The incident happened at lunchtime in the playground. Anje had seen it from the teachers’ lounge as a blur of exploding colors. The porcelain bird had shattered into hundreds of multicolored pieces; its beak severed from its face, and its wing split apart into its many fragile feathers. Some of the smaller pieces continued to jump along in the wind like tiny crickets, until finally they disappeared in the long grass entirely.
Rami, six years old, was knelt down in the grass, finding splintered colors here and there, like trying to pick up glitter. He kept reaching his hands downward, now haphazardly pulling out fistfuls of grass when the grade advisor yanked him by the shoulder into a standing position. Rami stood there, looking down and away from the grade advisor, red-faced, eyes pooled with water.
As it turns out, there were multiple accounts of the incident. A crowd of curious children congregated at the commotion directly afterward. Upon discovering the victim of the incident, a little runt known to be pr... Read more
