Tag, You're It!

Isabella stood with her back to the busy playground, counting to fifteen in her head. Behind her, she listened to the other kids yell, laugh, and scream. Her little sister, Gwen, was somewhere in the mix, and Isabella was going to hunt her down.

“Fifteen! Here I come!”

Whirling around, she sprinted into the throng of children, kicking up wood chips. She and Gwen hadn’t been able to agree on hide-and-seek or tag, so their game was a mashup of the two.

Warm, sun-kissed skin skin grazed Isabella’s as she brushed past people. The smell of clean sweat hung like a cloud over the playground. Gwen’s bright red ponytail should be easy to spot. Riiight … there!

Isabella ducked under a bridge, dodged a spider web, and ran for the jungle gym dome. Gwen squealed and tried to find a new place to hide, but it was too late. Isabella was hot on her heels!

They took turns being “it,” even as the sun made their cheeks pink and their tummies began to grumble. She was pushing Gwen on one of the swings when a grownup—a woman—came up to the two of them. She smiled and waved.

“Hi, sweetie! My name is Rose. I’m Daisy and Rhett’s mom.”

Isabella’s smile dropped. She shied away from the stranger, though she didn’t go too far from Gwen on the swing.

“Hi,” she murmured.

“Are your parents around?” asked Rose, sinking into a crouch.

Isabella shook her head.

“Do you live nearby?”

She shrugged.

Noticing how quiet her sister had become, Gwen jumped off of the swing to hide behind Isabella. Rose’s brow furrowed into a sad sort of frown even though her mouth was still smiling.

“Honey, what’s that on your clothes?”

Isabella looked down at her T-shirt. It was white and covered in rainbow butterflies. Splattered across it and her purple shorts were rusty brown stains, dry now, that made her clothes feel crunchy. Those stains even touched the tops of her white socks.

Suddenly, the afternoon sun dimmed. A shiver started at the ends of Isabella’s arms and ran up to her spine, then passed through to her heart. She stared at the butterflies, drowned in crusty stains.

Gwen’s arms encircled her from behind, and Isabella’s eyes were drawn to her little sister’s fingernails. Under her nails were dark red flakes.

Isabella burst into tears.