Anyway.

On Sunday afternoon, my parents decided OUT OF THE BLUE to pack up and get in their car Monday and drive from Illinois to Virginia to visit us. It is only the second time they’ve visited in the three years we’ve lived here, so I was happy to have them come out.

Honestly, (and um, hi Mom and Dad, because they will read this) I was a bit stressed because the house wasn’t parent ready and my work schedule had to be smooshed around a bit to make it even possible for me to spend time with them while they are here.

But, we got the house cleaned up, meals thought out, colleagues notified, meetings rescheduled and . . . the evidence removed.

What evidence?

We had a dead body that we needed to dispose of before the parents arrived Tuesday afternoon. Sometime Sunday I noted that SOMEONE had run over a squirrel and it was spread-eagled and quite dead at the end of the driveway. Monday night, my husband mentioned that we would need to “get rid of the body.” So at almost-the-very-last-minute the boy and I went out to perform a small ceremony. We had a shovel and a mission.

We were both a little squeamish about the squished rodent. Flattened though it was, the breeze still animated its fluffy tail, which waved in the wind. We scooped him up and then, intending to flip him into the underbrush of the landscaped area, we had an unexpected result. (See photo above).

With the squirrel suspended, belly up in full rigor mortis on the holly bush, the boy and I laughed until tears ran out of our eyes. (We did manage to bury the guy under the bush after this.) I have to say — it was one of my favorite moments with my college-aged kid. It’s true what they say; getting rid of a body with your kid really helps bring you closer together.

They say that, right?