Sometimes in a field of flowers, Lumi, Denise and Lorelei would prance around and pick posies and Lumi’s cat Jisu would prance along and when it snowed Jisu would watch from inside as they slid on a sled down the catslide roof of Lorelei’s house and sometimes after landing they would maintain enough momentum to reach a second slope without having to stand up and pull around the sled.

. . .

Many times on field trips, Mika would get sick. And now at the museum, he was on the verge. He was partnered up with Lilja, and they had come out of the Torture in Ancient Times exhibit to a hall where an entire wall was dedicated to diary pages from the distant past. One entry encased above Mika’s head had a pastel drawing of three girls riding a sled down the roof of a house. Underneath, the label read, “Lumi and Her Friends, February, 18XX.”

Mika thought, “Lumi and her friends are having fun.”

Lilja said, “I’d rather be drawn and quartered than to be put inside the brazen bull. I’d rather even be flayed alive. No one would really choose the brazen bull over anything else outside, because you would at least want to see where you are. So it wouldn’t be a choice at all. Instead, between the rat box and the Spanish donkey—”

But Mika was done keeping his cookies in, so he threw up all over the floor. And also on Lilja. She screamed and gagged and started to cry. Mrs. Lipponen hurried over saying, “Poor Mika. Get it all out,” and when he did, she took them both to the museum restroom, leaving the class with Mr. Lysh.

Mari asked, “Is he okay?”

Kaisu asked, “Was there blood?”

Mr. Lysh said, “At times there are gaps within our field of inquiry. I met a mermaid when I was six years old. We were in exile on a boat, passing through international waters. It happened at night while everyone else was asleep. I looked out the cockpit window and she was there staring at me with her yellow lamp light eyes. She was smooth gray without scales and had webbed fingers like a frog, and she must have been around my age too, or I supposed so at the time at least. She stayed on the surface for a few more minutes, then dove back down, disappearing into the black. Sometimes it’s the only thing I really think about.”

. . .

Both of their shirts were ruined. Mrs. Lipponen had to go all the way down to the gift shop to buy them something dry and clean to wear. Meanwhile, they were left in the cold ladies room, half-naked in neighboring stalls.

“Sorry for throwing up on you. It was crowded and I didn’t have time to plan it through.”

“It’s okay . . . How long do you think it would take for your eyes to pop out if you were hung upside down?”