Stick Boy and Match Girl

I sat there crying my poor little eyes out as the lifeless body rested on my hand; I couldn’t believe that I actually killed something. It was defenseless and had no reason to die, and with my giant hand just mashed it. I wiped my nose with the back of my free hand and stared at the small ant in my 6 year old hand. It was small and rolled up, I felt like a monster.

“Why are you crying?” I heard a boy’s voice asked curiously.

I looked up from the crime scene and saw a boy with brown hair and brown eyes, his hair was a mess and he looked like he was playing in the dirt.

“I… I… I k-killed an ant…” I whispered and brought my attention back to the lifeless body.

I heard the board from the fence move out its place, I looked up and sniffed watching the boy entered our backyard, he couldn’t be a year or so older than me. He placed himself in front of me and carefully pushed the dead ant into his hand and stared at it.

“Yup, he’s a goner.” He said nodding, causing me to cry even more than I was already. “No, please don’t cry. He’s in a bigger and better place…” He said and patted my head softly.

“He… He is?” I asked with a shaky breath and wiped my eyes.

“Yes, he’s… with all the other ants and animals go… animal heaven where they can’t get hurt or die, he’ll be happier there. I promise.” He explained placing an innocent kiss on my cheek.

I looked at him and let a small smile slip, I looked at the ant in his hand and frowned deeply still feeling pretty guilty about the murder. The boy brought me to my feet, he was tall… taller than me and almost as tall my mommy’s tallest rose bush. My eyes were at his chest, I looked up at him I felt so small.

“Do you have a box?” He asked. I shook my head. He looked away probably in thought before asking me to put my hand out; I did as told and held the tiny ant as he dug around in his pockets. He pulled out a stick of gum and opened it up. He broke the gum in half sticking one piece in his mouth as he put the other in front of my lips.

“Open your mouth and say ‘Ahh’ like you would at the doctors.” He told me, I did as told again even adding a little ‘Ah’ he put the piece of gum carefully in my mouth and smiled with a small nod.

“Thank you,” I said in a low tone.

Nodding again he opened the silver wrapper and carefully pushed the ant into it, he folded it up as I started to panic about the ant’s safety. He promised that he would be fine, everything will be. We walked over to my mommy’s small garden where I was never supposed to play in.

“I can’t… I can’t dig in there,” I said being distracted by the fruity goodness that was in my mouth.

“It’s okay, it won’t be a big hole just a tiny one… we need to put him to rest.” He dropped himself onto the glass not caring if he was going to get any grass stains.

“Why?” I asked sitting down next to him.

“Um, I don’t know… that’s what they did when my mom’s auntie dead they put her in the ground…” He answered and put the silver wrapper on the grass next to him.

“Oh, did you cry?”

“Nah ah, but my mom did… but she’s not anymore…” He said as he dug a small hole with his tiny finger and put the silver paper in and covered it up. “Now he’s at rest.”

“That’s it?” I asked shocked and looked at the covered up hole.

“Yes, now we go inside and eat and drink a lot of punch until we can’t talk right or stand.” He explained and helped me up.

“Why?”

“Because that’s what happened after silly.” He laughed and grabbed my hand, holding onto it.

“I am not silly…” I said as my bottom started to quiver, he brought me into a hug and said soft sorry. I nodded and grabbed his hand again like nothing and headed for the back door and entered my house. “Mommy!!” I yelled loudly as I entered the kitchen.

“Anna, what, what is it dear?” She asked sounding scared. She rushed into the kitchen a hand on her chest and her eyes huge. “Oh, who’s this charming young man?” She asked as she approached us, her hands rested on her knees bending over a little. I shrugged.

“I’m Ryan, I live next door…” He shyly and smiled a little showing some of his teeth missing. I frowned; I wish I lost some of mine.

“Oh, well nice to meet you Ryan… What can I help you guys with?” My mom asked softly.

“Mom maybe we have some animal crackers and some punch or apple juice pretty please with two gummy bears on top?” I pleaded.

“Of course you can!” She said cheerfully. She walked us over to the table and helped us get onto the chairs; I sat right next to this Ryan boy. Soon we there two napkins in front of us with animal crackers and cups filled with juice. I got onto my legs and sat down on them to eat better.

My mommy sat down with her drink and snack, she watched us as we ate our animal crackers, “Ryan how did you get into our backyard?”

“Through the fence…” He said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I heard her crying and I wanted to know why… She killed an ant so we buried him.”

“He’s in animal heaven…” I added with a mouthful of animal crackers.

“Animal heaven huh?” My mom asked with a wide smile on her face.

We both nodded and continued to eat our snacks and finished up our drinks. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand as I finished up my last gulp of apple juice and looked over to Ryan; he was on his last cracker.

“Do you still have your gum?” Ryan asked and looked over to me as he bit off the head of an animal.

“No, do you?” I shook my head.

“You guys had gum?” My mom butted in and looked at us with those huge eyes again.

“Yes mommy, we wrapped the ant in the gum wrapper.”

“What did you guys do with your gum?”

“Swallowed it…” Ryan and I answered at the same time.

My mom stared at us for a very long time, her eyes rolled up to the ceiling. I looked up as well and didn’t see anything that was cool just the fan. I brought my look back to Ryan who was doing the same and looked back at me, we both shrugged together.

After clean up we played in my living room, I didn’t really know what was going on because we were making it up as we went but it was sure fun. I heard someone calling Ryan’s name.

“Oh, that’s my dad calling me, I got to go Anna!” He said in hurry. “I’ll come by tomorrow, I promise.” He said and pushed a pack of gum into my hold. “Save that for meh, please… I’m not allowed to have those…” He said quietly and smiled widely showing off his missing teeth again.

“Bye Ryan.” I said lightly and smiled back at him and quickly stashed the pack of gum under the couch.

“Bye, bye Anna.” He said and waved wildly and ran out of my house.