And Four "Friends" Reunite

Exactly one month ago..."

"CUT!"

"What?" Shannon's voice was whiny.

"Broden, why are you holding the ax?"

It was exactly one month after we had first performed the holy funeral for Lizzie, the lizard that my brother Luke and his friend Broden shot with an Air Soft Gun. As if some sort of 'meant to be' moment, we were all together: Luke, Broden, and the witnesses of Lizzie's murder, Shannon and I, standing at Lizzie's grave, contemplating whether we should dig her up or leave the body alone, in its eternal rest.

And so we set to work, first grabbing just two Swiss Army Knives and one kitchen knife. But we accumulated more things – plastic spoons, half an Easter egg, a wooden painting stick, a hockey stick from when Luke went through his hockey phase, and a plastic axe Luke bought at Long’s – a great big executioner’s axe – raiding the garage of anything that might be of use (and even things that wouldn’t be of use at all).

After twenty minutes of much yelling, poking, dusting, digging, and gasping when we thought we had reached the box, but it was really just a rock, I slammed the painting stick on the ground, for Shannon and I had sort of taken charge, and I said, "Dig here."

And so Luke, with his kitchen knife, dug down, and Broden, with his hockey stick, dusted the ground, and Shannon and I, with our overseeing eyes, watched, motionless, as Luke came up with a piece of bulletin board that must have fallen in our hole that long month ago. Luke and Broden always have these Air Soft Wars, and they use bulletin boards as an Air Soft Range. Everything seems to be connected at my house – the death of a lizard, the destruction of the front yard, the injuries that Shannon and I witness when we're just hanging out in my room. Maybe the fate Shannon and Broden and Luke and me are entwined, which is kind of a scary thought.

Then Luke found another piece of cardboard, but on closer inspection, it appeared red, like the box we had buried Lizzie in.

Then Broden said, somewhat fearlessly, considering we just dug up a grave, "Dig. Keep digging."

So we kept digging, and even Shannon and I were helping out now, with our hands and our Easter egg and the stick and the spoons, until Luke's knife made a soft thud. We stopped, and stared at each other.

So we all gasped, like we knew we were supposed to, and we kept digging, like we knew we had to, until half the box was poking out of the dirt.

"Come on, get it out."

So we all helped to set the box right beside the hole where we had buried her, six inches under. You could easily see the arms and legs, now bony, the skin rotted away to look like a skeleton, with some sort of green goo covering the bones. The head even was just a skull, poking out of the box like it was eavesdropping on our conversation, with a thin layer of green skin stretched on top.

So we set the box on the grass, and twisted the scaly, bony body with the knife this way and that, until the box was off the lizard completely.

"Okay, who votes that this knife is never used again?" asked Broden

We all raised our hands, and said, "I vote we throw it out!"

But the most horrid, disgusting part, was the fact that you could still see the hole that Luke had made, and the neon green BeBe that Luke had shot it with.

And so then we came up with the idea that we should make a movie of it, digging up Lizzie, and putting it on You Tube.

I ran into the office, and grabbed the camera, and ran out again. After much arguing, we decided I would be the host, and introduce us, and Lizzie.

And then the battery died.

It was actually really funny, though it wasn't very fun to run up, and get another battery, and come back down again, only to find Broden, dressed up in a vampire cape with the hood draped over his eyes, holding the axe.

"Ah!" I cried, and almost dropped the camera.

"I just had a great idea!" he said. I could tell from the groan from Shannon that it wasn’t a very good one, but I let him continue.

"I'll dress up as Death," he said, "and you can start the movie by saying, 'You might be wondering why Death is in the backyard.'"

"Great!" I said, not with much enthusiasm. But I let Broden use his idea, and had him dress up in his costume.

"You may be wondering why Death is in my backyard..." I began. "Well, I shall tell you. Exactly one month ago, we four friends – " I pointed the camera to Shannon, then to Broden, then to Luke, who covered his face.

"We four friends got together in front of this dirt pile – " the camera zoomed to Lizzie's grave, which we had tried to cover up with dirt so it looked like we hadn't dug it up yet. "You see, Luke and Broden had shot a lizard with a BeBe gun..."

"Air Soft Gun!" Luke yelled at me.

"Cut!" Shannon said, and I stopped the camera. "Why don't we have fake names?"

It was strange, the names we gave ourselves -- Luke wanted to be Ben, but at the last second I instinctively called him Thomas, and I was Kamilka. Shannon chose the name Lola, and Broden was Kevin.

So I started again. "You may be wondering why Death is in my backyard. Well, I'll tell you..." I continued, just switching the names.

"...and Thomas shot the lizard with an Air Soft Gun, " I said pointedly, staring at Luke. "We tried to stop him…well, not his friend Kevin, who was screaming his head off…” Shannon laughed.

We pretended to dig Lizzie up, and the camera zoomed in on the BeBe inside of her. The BeBe had fallen out, and we all took turns to try to get it back in, even touching the lizard. It was disgusting. We dropped the camera, and ran inside to wash our hands, while the camera continued to film the still Lizzie, who would never move again.

It's weird to think my brother is a murderer. Well, it was just a lizard, and we did perform a holy funeral, so I guess it's okay.