"How much more?" Ellie whined.
"Until we can't see any houses," Melissa said.
Ellie couldn't see any.
She stormed ahead and a branch hit her in the face. Ellie almost dropped the box she was carrying.
The woods smelled damp from yesterday's rain. The path was narrow. Overhead only small glimpses of blue sky were visible.
"Here." Melissa stopped. Pine trees surrounded the small, muddy clearing.
"I don't understand Mother wanting her ashes to be scattered here. She said terrible things happened in the woods." Ellie held the box tighter.
"She was talking about teenagers having sex. Mom was probably asexual," Melissa said.
"She had us." Wind blew Ellie's hair across her face, but she didn't want to let go of the box.
"Put it down." Melissa had always been the bossy older sister, the preferred one, not just by their mother, but by teachers until Ellie went to a university in another state.
Now she was back in her childhood home, sharing a chore with her sister that she didn't want to do.
Melissa broke the seal on the box. "They said to be careful of the wind, or we would be wearing Mom."
Ellie stepped back as Melissa tripped the box onto the ground. Her mother looked like kitty litter. That kitty litter had made her unhappy for so many years.
Why had she let her?
She promised herself, if anyone did that to her again, she'd think of them as kitty litter.
She turned and walked back thru the wood not waiting for Melissa.
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