Frank

"Frank, honey..." Her voice trailed off, and she did her best to smile despite the mascara running down her face. She cupped her son's cheeks, before lightly patting his head with her hand.1

"What happened to Julie?" The six year-old boy questioned, his eyes full of tears. He bit his lip, avoided eye contact with his mother, and stifled his sobs.2

The mother sighed. She stood up and took a step back away from her son, cradling an elbow. Her eyes went to the corner, before she answered: "Julie was a bad girl."3

"What did sissy do?" He asked, using one hand to clutch his chest. The boy could feel his heart palpitating, as he trembled in the presence of his mother.4

"She let Daddy do things to her." The woman answered. Her eyes were lit aflame. "Things you don't understand," she added quickly.5

Her son blinked, unable to comprehend. His father was cold and distant, large and smelly. He did not speak much, but he spent a lot of time in Julie's room making growling noises. Julie's screams always did scare him..6

"Now, be a good boy Frank and help me put Julie in the garden."7

"But what about Daddy?"8

The woman's face broke suddenly into a snarl, but she quickly fixed her features into something more gentle. "He's...uh, he's in his room right now."9

"Okay, Mommy." The boy took a hold of the hem of his mother's dress. He stuck his thumb in his mouth and watched wordlessly as he watched his mother bend down and flip Julie's limp body over her shoulder.10

"Why is Julie so quiet?" The boy inquired, following his mother through the house and out of the back door.11

The night air met them; it was frosty and windy, an all together typical October night. The boy shivered, but followed his mother obediently. She disconnected his hold of her, and proceeded to get a shovel.12

"Are you planting flowers?"13

"Something like that," the woman replied, before beginning to dig a long grave in the bed of lilies. 14

Frank muttered a reply and sat himself by his mother's side, watching transfixed at Julie's bluish lips. He noticed dirt on his mother's and Julie's hands, and had to wait about an hour for his mother to finish.15

Once inside, Frank and his mother drank hot cocoa.