant.

I still think about her sometimes-
(without hatred)

If you're reading this novel in English ; then Allah willed a different outcome than the one she promised me.

I've learned that people 'can' support or hurt you-
yet they don't get the final say in your story ;
That authority belongs to Allah alone, and He has always been kinder to me than I deserved.
Everything good in these pages came from Him first.

If by a miracle she ever reads this:

To you, Miss: The owl has now written a novel.

And if I'm good at English today-I can't honestly give you much credit for that.

May Allah forgive us both.



وَآخِرُ دَعْوَاهُمْ أَنِ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ



B.D. Zeinéb : builds stories that don't just end when you close the book- I can't get enough of stories about strength, and the quiet storms inside us all.