Jimmy and Jason would both climb the aged apple tree that

had branches overhanging Ashley’s playhouse.

Jimmy would shimmy out on one of the branches, then

partly jump, partly dive, belly first onto the roof of the plastic

playhouse, and then slide down to the ground. Jason would

follow his example.

This served two purposes according to Jimmy. It scared

the crap out of his little sister and her friends, and it was a cool

ride.

Every time Jimmy did this, it triggered a domino affect.

Ashley would come barreling out of the playhouse and run up to

the front porch of their home screaming, “Mom, Jimmy’s doing

it again!”

Mrs. Serento, Jimmy and Ashley’s mother, would come out

of the house yelling at Jimmy to stop that immediately, or she

was going to call his father.

Jimmy would say, “Sorry mom, we’re just having fun.” Then

he and his counterpart would cautiously sneak behind the

house and go play in the woods until the next time boredom

approached, and the need to torment his younger sister grew.

Mrs. Serento would tell Ashley to go play; he won’t do it

again.

Serento’s front yard since early morning. The Serento family

had the nicest yard on the street.

The rolling two acres that made up the front yard of the

Serento’s home had a lush, green, soft lawn that had been a

cornfield in years past. The rest of the neighborhood was a bit

jealous because their homes were built on the rocky section

of the old field where the corn never grew. The fertile ground

didn’t exist there which gave their grass a permanent brown

tint. A wet spring that gave way to a mild warm summer made

it one of the best years for green grass since Kevin and Jennifer

Serento had purchased the property three years earlier.

Jimmy, Ashley’s older brother, and Jason Miles, Megan’s

older brother, didn’t bother with the green grass unless they

were playing football or baseball. They were happier in the

woods that surrounded the neighborhood. At twelve years old,

four years older than the girls, they had permission to venture

into the woods as long as they “stayed close,” Mrs. Serento

always said, and “close” was relative to the age group.

The day’s adventure for Ashley and her friends was a

typical tea party inside the playhouse. The table had been set,

and seated around it were this day’s guests: two stuffed bears

and a plastic faced doll named Sissy.

The girls contently poured the make-believe tea into the

cups, served invisible pastries, and talked about life as an eightyear-

old.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get married,” Ashley said, as she

maneuvered her stuffed bear so he would have easier access to

the teacup.

“I am,” Christina said, “I’m going to marry Luke from ‘The

Rock Kids’. I just love the way he sings and dances. I know he’s

singing to me.” She held her hands over her heart as she talked.

“He’s not cute at all. Clay’s the cute one,” Megan

interjected.

As the girls were negotiating the singing group’s best singer,

Jimmy and Jason made their way to the apple tree without being

noticed. After climbing the branches, Jimmy plunged onto the

roof of the plastic playhouse. He slid down belly first and hit the

ground hands first, then did a backward summer-salt landing on

his feet.

All three girls screamed in harmony.

Ashley kicked the barn style door open and ran around to

the back of the playhouse where Jimmy had landed. “I’m telling

mom!” She barked, “And besides, you keep doing that you’re

going to break your neck!” She scolded, and then headed off in

the direction of the front porch.

While she was still twenty feet from the house, Ashley

yelled. “Mom, he’s doing it again.”

Jennifer Serento didn’t have a problem hearing her. With

the picture perfect summer day she had all the windows and

doors open to air out the home. She exited the house and met

Ashley on the stairs. “What’s wrong now Ashley?” she asked

with a puff.

“Jimmy jumped on my house again!” Ashley stated and

stood there with her arms crossed, scorned.

Jennifer looked around the yard for Jimmy, but it was too

late. He made his escape into the tree line. She looked at Ashley

and said, “I’m going to be sitting right at the kitchen table doing

my work. I’ll keep my eyes open for him.”

Like a ruler of the kingdom, Ashley stated. “I already yelled

at him, but I doubt if he’ll listen.”

“You don’t have to worry about yelling at him, that’s my

job. You go back and play with Megan and Christina.”

Ashley puffed through her nose, uncrossed her arms then

turned on her heels. She headed back to the playhouse taking

large steps and swinging her arms.

Jennifer shook her head at the next leader of the free world

and went back into the house.

It was at the point of the day for a little “Jennifer Time” as

she would put it. When all the household chores were complete

and the evening meal was in place, she would relax and enjoy

her hobby, writing. She wrote part-time for a local women’s

magazine, mostly fiction, mostly love stories, hoping that she

would get the time in the future to write a novel.

She had written and sold stories titled: “I Should Have Let

Him Pleasure Me”, “Making Love is not Having Sex”, and the

one she is working on now, “The Big O is for Oooh!”

She set up her lap top computer on the kitchen table,

which overlooked the front yard, poured a glass of iced tea, and

grabbed the remote phone. She knew someone would call while

she was writing. She sat down and began. Between sentences

and paragraphs, she policed the area for the approaching twelveyear-

old terrors.

Her writing didn’t pay the bills, but it was a good vent for

her. She had worked full time most of her life. Then after she

married Kevin, she became a stay-at-home mom having kids

almost instantly after saying, “I do.”

Kevin didn’t mind her staying at home. He even liked it.

He had a good job as a chemical engineer bringing in a high fivefigure

salary, and he was working toward a sixth figure salary.

He enjoyed having someone home for him after a hard day. And

besides, he would tell Jennifer, “What’s better that having a

mother raise her children when they’re young?”

Jennifer never agreed openly, she still had to hold on to

her independence, and she always kept the threat of going back

to work full-time; but she enjoyed raising the kids and staying

home.

She kept stabbing at the keyboard mentally engrossed in

her fantasy. She would pause shortly to take a sip of her iced tea

and a yard look, and then right back to the computer.

After a few good paragraphs the phone rang which she

expected. She took a hair scrunch off her wrist and pulled her

mid-length brown hair back and scrunched it up off her face.

She picked up the phone and pressed the “on” button and in a

“you’re bothering me tone” she answered, “Hello.”

“Hi sweetheart, how’s your day going?” Kevin asked,

making his usual phone call during some part of his day.

“Engrossed,” she answered.

“Must be writing then,” he responded, “How’s the new

story coming?”

Jennifer laughed on the word play on “coming” and

answered, “That’s what it is alright, coming.”

Kevin didn’t get the joke; he made it a point not to read

any of Jennifer’s articles. His comment was always that he didn’t

want to jinx the stories, but actually he found them boring. He

moved on, “How are the kids?”

“Like normal, Ashley’s trying to rule the world, and Jimmy

is tormenting her,” she said while she sat back in her chair to

relax and look out the window.

“Life as usual in the Serento Compound, Did my mother

call today?”

“No, you’re the first phone call of the day, but then again

the phone only rings when I start to write so I expect your

mother’s phone assault anytime now.”

Kevin laughed.

“Damn it!” Jennifer stated. “Jimmy’s up that tree again,” she

said and with the phone to her ear she got up, walked around

the table, and exited through the screen door on to the pouch.

“Give me a second to yell at him,” she finished and held the

phone away from her ear.

From the porch she got a good look at what was going on.

Jason was just starting his trek up the base of the apple tree, and

Jimmy had already crawled out on the limb that extended over

the playhouse.

“Jimmy, you get down from that tree now!” she shouted.

And from that point on Jennifer remembered everything

going in slow motion;

Jimmy turned in surprise that his mother saw him. He

panicked and lost his balance causing his grip to give way. He

fell from the tree limb landing on the playhouse roof at an angle.

He slid face first off the roof but couldn’t stop himself with his

hands like he usually did. His face crashed and embedded into

the soft green grass, his legs flipped over his body, and crashed

to the ground.

Jennifer noticed his legs twitching a few times then fell

lifeless. From where she was standing it was as if Jimmy’s head

was missing.

“Jimmy, oh my God!” she screamed and dropped the phone

on the porch and ran full speed toward the playhouse.

“Jen, Jen what’s going on?” Kevin shouted into the phone

but heard no reply. He dropped the phone back into its cradle

and ran out of his office.

“Jimmy!” she screamed as she slid to her knees landing next

to him. “Jimmy!” she cried again.

The rest of the children slowly merged on Jennifer looking

over her shoulder in amazement.

Jimmy’s body was lying lifeless. His head was literally

twisted backward behind his shoulders. The right clavicle bone

snapped from his shoulder and was sticking out of his upper

chest with very little blood surrounding the wound.

Knowing better than to move an injured person, Jennifer

didn’t think about that. She carefully lifted the upper section of

Jimmy’s body and brought his head round to where it should be.

“Jimmy!” she cried again.

When she brought his head around and laid him back flat

on the ground, she saw his eyes and mouth wide open and a

small bubble of blood in his right nostril. And then it popped.

She knew he was dead.

She grabbed him and buried her face on his chest and began

to scream. “Jimmy, Jimmy!”

“Mommy,” Ashley said and walk over and placed her hand

on Jennifer’s back. “Mommy is Jimmy alright?”

Jennifer picked her face up from Jimmy’s chest, and it was

partially covered in blood. She used the palm of her hand and

wiped it off. “Quick Ash, go get the phone,” she cried. “Quick,

run!”

The other children stood in shock.

the dew from the green grass to a fine mist in the Serento’s front

yard. The front yard showed changes in the past six weeks since

Jimmy Serento’s unfortunate accident. The aged apple tree had

been removed, stump included and the playhouse was relocated

to near the front porch of the two-story Tudor. New grass had

been planted over the entire play area to help eliminate the

memories of that horrible day.

Kevin started breakfast early that Sunday morning, a ritual

that’s been going since he and Jennifer got married. The aroma

of cooked bacon made its way to the second floor luring Jennifer

and Ashley out of bed.

They both woke and shuffled down the stairs—Ashley in

her cartooned pajamas and socks and Jennifer in her blue rope

and fuzzy slippers. They made their way into the kitchen and

plopped into their usual chair without a word which was normal

for the Serento woman, more so for Jennifer since Jimmy had

died.

“Okay you two, time to wake up,” Kevin said while pouring

a cup of coffee for his wife and a glass of juice for his daughter.

He delivered the drinks to the table, and they both grunted in

appreciation.

“Breakfast will be ready in two shakes,” Kevin stated and

walked back to the stove not expecting any reply.

Jennifer and Ashley both looked over toward the kitchen

counter at Kevin. He was dressed in his usual Sunday morning

chef ’s outfit, boxer shorts and a full length blue with big yellow

flowered apron that his mother used forty years ago. They then

looked at each other and shook their heads.

“We have ham and cheese omelets with a side of bacon

on the menu this morning. Wheat bread toasted lightly and

peaches as your fruit side,” he said in a strange voice trying to

imitate a snobby waiter in a high-class restaurant. He set up

three plates and delivered them to the table.

Both the Serento females began to eat without a word.

Kevin walked back to the counter and poured himself a cup

of coffee then joined the family. He waited a few moments and

asked, “So, how is everyone this morning?”

Trying to sound like an adult, Ashley said, “I’m good Dad,

how are you?”

“I’m always good sweetheart, how’s your breakfast?”

With a mouth full of egg she replied, “Great!”

Jennifer didn’t pay attention to the conversation; she just

picked at her food.

“So Ash, what are your plans for today?” Kevin asked his

eight-year-old daughter as if she was an adult.

“Mommy wants me to clean my room.”

“Well I’m sure it needs it—how about later—if it’s okay

with mom. We’ll go see a movie?”

Ashley turned her attention to her mother, “Want to go see

a movie?”

“Fine, whatever,” Jennifer said emotionless, and then she

took a sip of her coffee and made a snoot.

Kevin figured the coffee was too cold, or too bitter, or

“God knows what” with Jennifer these days. He gave her a

disappointing glance and looked back to his daughter.

“What movie do you want to go see?” Ashley asked paying

no attention to the stare.

“I don’t know yet. After breakfast we’ll check the paper

to see what’s playing,” He said as he took his last mouth full of

food and chewed.

Several minutes pasted quietly, and then Kevin spoke. “You

young ladies want more food?” he asked as he sat back to finish

his coffee.

“Nope,” Ashley answered and looked at her mom. “Mom,

want more?”

“No, I’m good thank you,” she said without making eye

contact while still stabbing her eggs with the fork.

“Mommy, you don’t look good today,” Ashley stated while

staring at her. “Are you sick?”

Kevin turned his attention to Jennifer, and for the first

time this morning he did notice she didn’t look well. Her normal

olive complexion had a gray tint, and she had dark, nearly black

circles under her eyes. Her lips were white instead of her natural

rose red color.

She said in a shotgun blast reply, “I’m fine.”

Ashley turned to Kevin, and he raised his brow and

shrugged his shoulders.

“Come on Ash, we’ll clean the dishes up,” he stated, and

then stood from his chair. “Jen, why don’t you go on the couch

and watch some TV, we’ll get this,” he finished, knowing that

that was the way it usually went.

Jennifer got up from her chair leaving a half-empty plate of

food and a nearly full cup of coffee then walked into the living

room. This didn’t surprise Kevin, what did surprise him was

she didn’t make a snide comment about the bacon being over

cooked, or the coffee being cold, or something.

He shook his head and started the clean up with his

daughter, thinking that if his son was still with them; he would

be part of the cleanup crew.

“I think Mommy is sick today,” Ashley said during one of

her trips to the sink.

“She probably didn’t sleep well,” he said not wanting to get

into a philosophical conversation about his wife.

“No really, I think she’s sick today” Ashley stated and

looked at Kevin, and at that point she sounded like a twentyfive

year old.

“Well if she’s not feeling well, she doesn’t have to come

to the movies today. She can rest on the sofa,” he said still

attempting to get past the subject. “Now let’s finish up, and you

go clean your room before your mother yells at you.”