Mitt was a really good sitter.

He'd make sandwiches for lunch, he'd sit through my kid movies.

He was just.....always there for me, I guess.

Which is why ... I should've listened.

He wouldn't let me go down the path in my back yard.

You see, I'd just moved in and he'd offered to look after me while my mother worked.

She didn't even have to pay him. He said he had a weekend job at the local movie theator and honestly, he was a joy to be around.

He'd be so happy to see me and, in the longrun... we were best friends.

Even so, I'd still always wondered what was down that path.

He always said, "Sam, NEVER go down there! I just...I don't want it to scare you."

Things like that, and I still kept trying to convince him to let me go.

But when I tried, he'd crouch down to my hight and say, "Never." like a parent joking with their kid.

I'd beg him to let me but hed stop me and say, "Sam, no."

There was always this sort of sad look in Mitt's eyes when I brought it up and, I'd always wondered why that was.

One weekend, my mother was home, so I wasn't with Mitt and being a child, I was set on going down the path.

It was just a dirt path that led to a clearing, so what could be so bad?

I ran. I was so excited to see!

But....then I DID see.

I knew exactly why Mitt had warned me and I ran back up to the house...Just to see my mother on the phone.

"I'm just checking in on your employee, Mitt. No, that's impossible! He was just here at my house yeasterday! Oh,...I see. oh dear God I...."

She hung up as tears started to form in her eyes.

"Sam," she said, "I don't know how to tell you this but,...Mitt died...last year."

"I know." I said, "I think I just saw his grave."

End.