Most Beloved Sister

"Lalla-Lee grabbed my arm very tightly and said: “Most Beloved Sister, there is one thing you must know!” I felt a pain in my heart just then. “No,” I said. “I do not want to know.” “Yes, one thing you must know,” continued Lalla-Lee. Then the flowers stopped singing and the trees stopped playing, and I could no longer hear the brook’s melody. “Most Beloved Sister,” said Lalla-Lee. “When Salikon’s roses wither, then I will be dead.”A story about a girl who has a secret twin sister under the rose bush in the garden.Originally published in the short story collection Nils Karlsson-Pyssling. Also published by Methuen in 1974 as My Very Own Sister.Translator: Elisabeth Kallick Dyssegaard