As Black as Ebony by Salla Simukka Page B

for a few minutes.”
    Then Jennika went upstairs so she could talk in peace.
    There was too much strawberry jam for the small pancakes, so the plates were covered with the excess.
    “Let’s play death!” Rosa suggested.
    “How do we play that?” Lumikki asked.
    “Like this,” Rosa explained and rubbed strawberry jam on the front of her white nightshirt. “This is blood.”
    Lumikki did the same. The jam was slippery and it dripped on the floor. Her hands got sticky. Lumikki laughed. Rosa wasn’t satisfied, though.
    “There has to be a weapon for blood to come out,” she said, walking to a drawer.
    Lumikki was startled to see a knife in Rosa’s hand.
    “We’re not allowed to touch the knives,” she whispered.
    “Mom and Dad aren’t here. And besides, this is just a game,” Rosa said.
    “Okay,” Lumikki whispered uncertainly.
    “I’m so sad. I just want to die,” Rosa explained.
    “Why?”
    “Maybe my boyfriend just left me. And now I don’t want to live anymore!” Rosa lamented in a dramatic voice, waving the knife in the air. “I’m going to kill myself!” Then she pointed the tip of the knife toward her stomach. In the air, of course, a safe distance from her nightshirt.
    Everything happened quickly. Rosa slipped on the jam on the floor. She fell forward, holding the knife, which sank into her stomach. Collapsing on her face on the floor, she didn’t get up. Lumikki ran to her sister’s side and nudge her shoulder. Rosa did not react. Blood began pooling under her.
    “This is a stupid game,” Lumikki said. Rosa didn’t answer.
    “Talk to me!” Lumikki demanded, shoving Rosa over on her back with all her strength.
    Her sister’s eyes were open, but they weren’t looking at Lumikki. Blood trickled from her mouth.
    Lumikki realized that something was very wrong.
    She ran and ran and ran upstairs. She screamed for Jennika. Jennika was in the bathroom. She was crying and yelling.
    “I’ve never loved anyone as much as I love you!”
    Lumikki pounded on the bathroom door.
    “What is it now?” Jennika snapped through the door.
    “Rosa. Rosa. It’s a stupid game.”
    “Well, tell her you want to play something else. Leave me alone for a few seconds now, will you?” Jennika said in a tearful voice.
    Lumikki was crying too, but no tears were coming out.
    She ran to the medicine cabinet in her parents’ bedroom and took out a package of Band-Aids. If you’re bleeding, you need a Band-Aid. She grabbed the ones with Mickey Mouse on them. Rosa liked those.
    Then she ran back downstairs. Rosa was still lying on the floor. There was so much red blood. The knife was sticking out of her stomach. It looked wrong. A knife wasn’t supposed to be like that. Lumikki tried to take it out, but she failed. She put Band-Aids around the knife, but they were instantly soaked with blood. Rosa’s white nightshirt was all bloody. The Band-Aids didn’t help. The owie didn’t go away.
    The blood was slick like strawberry jam, but it was warm, not cold.
    Finally, a red-eyed Jennika came down sniffling. She stopped in the doorway to the kitchen.
    “Oh my God . . .”
    “We were playing death,” Lumikki said. “But it’s a stupid game. I don’t like it.”
    Lumikki knew the memory was true. She hadn’t imagined it and it wasn’t a result of the drugs. That was how it had all happened. And the memory explained every one of the strange flashes and nightmares Lumikki had ever had. She had a sister who had died. But it had been an accident. She wasn’t a killer.
    Did her mom and dad think she was? Did they think that Lumikki had taken the knife out of the drawer and stabbed Rosa in the stomach? Was that why they had hidden her sister and everything that happened? Lumikki had to talk to them. Right now. She had to get out of this stupid glass coffin.
    Carefully, Lumikki tested whether the weakness and heaviness in her arms and legs had faded at all. It hadn’t. Breathing felt more arduous now too. Her