After the boy was dead and hastily buried, we stood around for a long time wondering what to do next.

No one said anything. What was there to say?

Sam was dead. I still see the five of us standing in a hush around that shallow grave. It is an image frozen in my mind.

I saw the faces of my friends. Haunted. Drained. We had mud on our hands and clothes from the digging. I knew then that all of us would be forever linked by our terrible secret in the tall grass at M...