Autumn in Philadelphia Trilogy

Squirrelly Funerals and Nutty Neighbors

Early on Saturday morning, three weeks after the "miracle soap" incident, Cory and Shawn were tossing a football around in the Matthews' backyard. Though still not allowed to talk to each other outside of school during the week, they were finally able to see each other on weekends again.

Cory was greatly relieved to have his weekend free time back as he had been able to do nothing but homework, chores, and baby-sit Morgan over the last twenty-one days. He had never been so happy to do nothing again. Shawn, on the other hand, had not minded his grounding as much due to the fact that Audrey was over so often.

During his time cooped up in the apartment, as he had told Cory, Shawn noticed that the amount of time Jon and Audrey spent working on schoolwork was continually decreasing and the time they spent just "hanging out" was continually increasing. He also reported with a certain level of satisfaction that Audrey's phone number had bumped Miss Tompkins's number down to number two on the speed dial. He also said that it had been over a week since Jon and Katherine had last gone out on a date and she hadn't been over lately. Cory got the distinct impression that his friend was more than a little happy that Miss Tompkins was not around so much. Though Shawn never said anything directly, Cory could tell that she made him uncomfortable. Shawn did once tell him that, while he liked Miss Tompkins as a person, he didn't think she was right for Jon.

"So," Cory jogged backwards to catch the pass Shawn threw him. "When are Mr. Turner and Miss Andrews coming to get us?"

For months, Cory and Shawn wanted to go a Six Flags amusement park, but no one had the time to take them. They had been unusually well behaved during their punishment, so Jon and Audrey with the Matthews' blessing had surprised them with a trip to a nearby theme park in New Jersey. Cory and Shawn had been looking forward to it all week. They had, in fact, almost driven Mr. and Mrs. Matthews crazy with their incessant chatter about the upcoming outing.

Shawn glanced at his watched. "They ought to be here in fifteen minutes."

"Cool." Cory flung the football as hard as he could. It spiraled nicely and sailed over Shawn's head, landing somewhere behind the tree that grew near Cory's bedroom window.

Shawn disappeared behind the tree to retrieve the ball and didn't come back.

"Hey, Cory?" he finally called.

"Yeah?"

"You remember the day Jon said I could stay with him?"

"Yeah," Cory replied slowly, wondering what that had to do with anything.

"You remember how you tried to climb down the tree and got caught?"

"Yeah," Cory said again, recalling the details of that day.

Did I loose a shoe or something and Shawn found it? he wondered. He couldn't remember loosing anything.

"That nasty little squirrel kept coming at me," he added with a scowl.

"Well," Shawn said with an odd tone to his voice. "I think that nasty squirrel kicked the bucket. Literally."

Cory ran over to the tree to see what was going on.

Shawn was standing over a red plastic bucket of Morgan's that was half- buried in the sandbox.

Cory peered into the bucket to see what had caught Shawn's interest. He jumped back when he did. A medium-sized squirrel lay tail up in the pail. It looked petrified. Whatever it was, one thing was certain- it was dead.

"Yuck," Cory said. "Wonder what happened to it?"

"I don't know," Shawn replied absentmindedly. He reached for a nearby stick and poked at the animal.