My name is Lily Madwip and I have become vengeance.

My dad was going to teach me how to play the drums.

He was going to teach me how to play the harmonica too, though I was less interested in that.

But he can't teach me anything right now because he's lying unconscious in a hospital bed

with tubes sticking out of his face and a bunch of fancy machines monitoring him.

Come and I stand beside him.

She's crying and holding his hand.

I wonder if he feels it and knows it's her.

Can you recognize someone by the feel of their hands?

Maybe he's dreaming that they're walking together down at Wolf Lake where we always have

family reunions.

That's his favorite place in the world, I think.

Mom's holding my hand too because right now the three of us are what's left of our family

after Roger got mashed in a car accident three months ago.

I hear her crying but I'm not watching because I'm too busy keeping my eyes on the lady

and black, Officer Flowers, who's standing across the bed from us charred up like a human

marshmallow by my friend Meredith.

Whenever my family and I go camping we make smores and I love to cook my marshmallow

over the fire until it's all black and crispy on the outside.

And then I squish it with a piece of chocolate between two graham crackers and all the white

marshmallow goop spurts out.

Now I'm imagining squishing Officer Charmelo between two giant graham crackers and white

...