Don’t.
That night, Elias pulled the covers over his brother’s head and whispered:
Elias said nothing. He was watching the corner of her jaw, where the bandage met the hairline. A dark sliver of something—not skin, not scab. Suture thread. Black and glistening.
Click.
Not the way a scratch or a mosquito bite itches—not a surface thing. This was deep, a slow crawl beneath the gauze, like tiny legs moving along the seam where her skin used to be. Lukas wanted to scratch it for her. He always did. But Elias held his wrist under the table.
“That’s not Mom.”
Click.
“Sorry,” Lukas whispered.
Lukas studied her hands. The left one trembled slightly when she lifted the bowl. Their mother’s left hand had never trembled. She used to hold a cigarette steady through a two-hour phone call with Aunt Margit, ash never falling.
Outside, the cornfields rustled in a wind that wasn’t there. And somewhere in the dark house, a pair of scissors opened. Closed. Opened. goodnight mommy 1
“You’re staring,” she said. But her voice was wrong. Flat. Like someone had recorded their mother’s voice on old tape and was playing it back at half-speed.
“I love you,” she said. “Both of you.”
Click.