Free In the River Darkness by Marlene Röder

island, Alina and I. But not with music,” he added quickly. “Just spontaneously, for us. For the river and the grass and the kingfishers.”
    “Who is Alina?”
    “Alina and I . . . we . . .” Jay broke off and tried to put his words together again. Thoughtfully, like someone trying to build a tall tower out of building blocks, he continued. “She taught me to sing. How to imitate the call of a kingfisher. And of course how to swim. . . . One day she just threw me into the river, and that’s how I learned. Alina taught me all of that, all kinds of things that are important!”
    Jay’s eye, the green-brown one, gleamed. He leaned over toward me, as if to share a secret with me. “She’s my best friend . . . she is . . . she’s everything to me!” he whispered. “Alina is my whole world. And I’m hers.”
    I didn’t know how to react to this declaration. “That . . . that must be nice,” I replied lamely.
    Jay nodded soberly. “But it’s different from your music. May I . . . may I come again and listen?”
    “You’re welcome to but I’d prefer if you told me beforehand. Maybe knock on the window or something so I know you’re there. And we also have a front door with a doorbell.” I was gratified to see that he blushed. “And I have another request,” I added. “Sometime I’d like to come and hear you singing. That’s only fair, right?”
    Jay chewed on his lower lip awkwardly and thought about it. “Good,” he finally answered after a long pause, “it’s a deal!”
    He insisted on shaking my hand.
    I watched him as he trotted home with a stack of my best classical music CDs, which I had loaned him.
Encounters of the third kind,
I thought, and for some reason I had to laugh.

    The next day, I had no reason to laugh. That was the day I found the dead pike in my room.
    It had probably been dead for a few days already, at least judging from the smell. Its long body had been torn open and the guts were strewn across my floor. The fish’s mouth with its pointy teeth seemed to be twisted into an evil grin.
    I ran down the stairs to get my mother. She was as horrified as I was.
    “Peeew, is that a stench!” she groaned and pulled the tail of her shirt over her face as she stared at the remains of the fish in disgust. There was concern in her voice as she asked, “Are you having trouble with the kids at your new school, sweetheart? Is there anyone you think might do something horrendous like this?”
    I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t have any enemies, if that’s what you mean.” That sentence sounded like something that had wandered out of a mobster movie and into our lives. It scared us both.
    “Someone probably threw the fish through the open window,” my mother murmured. “Don’t worry about it, Mia. I’m sure it’s nothing but a stupid stunt pulled by some country bumpkins.” It was clear to me that she didn’t quite believe what she was saying.
    I didn’t, either.
    The dead fish was a warning, I was sure of that. And I also knew exactly where the warning came from. But what had I done to draw the attention of the shadow that was lurking around the Stonebrooks’ house?
    “It really
has
to be a prank, doesn’t it?” My mother studied me carefully.
    For a moment, I considered telling her about the fish cadavers in the neighbors’ yard, and the footprints between the rows of vegetables in their garden. But the Stonebrooks apparently hadn’t thought it necessary to inform the police yet. What good would that have done? At most, they could have filed a complaint against unknown persons. After all, there was no evidence. Nothing but a few dead fish.
    I nodded weakly. “Yeah, Mom. It’s definitely just a dumb prank.”

    It took me hours to clean my room. The stench of decay hung stubbornly between the walls, clung to the clothes in my closet.
    But that wasn’t all. It was little things. My hairbrush lay in a different place. Some of my CDs were scratched and only played