Her name was Sarah, not that anyone called her that, because Sarah knew it all. Sarah was good at maths and english, and art and history. Sarah knew that the sun was a star and not a planet. Sarah knew how babies were made. Most of all, Sarah knew what happened when people died.

Because Sarah, at one point, had died too.

Sarah talked about a before and after. A before Sarah. But she did not talk about this much.

But Sarah did talk about other things. Sarah talked about hiking in beautiful places, about swimming with colorful fish. Sarah also talked about less interesting topics, like politics. Little Sarah talked like an adult sometimes. But for someone so smart, some teacher’s did not like her.

Especially Miss Nelly. Sometimes, Miss Nelly would stare at Sarah, and Sarah would stare back. The other children would be much too focused on their books, or too focused on chatting to each other to notice. But there were often moments like those, moments of tension and an unsettling connection between the two. But what everyone did notice that Miss Nelly did not like Sarah.

Miss Nelly was often cold and rude to little Miss Know-it-all. Tight-lipped, tense, and never offering a smile. Miss Nelly routinely refused to look at little Sarah in the eye. But on the rare times she did, Ms Nelly seemed to look away immediately, with an anguished and fearful look in her aged face.

Because little Miss Know-it-all, knew it all, and Sarah knew Nelly Osborne’s secret.

Miss Nelly knew about before Sarah. Miss Nelly knew about the broken body her troubled son put in the water. Ms Nelly had helped him bury the body that soon floated atop the calm waters of the lake near the Osborne’s home. She helped bury a woman, but now returned was a child. A child who on her first day of class with Ms Nelly said to her...

“I know what you are hiding at 34 Becker St and under the shed”.