There are dark places under sunny skies.


The street that Alex lived on was astonishingly average with one glaring difference; there was only one side.  The other side had a large gray wall with what looked like industrial buildings on the other side.  Alex and Nicholas wondered from time to time what was on the other side.  But the wall was too high to climb.  Where the wall ended on his street turned ninety degrees and looked to them like it went straight on forever.  There were about fifteen little houses that were built in the 1950's on their block.  Nicholas, Alex and his little brother were the only children they knew of here. The summer days felt very long, but the cicadas had not started chirping, so Alex knew there was plenty of these beautiful summer days left to practice going down the dirt ramp in the woods before they had to go back to school.


"Did you ask your parents if we could go to the festival?" Nicholas asked excitedly.
"Yah.  But they said no.  They don't want me going that far on my bike yet."
"But did you tell them that we would go together?"
"Yep.  Still no."
Nicholas sighed.  "I don't get it.  We're totally safe!"
"I know, but...."  Alex trailed off and they both looked East.
"That...sounds like...crying.", Alex stammered.
"Hell if it is.  There are no kids besides us on this block."
"Well I don't know.  But it's loud.  No one cries like that unless they are getting spanked."
Nicholas lowered his voice.  "Why don't we walk over there?  We can pretend to just be walking by."


They dropped their bikes at Alex's house before walking East toward the sound.  They walked about five minutes while randomly talking about their G.I. Joe collections before they slowed down.  They saw the house.  They saw that the garage door was open.  They saw that a woman was wailing, pacing back and forth.


They saw the body hanging in the garage.


They stopped, turned around, and walked back home slowly, not wanting to be noticed by the wailing woman.  Without saying anything, Nicholas took his bike and walked it to his house two houses away.  On his way, an ambulance flew by and stopped at the house.  Alex looked up, looked down, then went inside for the rest of the day.