This a review of last night’s reading,” Ms. Ling informed the class. She finished drawing a Venn diagram on the whiteboard—four interlocking circles for the four ancient river valley civilizations. “The compare-and-contrast test is later this week.” Everyone copied the words Ms. Ling wrote, taking meticulous notes, but Emma’s mind drifted far from the Indus and the Nile. The graphic pattern of the overlapping Venn circles intrigued her—much more than the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Her pen strayed to the margins of her notebook. What if she made the circles different sizes? What if one was large and the others were small? She imagined repeating the pattern on a tunic. Interlocking rings of the same color. She’d embroider one circle with glass beads that caught the light. Shimmer. She was all about shimmer now. She still hadn’t told Charlie or Holly her great idea. Later, when they met up at Laceland, she’d lay out all the plans she’d stayed up late into the night crafting.
