The dog was dead. The heavy scent of decay surrounded the thing like an almost tangible cloud. It was a small dog, a terrier maybe. Its head was cracked open, eyes empty and glazed over.
We stood in half a circle around it, looking down, the heat of the setting sun burning on our necks. It had been one of those endless summer days, and we had been playing in the cornfields before. When we started getting bored, Josh turned to us and said:
'I know where there is a dead dog. We could go look at it.'
He gave us his typical unpleasant grin, clothes and hair covered in dust and strands from the corn stalks. Neither Turner or me had ever seen a dead dog, so course we agreed. We walked over to a small strip of cracked earth where the fields ended and a cluster of trees began. Josh upfront, us warily following him.
Josh poked it with a stick, trying to turn it over. Flies were buzzing around the carcass, and when he finally succeeded a gaping wound on its side was revealed, maggots eating away at the flesh. Turner let out a groan and I could feel the bile rising to my throat.
'What killed it, you think?' asked Josh.
'Maybe it was just old', said Turner.
Me and Josh shared a look. Turner was two years younger than us, making Josh and me consider him a bit of a baby. He looked up to us though, so we let him hang around. Josh because he just liked to have somebody to bully, me because I simply enjoyed the feeling of being a bigger kid.
'Yeah right, so its head just cracked open like that by itself? Jeez, you're such a dork'
I swallowed and flatted at a fly. 'Could be somebody hit it with a stick. Maybe it was biting or something'
'We should bury it.' said Turner, 'We can't leave it like this, it makes me sad.
'Are you going to cry over some stupid dead dog now, you baby? We should light it on fire, that'd be cool.' Josh was quite an asshole, but his parents always bought him cool stuff so I hung out with him anyway.
'Nah, lets bury it.' I said. ' I'll get a shovel from the shed after dinner. We'll bury it later in the evening.'
'Turner will probably be too scared to come here when it is dark since he is such a wuss'
'No I am not! Stop being a meany!' whined Turner. I could see his eyes getting moist with frustration. Turner sometimes really irritated me, but I didn't quite like it when Josh was being a dick like that.
'We could go find some rocks and bury it under that. That way, we will know where it is later as well.' I knew Turner was indeed scared in the dark, this way I could hopefully help him save face.
'I'm not busting my ass hauling rocks for a stupid dead dog! I'm out of here you losers.' With a disgusted look at us Josh stomped away. 'Losers!' he shouted again while we saw him disappear into the fields. Turner and I spend some time looking for rocks and then covered the dog with them.
'Poor dog.', Turner said.
'Yeah...'
'Yeah..'
'Lets go home.'
A couple of days later, Josh and I were sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree next to the small river. Josh managed to steal a cigarette off his dad, and was smoking it. I was trying not to look impressed.
'I know what killed that dog.' Josh said, looking closely at the cigarette between his fingers. 'It was me.' He turned his head to me and grinned his mean grin.
'Bullshit.'
'For real man.'
He flicked the butt of his cigarette into the water.
'It was just following me, and the little fucker was irritating me. So I kicked it. Then it bit my leg. So I grabbed a rock and just bashed its head in.' I gave Josh a horrified look.
'It was pretty cool man, I heard this loud "crack" and you could see brains and everything.'
Even though the sun was blazing and we were both sweating through our shirts, I felt cold all of a sudden. I didn't know what to say, so I just shook my head. Then we heard a rustling in the bushes behind us. We turned around, and there stood Turner, tears streaming down his face, his hands clenched into little fists.
'You fucking JERK!' He shrieked. 'You fucking ASSHOLE.'
Turner was a good kid, I hardly ever heard him swear. Then something else completely out of character happened. Tiny, skinny Turner hurled himself at Josh and started pounding at him, even managing to bust open Josh's lip.
'Hey, stop that you little turd!' Josh grunted, and grabbed both of Turners wrists.
'What the fuck you little bitch?!' He kicked Turners legs out from under him, at the same time letting go of him, so Turner fell face down in the mud of the river bank.
'Don't make me do to you what I did to that dog, jerkface.' Josh said, kneeling down next to Turner and holding his face down in the mud. Turners little body was struggling, but Josh obviously was too strong for him.
'Let him go man!' I shouted. 'Can't you see he can't breathe?'
'Sucks for him.' He kept holding him face down in the mud.
I pushed Josh away. 'Seriously man, stop it.' Then I was on my ass in the mud, blood streaming down my nose. The bastard punched me so fast I didn't even see it coming.
'You are such fucking little crybabies', Josh wiped his lip. 'I don't even know why I hang out with you losers.'
I tried to reply, but my throat was clogged from my bleeding nose so only a weird gurgle came out. Turner was sitting on the ground, holding his knees and sobbing.
'Don't even try telling your parents about this, because I will kick the shit out of both of you if you do.'
I spat out a gob of blood.
'See you later, suckers.' Josh sneered, and walked away.
'Are you okay?' I asked Turner, who managed to get on both his legs and was trying to brush off the mud from his clothes, only making it worse.'
'He shouldn't have done that.'
'I know. Lets clean you up.'
'He really shouldn't have done that.'
A couple of days later me and Turner were playing in the corn again. Josh hadn't come over to pick me up at the house for a while, so I figured he finally had enough of us after the incident in the woods. The sun started to set, making our shadows seem almost endless when we reached the end of the field.
'Hey', Turner said.
'Yeah?'
'I know where there is a dead boy. We could go look at it.'
