Neverland
by Kiri
3rd Place Winner 2005 Fireside Stories
The big tree with the tire swing on the top of the hill was gone.
The seesaw at the bottom of the hill was rusted at the fulcrum with one side grounded and the other side high up in the air where no child could ever hope to reach it. The red paint was peeling off the wooden boards that were seats and there was a wasp's nest under the seat of the higher end.
He looked up at the nest with big green eyes, watching the bugs move around and make noises with their wings and crawl in and out of the tiny holes. One of them lifted off the nest and flew towards him. The boy turned, ran, and disappeared down the street.
Two days later, a big bulldozer came and destroyed the wasp's nest. And the seesaw too. The little children of the neighborhood all gathered around to watch; there were lots of them, but not as many as the day they cut down the tree. When they were done, there was a big hole with dirt on all sides where the seesaw used to be. They roped it off with yellow construction tape and the workers made the kids go home.
After that, they took away the jungle gym and the spinning thing that people could climb up on while other people spun them until they begged to be let off. By the end of the week, everything was dirt holes and yellow tape. The children didn't come back because there was nothing left to be taken.
Except the boy. When the workers had all gone home that last day and everyone else was in having dinner, he went back.
The next day, the boy's mother called the police. He hadn't come home. No one knew where he was. The playground was empty. Everyone was very upset. They looked for months and months and even dregged the nearby river for bodies, but found none. A neighborhood was astir for quite a while after that, but then other events came to pass, and they stopped talking.
The other neighborhood kids went back to school in the fall with one less person standing at their bus stop, but they didn't say anything. When they got into middle school, the boy that had lived on their street was only a memory. When they got into high school, they couldn't remember anymore. They got in their new and used cars every morning and went to school, stopping on the way at the Starbucks at the bottom of the hill.
The big tree with the tire swing on the top of the hill was gone.