As White as Snow by Salla Simukka Page B

the Eiffel Tower, but was significantly smaller and somehow more approachable.
    Lumikki occasionally glanced at Lenka’s thin fingers. Could those fingers have placed a Band-Aid on her knee a long time ago? What if they had met but Lenka didn’t remember it? Or what if Lenka was lying about never having seen Lumikki anywhere but in photographs? But why? That didn’t make any sense.
    Lumikki thought about how they were here, side by side, so close that their knees could have touched, but at the same time, a wall of hidden secrets stood between them. Lumikki hadn’t told Lenka anything about Jiři, the man sent to kill her, or any of what Jiři had told her. Likewise, she was sure Lenka was hiding things from her.
    Once upon a time, there was a girl with a secret.
    Once upon a time, there were two girls with secrets they didn’t tell each other.
    They were from the same family, a family of secrets. Lumikki almost snorted out loud.
    “And your mother never talked about Adam?” Lumikki asked.
    “No. I already said that. I’d never met any of my relatives. My grandparents died before I was born. I didn’t even know that my grandfather had a brother, let alone that his brother had a son. I don’t understand why Mother never talked about them. She lived with them.”
    Lumikki’s ears perked up.
    “Your mother lived with the family? Before you were born?”
    “Yes. But then she left. I can’t think of any explanation other than that the darkness went into her. Why else would she have left such good people?”
    Lenka looked at Lumikki with wide eyes, as if Lumikki couldn’t possibly have an answer. Lumikki shuddered. If Lenka’s mother left the cult and cut off all contact with its members, she must have had a good reason. And then, when she died, they came and plucked her daughter like a ripe apple.
    “I asked Adam about it once, but he just said that the past is the past and I should forget Mother. He’s right. Mother belongs to my old life. The important thing is the future, not the past.”
    Lenka turned her face toward the sun, closing her eyes and smiling. She had that illuminated expression that made Lumikki so uneasy. She knew there was no reaching this part of Lenka.
    “Is there something special coming in the future?” Lumikki asked cautiously. “Maybe the near future?”
    Lenka opened her eyes and gave Lumikki a sharp look.
    “The only people allowed to know the Truth are the family members who believe. You don’t believe yet. You don’t even believe you’re my sister and you don’t believe the other things either.”
    Lumikki thought for a second. Then another. She began to reconsider her earlier decision not to tell Lenka yet about what she remembered, not so directly. Now, though, it looked like Lenka might stand up and walk out of Lumikki’s life without a backward glance. Lumikki couldn’t let that happen. It had happened to her too many times.
    Lenka’s voice was pure ice in the heat of the sun.
    “It might be better if we don’t see each other again. You’re going home soon to your mother. And your father. Your father. I was stupid to think that he could be my father too. I already have a father: Adam. I already have everything. I don’t need anything else.”
    No, no, no,
Lumikki shouted inside, listening to the two-letter word reverberate in her mind. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t. Not again. She couldn’t keep letting the most important people in her life slip away.
    So Lumikki did something completely out of character. She took Lenka’s hands and squeezed them between her own. She looked Lenka straight in the eyes. The distance and chill melted in an instant.
    “I do believe you’re my sister.”
    Lumikki watched as her words sank in. Lenka’s hands began to tremble. Tears welled up in her eyes. Lumikki had to swallow a couple of times too. It was as if something black and heavy had been lifted off her chest. Finally. An answer. The truth. It was here.
    A group of