Journal Entry 41: Mini Story

They had nothing to say to each other. It wasn’t one of those awkward silences that makes you shift around in your seat as you desperately think of the next thing to say. It was the kind of silence where no one was talking because they didn’t want to say anything, and they were completely comfortable with that. Steve and Susan just drove down the street, knowing that what they had just done would inevitably catch up with them, but at the same time, they tried not to let themselves think that. That Hispanic boy’s body was probably still anchored to the bottom of the river with the ropes and bricks they had tied to him, and they hoped that things would stay that way. Even if the water did wear the ropes away, and the body was nothing but bones, he could still be identified by dental records. They hoped that he was an illegal immigrant. That way, none of his relatives would be able to hold a court case against them and put them in jail for the rest of their lives. They had their own young daughter that they had to take care of, and they couldn’t let a simple mistake ruin her life, their lives, and the lives and reputations of their entire families. They hadn’t meant to hit the little boy. It was so dark outside, and he had no business being in the middle of the road like that. So they just rode along, and they let themselves drown in the silence of the car. They didn’t want to talk about it now, and they didn’t want to talk about it ever. They wanted to forget…something that the matted chunk of bloody hair that was stuck to the front of the car’s bumper would make very hard to do.