A Secret Story

That hot and dusty day in July they were looking for excitement, she with her pigtails flying as she ran down the gravel road, he with chubby cheeks flaming as he chugged to keep up.
"Wait up, Carol. Wait up!" he wailed.
Stopping and turning Carol watched as her little brother came towards her. "Where are were going?" he called.
"How 'bout we go on an adventure? D'ya wanna go to the old Tabor place?"
David's eyes lit up. "Should we? Mom said we had to stay out of there."
"I know, but let's just look around, okay?" Carol was already walking up the lane.
David took one look back towards home and hurried after his sister.
Now the old Tabor place had a bit of a history. A few years before, old man Tabor had lived there in a trailer parked on one side of the lane while in the old house, now long since gone, Mrs. Scott had lived with her two sons and daughter. There was someting funny going on there because three of her children had the last name Scott but the youngest one had the last name Tabor and lived in the trailer. Whenever Carol talked to her mom about them, her mother had a way of clamming up and clipping her tones short and sharp.
There was an eerie silence as the two children walked slowly up the lane. Dandelions and thistles covered the yard, having overgrown part of the cement sidewalk up to the house ruins. Bricks and boards buckled under the weight of a tree fallen right across the blackened foundation.
"Better stay out of there. I don't think it's safe, do you?" Carol turned toward David but he was on his way to the trailer still on the property.
"Let's go inside!" David bubbled, peering through the door panes. "It looks like there is stuff against the far wall." He tried the door but it didn't budge. Looking around his small eyes lighted on a smooth stone which he scooped up. Before Carol could stop him, he smashed the glass out of the small pane on the door.
"What are you doing? Are you crazy?" but by this time he was in and she followed him, checking behind to see if anyone had heard the noise but there was no one there. Stacked against the wall in the bare living room were dozens of windows. All shapes and sizes. "Let's smash them!" The idea popped into her head and she ran out to get more stones. Together the two kids pitched stones at the windows, one after the other, roaring in delight at the deafening crash as each one shattered. Soon every window was broken.
"What have we done?"
"I hope nobody heard us."
"We better get outa here!"
"Quick! Run! Ohhhhh!........."
Bending double so as not to be seen, they sneaked away, sobbing.