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The nearby train tracks connect our house to Daryl’s, the stores in West Acton, and even Idylwilde. Matt and his friends use them and often they find things you might not stumble upon on, say, Central St. Like the head of a deer. After staring into its glassy eye, Joe claims he ëll never be the same.

Yesterday they found this snapping turtle sidled up next to the tracks and were afraid it would meet the same fate as the deer. Enlisting my help for their “turtle rescue mission,” we walked back to where it was, and then much further before finding it safely away from the speeding trains.

The turtle is larger than it appears in this photo. Separate your hands to about shoulder width, imagine the weight of a bowling ball and you’ll have a sense of its size. It also has that giveaway triangular head and a long sharp tail, and though we were three, it was clearly in control. One snapping lunge at Joe and we all jumped back, hearts a poundin’.

That snapping turtle, the tales of the deer, the time of day – dusk – and my vision of one of the boys tight roping the rails with Walkman on high inspired, “One of these days you guys are going to find a dead body back here. I guarantee it.”

“There’s a perfect place to hide one, let me show you,” Robby replied.

We walked down a few feet to a brambly culvert channeling water from recent heavy rains. I walked to the concrete lip, looked down into the swirling black water and thought, sure this would be the place.

“If I ever killed someone accidentally this is where I’d stuff the body,” Robby observed.

I backed away from the edge , said something about the mosquitoes and headed back home.