April/26/2023

It's tough being ten, going on eleven. It's especially tough being ten, going on eleven, while fixing up for middle school. But that's how it was for Kamilah Espinoza. Most of the time, Kamilah stayed at home. But she had lots of friends. She had two siblings, and was very bright. But sometimes Kamilah felt blue. Sometimes, life felt unfair. And that's when she turned to her favorite stories to cheer her up. Kamilah loved to read the myths of ancient Greece and Rome. She knew all about the labors of Hercules. She thrilled to the adventures of Bellerophon and his winged horse, Pegasus. 

And she cried when Icarus's pride led him too to fly too high on his wax wings. Yet of all  the myths, Kamilah's favorites were those about Athena.

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Athena was a Greek goddess of wisdom and heroism, so she was smart and tough. But, like all the Olympian gods, Athena wasn't perfect. She could be stubborn and sometimes lose her temper. But while these flaws might have made Athena less appealing to some, they made Kamilah like her even more.

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Because Kamilah had a stubborn streak, too. She also had a short fuse. So it was easy to understand why Kamilah often imagined herself as Athena, overcoming everything to save the day with daring and intelligence. One day, Kamilah was daydreaming about Athena one fateful afternoon when her world suddenly felt like it was ripped from the pages of one of her favorite stories.

Kamilah was on Fawn Street near the library when someone yelled. She turned and saw, down the block, a man with blond hair. He wore a blue shirt and was running toward her. Behind him, a woman in a red coat gave chase. "Stop!" the woman shouted. "Thief!" Kamilah could see, in the man's hand, a leather purse. 

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The woman was not going to catch him, and nobody else was around. As the thief turned onto Barkly Avenue, Kamilah knew she had to act. Barkly Avenue sloped down from Fawn Street, and it dead-ended at the Hanley River. A jogging trail lined the river, which was shaded by large oak trees. As the thief sprinted down Barkly Avenue, Kamilah ran to the top of the hill. She thought about the heroines she loved. She thought about the woman whose purse had been stolen. She took a deep breath. Then, she ran.

Kamilah gained on the thief. His shirt had a picture of a deer on the back. The deer's massive antlers made Kamilah think of the Ceryneian Hind, which was so fast that Hercules chased it for a whole year before capturing it. Kamilah hoped this chase would be much shorter.

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