The Piggy Back Ride
A married couple fought a great deal and finally began talking about getting a divorce. However, the wife discovered she was pregnant and, for the sake of the baby, they decided to give the marriage another try.
The boy was born and the family had a short period of tranquillity. Before long the old problems resurfaced and the father and mother were fighting all the time.
One night, when the boy was about 5 years old, the couple put the boy to bed and then got into an enormous fight. In a fit of rage, the father put his hands around his wife's neck and choked the life out of her.
Eventually, when he realised what he had done, he began to panic. He knew he had to get rid of the body if he wasn't going to get caught.
He bundled the body into the boot of his car and drove out of town to a swamp. He took the body from the car, but rigor mortis had started to set in and it was difficult to carry it. He slung his wife's body across his back, as if he were giving her a piggy back ride, and waded out into the foul-smelling swamp. He let her go and watched the stiff hands and wretched face recede into the murky swamp water.
The man went home, and got in the shower to clean up, but he couldn't get rid of the foul stench of the swamp. The smell made him sick to his stomach. No matter how hard he scrubbed or how often he showered, he could not get rid of the smell. It followed him wherever he went.
As the days passed the boy became anxious for his mother and asked all kinds of question. The father told the boy his mother had gone to stay with relatives.
The smell remained. The man began to ignore it as much as he could. One day the man noticed his son was looking at him in a strange way. Every time he approached his son, he recoiled in horror and would not let him touch him.
One day, he walked into his child's room as he was playing on the floor.
"Son, there seems to be something bothering you. Is there something you want to say to me?"
"Yes, father."
"Is it about your mother?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"Why is mommy's face so pale?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why do you give her a piggy-back ride every day?"
