It was the end of summer vacation, my friend and I were skinny dipping for the last time before school started. It had felt so nice to not have our tight clothes on.The day was warm and a nice breeze was rustling the trees. The breeze smelled like freshly cut grass. My friend and I had been playing in the pool all morning. It was around noon when my plump and grumpy neighbor came outside onto her back deck, to play with her grandkids.
She stood up from her chair and started to watch us. My friend and I would run around the yard and then jump back into the pool. All of a sudden we heard a shout from across the yard.
“Does your dad know you are running around all exposed?” she kept saying. “Yes” I said with a little bit of annoyance in my voice.
I saw nothing wrong with what we were doing. We were after all only ten years old. I didn’t like how she was watching us.
I had just said, “Gianna lets go inside,” when my brother came from the front yard with a scared look on his face.
“Larissa go inside now.” He said to me with a quiver in his voice like he may start to break down and cry. I was so confused. What was going on?
Fear started to build up inside of me. “Wha- what’s going on?” I stuttered to him, my voice barely a whisper. I looked at my brother and for a moment I saw so much fear in his eyes, but then his face became serious and stern.
He said once more, “Go inside!” This time it was a demand.
Gianna and I went up to my room. I was thinking something must not have happened to my parents, Anders would have told me. I started to pace back and forth in my room. I was so confused. About ten minutes had gone by and I had to know what was going on.
I came down the stairs and found my brother rapidly searching through the telephone book.
“Anders, can you please tell me what's going on?” I said softly.
“Bob’s been hit by a car” he said without looking at me. My heart started racing as fast as a hummingbird's wings.
I ran back upstairs and sat in the corner of the room with my knees pulled up to my chest. I felt so numb. I eventually told Gianna what was going on, thats when I started to cry. My mind went through all the memories I had of Bob in one minute.
I thought back to when we first got him, I instantly started to smile, he was so tiny compared to his other yorkshire terrier siblings. The day before all this happened, I had dressed him in some of my baby clothes that I had found in my moms closet. He didn’t mind, he laid around in them all day. That night he had watched my mom and I play cards, he would walk right through the stack of cards so we would have to pay attention to him.
I knew that Gianna must have felt awkward but right then I didn’t really care. I heard yelling from outside, it was my dads voice, who was he yelling at? I went into my sisters room that was across from mine and looked out the window to see what was going on. All I could see was a red truck in the middle of the road. My mom was huddled around a spot on the ground, and my dad was yelling at a man that was sitting in his truck.
Finally, after what seemed like hours my mom came and got me. She led me to the backyard where my brother had dug a hole. My brother had also brought out Bobs bed. Bob was laying dead in his bed cradled in my dads arms. He was was still warm. He had blood coming out of his nose, mouth, and ears. I hated to see him like that. I took one last look at him and said goodbye to my best friend.
My mom laid him in the hole and slowly covered him with dirt. When he was all covered we made a cross out of neatly cut boards, and stuck it in the ground right above his grave. I found a wind chime on the ground and attached it to the cross. My mom thought it would do us good if we talked about the accident so we all gathered on the couch and talked and cried for hours.
I learned that the man that hit Bob was already drunk and was probably on his way to a bar down the street. He didn’t even notice he had run over Bob, my mom had to run out into the middle of the road so he would stop. I also learned that Bob died fairly quick because his skull had been crushed and he had a lot of internal bleeding. I guess it was better that he died quickly rather than him suffering.
I had never known what intense anger had felt like, until that day. I remember saying that I would never forgive that man for what he did, and I never have. I learned that my best friend wasn’t invincible and that a kiss on the his injuries wouldn’t make everything alright. The next day I visited his grave and put flowers all around the cross. When I was out there his chime was blowing in the wind as if he was talking to me. So on the days when I would hear the chime play a beautiful song, I knew Bob was somewhere nearby.