I wasn't part of the original digging crew. I sat in judgement on a swing nearby pretending to apply lipstick with a piece of mulch. Stupid ragamuffin kids digging under a tree. Then I heard "What IS it?!" "I ain't never seen this before!" and then...."Looks like the devil!".
The Devil?! I jumped out of my swing so fast. this was monumental. This was the smartest thing these stupid kids have ever done. I pushed my way through to see what they had found... and when i saw it, I fell to my knees and started digging frantically with them. We excitedly encouraged each other with "hurry" and "faster". "We found the Devil!!!"
We couldn't decide what part of him we found though. Discussion ensued. We knew that no one has actually seen the devil in real life so he could possibly look nothing like the pictures we'd seen. Perhaps this was his hair or finger or some monster-ish tentacle. And when a boy suggested it was his penis, I thought that entirely possible too since i didn't know what that looked like either.
Our excitement was contagious and more kids wondered over to check it out. Once they learned what we had found, they immediately joined in. Our group continued to grow until almost all the kids on the play ground were working together in one giant mob. Several kids would pull on it in unison while the rest of us would dig to loosen the ground holding it. This method worked best, sometimes giving us a few feet at once. With each give, everyone would squeal and scream. More and more excitement ran through us.
"What are we going to do when we get him out?" "We're going to be on the news!" "What if he gets away?" "He must be sleeping." "No, he's dead." "If he's not dead we're gonna kill 'em!" "I'm gonna stomp on his head." "Yeah, lets stomp on his head!" It was a consensus. We were going to stomp on his head like everyone practiced in church. I didn't go to the devil stomping church with the rest of the kids but it sounded fun and i was sure i could figure it out. I couldn't wait to tell my atheist friends, who went to Tender Care down the road, what we had done that day.
I guess this sight was pretty alarming for our two councilors. They ran over screaming. This shot fear down most of us. Had we been wrong? Where we not strong enough to stomp out the devil on our own? Was he going to get us? All of us were questioned of our motives and punished for our actions. Then, to our horror, she showed us we had only been digging up a root from the tree. Disappointed, embarrassed, and dirty we went inside to spend the rest of the afternoon in darkness and silence. Stupid ragamuffin kids, I'd like to see what demons they face now.
