Free Let's Play in the Garden by John Grover

twisted into what appeared to the boys as faces…with pointy noses and toothless mouths. Aaron grew frightened as the wind howled through the leaves.
    “Tobey, I want to go home now. I don’t like it here anymore.”
    “Okay, Aaron, don’t cry. We’ll leave right now.”
    They turned and started back the way they’d come. They stopped and looked around. A bird called and something scattered under a bush. Aaron started.
    “I’m scared!” he cried.
    “I think we’re lost,” Tobey replied.
    They looked around some more as Tobey pulled his brother along. They saw a path and just took it out of desperation, unsure of what else to do.
    As they rushed down it, they were stopped by a startling discovery. A man’s shoe was lying on the ground. Tobey picked it up, and upon examining it, he noticed, through the mud, that it was stained with blood.
    “This shoe, Aaron, it has blood on it!”
    Aaron wailed, his calls frightening a flock of birds from the trees. The boys seized with fear and looked down at the ground. There was blood there too.
    “I think someone was killed here.”
    Aaron screamed as Tobey threw the shoe down. Suddenly, movement in the distance caught their attention. Foliage rustled and twigs snapped.
    That had done it. Tobey grabbed Aaron with all of his strength and they ran like never before. They dared not look back, afraid something was following them. Tobey couldn’t be sure, so he just kept running. All he cared about was getting back home.
    Their legs were starting to wear out until finally they found the way out of the woods and actually made it to the edge of the highway. A car screamed by just in front of them, its passing blowing their hair and clothes every which way.
    They ran down the street and to their familiar dirt road, their faces whiter than freshly cleaned sheets. They looked as if they had seen death itself.
    ###
    “You what!” Simon’s face was red with rage after hearing the tale spun by the two frightened boys.
    Merydith listened at the top of the stairs. She was in shock. She could not believe what her brothers had done, nor what they were in for from Grandpa. The thought of it made her wince.
    Marion and Gladys stood together in the kitchen doorway. They were equally stunned.
    “How dare you venture into those woods up there? You have crossed me, boys, very much. You shall never, ever enter those woods again. I did not think I would ever need to warn you about leaving the yard. No child shall ever leave the yard without an adult. Understood?”
    They nodded silently.
    “The woods could have killed the two of you. You shall never speak of what you saw there to anyone, and you shall go to bed now without supper. Now, march!”
    With that, the two of them ran up the stairs to their room, their eyes burning with tears, their voices hoarse and their noses running. They threw themselves into their beds in a fit of fear and anger and did not come back out the entire night.
    Gladys and Marion had to do their very best to calm Simon down. When he was angered, he was a virtual madman. No man ever crossed Simon Santaneen.
    Merydith wiped the tears from her eyes and went down to dinner. The scolding had been a horrible thing to overhear. Dinner was in total silence.
    ###
    Days passed and the memory of that day faded. No one mentioned it again. Simon had returned to his normal, jolly self in no time and treated the children no differently.
    School was next week. The excitement grew in Merydith and Tobey. They couldn’t wait to return. The summer was nearing its total end as subtle changes could be noticed. August swept into the beginning of September, and soon there would be no more trips to the garden. That saddened Aaron a great deal; no more lunches for the three of them. He would be by himself, and only able to enter the garden when an adult was with him because he was too small to undo the gate.
    “Oh please, Merydith, please,” Aaron begged and cried to his sister. “This is