Fighting Words: Coming Summer 2020

My new tattoo is covered by a band-aid but halfway through recess the band-aid falls off.  I’m walking back to the fourth-grade classroom when my teacher, Ms. Davonte, gasps.

“Della,” she says, “is that a tattoo?”

I hold up my wrist to show it to her.  “It’s an ampersand,” I say, careful to pronounce the word correctly.

“I know that,” Ms. Davonte says. “Is it real?”

It’s so real it still hurts, and the skin around it is red and puffy.  “Yes, Ma’am,” I say.

This excerpt is from the opening of Kim’s book Fighting Words, set to be published in Summer 2020.