The Cherry Trees

Chapter Ten: 2013

As I walked through my backyard, the morning dew that crystalized the entire neighborhood made the grass stick to my feet. When I finally reached the clubhouse, I climbed up the wooden steps and opened the door. I placed my walkie talkie in the charger, which sat on a shelf in the bookcase, and then I opened the bag of food for Sprinkles. I stuck my hand in, and grabbed a handful of seeds, corn, and other various things that were mixed in. I opened the hamster cage, and dropped the seeds into the food dish, and my fingers felt around in the big pile of fluff for Sprinkles. When I finally found her, I pulled her out, but to my surprise she was very cold. Scared, I lifted her up in front of my face to see if she was moving. When I saw that she wasn't, I quickly placed her back into the cage, and went screaming towards Lexi's house.

"Lexi! Lexi!" I frantically whistled the little warning signal we had made up months ago. I saw her bedroom window open, and her head popped out.

"What? What is it?" she asked.

"Sprinkles!" I screamed back up to her.

I saw her face transform into an amused expression.

"What about her?" she asked laughing.

How could she be laughing? This was our hamster! We had to take care of her, not let her die in our care! This was no laughing matter.

"She's dead!"

Lexi's face went blank.

"What?"

"She's dead!"

"Sorry, maybe I can't hear you correctly from all the way up here. Did you say she was dead?" she asked.

I nodded.

I saw Lexi lift herself out of her window and onto the zipline, where she pushed off the side of her house. I sprinted underneath her, and we arrived at the clubhouse at the same time. Since her platform was closer to the door than I was, she got in first, and I heard her rush over to the cage and pull out our lifeless hamster.

"Sprinkles!" she yelled.

I slowly made my way up the ladder, and when I walked in, I saw her holding dead Sprinkles.

Lexi sniffed a few times, and then she petted the hamster on the top of its tiny head.

"Well, she had to kick the bucket sooner or later," she said.

At first, I was surprised that she would say something like that, but then I began to laugh at her comment, knowing it was true.

Later that afternoon, we had dug a hole for Sprinkles right by river underneath our clubhouse. Lexi and I were sitting at my kitchen counter, sticking gems onto a shoebox. On the inside, we had hotglued a bunch of cotton balls, and placed a small blanket in there for Sprinkles. When we were finished decorating her makeshift coffin, we wrote "Sprinkles, member of the BFFC" on the box with purple sharpie. Then, we put her in the box, and carried it out to her grave, a sad song playing from the boom-box we kept in the clubhouse. We lowered her into the hole, and then we each gave our speeches.

"Sprinkles, I just wanted to thank you for being the best hamster anybody could ever have, and I hope you like it in Hamster Heaven," I said.

"And thanks for guarding our clubhouse from the bad guys at night. Since you were nocturnal and all," Lexi said.

I nodded, and then we filled the grave with dirt and placed a rock that we had written on on top of her grave. It read, "Just died, and on my way to Hamster Heaven. Sprinkles: December 31, 2012- April 29, 2013. May she rest in peace."

"Wait, isn't it pieces?" Lexi asked.

"What?" I asked confused.

"Isn't it supposed to say rest in pieces, not peace?"

I shrugged, and thought about it for a moment.

"Maybe."

Lexi shrugged her shoulders. "Hey, you want to go to the pet store and get a new one?" she asked.

I laughed, and shook my head.

"Let's let her rest in pieces for a while," I said.