A Proper Burial

"You have to say a prayer, Maggie," Tasha said as she wiped her hands on her yellow skirt.

"Why do I have to do it?"

"He was your hamster."

The two girls stood over the small hole that Tasha had dug in their grandmother's backyard. Maggie reluctantly placed the dead animal in a shoebox, and then lowered the box into the hole. There were tears in her eyes. This was the first time in her seven years that she had ever dealt with loss. Her older sister Tasha wasn't so lucky.

"Why'd they do it Tasha? Why'd they kill Mr. Tubby?"

"I don't know, maybe it was an accident" Tasha said, looking everywhere but her sister's face. Neither of them said anything for a while.

Maggie closed her eyes and put her hands together—the way she saw her grandmother do every time she said a prayer.

"Dear god, please let Mr. Tubby into hamster heaven. Amen."

"Amen" Tasha added.

"Oh, and please find the boys that shot Mr. Tubby with a BB gun, and ground them for two whole weeks with no television or video games or anything fun."

Their grandmother poked her head out of the backdoor.

"Girls, dinner's ready. I made spaghetti, and you can have ice cream for dessert."

At that, Maggie ran straight to the kitchen. Her loss of a pet was a distant memory now. Satiating her appetite was a more pressing concern than mourning the death of a hamster she had only met a week ago (when she came to spend the summer at her grandmother's.)

Tasha stayed back. She covered Mr. Tubby's shoebox-coffin with dirt, and then she said a few words of her own.

"I'm sorry I killed you, Mr. Tubby. It was an accident, I swear."