“Right. Sorry.”
She continues cutting in silence.
“Once you have the general shape, you can start making finer cuts like this.” I start cutting with the knife facing me this time.
“Like cutting an apple.”
She starts doing the same.
“Now, this isn’t too...”
Suddenly, she stops, the chunk of basswood falling to the rug. Beside it, I see a tiny red drop which makes my heart stop in turn.
“Clarissa?”
“I’m fine. It’s just a small cut.”
She stands up, getting off the rug and heading to the sink to wash her thumb.
Concerned, I get a Band-Aid from the can in the drawer, peeling the adhesive off so that I can put it around her thumb as soon as she’s done washing.
As she turns off the faucet, I grab her other hand.
“Here, let me help...”
I pause, eyes wide as I realize there’s no cut. Is this the wrong hand?
But no, it’s the right one. Why is there no cut then? Where had all that blood come from?
“It’s fine.” Clarissa jerks her hand away, hiding it behind her. “I told you it’s just a small cut. It doesn’t really need a Band-Aid but thanks.”
“Oh.” My arms fall to my sides.
“I think that’s enough whittling lessons for a day.” She yawns, but it feels fake. She’s running away. “I’ll go take a nap.”
Without waiting for me to say anything, she disappears into the bedroom. I throw the Band-Aid away and go back to the rug, cleaning up my tools and staring at the blood that has seeped into the grain of the piece of wood she was working on.
A small cut, huh?
I’ve cut my thumb a few times and I know it’s not small. Even if it was a small cut, there should still have been a mark but there wasn’t. It was as if the skin hadn’t been broken at all.
I look at my hand. I heal fast when I get cut but that’s because I’m not human. But Clarissa is.
I glance at the closed bedroom door.
Isn’t she?
Chapter Seven
~ Clarissa
I HOLD MY HAND UP IN front of my face, staring at my thumb in the semi-darkness.
I can still clearly remember the skin cracking open, the blood oozing out. But now, there’s no sign of that. No cut. No scar.
My thumb has healed completely.
I place my hand on my forehead, sighing.