Scene of the Crime

Use the words: sunset, accident, game

“God Joey, what have you done?” demanded Tom.

“I didn’t do nuthin, it was an accident” Joey defended, his face red, tears filling his brown eyes.  “I was playing a game with the ball, and then Benny came running over to join in.  I threw him the ball but he missed it and it hit him in the head and he fell down dead.”  His voice ended in a wail.

Tom knelt and hugged Joey to his chest, muffling his sobs.

“I’ll go to jail – the police will come and lock me up and I’ll never see you again.”  Joey pulled away and scrubbed his face with the back of a grimy hand, leaving it smeared with dirt.

“I’m pretty sure they don’t lock 6 year old kids in jail”, Tom said with all the authority of an older brother.  He took a careful look around the playground.  “Look, no one saw what happened.  We’ll just dig a hole in the sand pit and bury him.  No one will know it was us.”

Tom began to scoop away the sand with his hands.  “Come on, stop crying and help.  If we’re not home by sunset, Mum will kill us.”

Still sobbing, Joey joined in.  By the time the sun was starting to sink below the horizon, the hole was big enough.  Tom grabbed the body by the legs and dragged it to the edge.  Pushing from one side, he rolled it down into the hollow where it landed on its side.  Frantically Tom and Joey knelt and scraped over sand to cover the corpse.

Tom grabbed Joey’s hand and pulled him to his feet, brushing the sand from his shorts.  “Quick, Joey, we’ve got to go.  And please stop crying.  He was just a dumb stray dog.”

Word count: 297