Rylan's Wagon

The Browning family lived next door to us. 

The Brownings always had an immaculate yard - they spent hours every summer pruning their planter boxes - weeding their large garden and intricately planning the placement of each piece of shrubbery.

Shrubbery is a weird word. 

Ryan is my little brother. He also lived next door to the Brownings. 

Ryan was an adventurous child. He was convinced he was half dog until the age of eight, put his head through a wall in the middle of temper tantrum and locked my other siblings and I out of the house for two hours while I was babysitting. 

His inadvertently destructive adventures often affected our neighbors - most frequently the Brownings and their impeccable yard. 

He once let an entire bucket full of snakes loose in their raspberries since my mom wouldn't let him keep them as pets. 

Mr. Browning did not always love living next door to Ryan. 

Ryan also had a red radio flyer wagon. He filled his wagon with "treasures" he found - usually in other people's homes, rooms and areas.
Some of the Browning's thing ended up in the wagon. 

This may have been an early sign of kleptomania - we're still watching him. 

One day, immediately after the Brownings had planted a new row of baby trees along their sidewalk, Ryan was out for a walk. 

He came across the baby tree. 

He liked the baby tree. He wanted to take it home as a "treasure".

He rummaged around in his wagon of stolen things.

He found an axe he nicked from my Father's toolbench. 

He cut down the Browning's tree. 

And put it in his wagon. 

He then brought the tree home as a keepsake. 

The Brownings watched the whole thing from their window. 

The End.