IT

Went out this afternoon and saw kids playing hide-and-seek. This brought back memories of when I was a child; we would often play.

I remember one time in particular. My parents had gone out for the evening and my 2 brothers, both several years older than I were to take care of me. I'm not sure how old I was really, perhaps 9, maybe 10. It was a warm summer night and it was quite late. I live pretty far up north, so the sun may only set around 9:30-10pm. Of course they didn't want to come in the house and babysit me, they had friends and wanted to hang out so I was allowed to play with them. Right, sure.. so I thought.

We would play a game : Hide-and-Seek. They told me though to play with them I would have to be "IT" and I couldn't just count to 100, that wasn't enough.. it had to be 1000. Sure.. ok.. anything they wanted . I wanted to stay up and I wanted to play with the big kids.

They took me to the corner of the street, just 2 houses away. Then I was told, you can look anywhere but don't go into the B's garage.

With my eyes closed and my head resting on the street lamp pole I started to count. 1, 2, 3, 4, ....wow.. 1000 is going to take alot of time.. 50, 100, 150 300, 301, 302, ... 500, 800, 1000.. "Ready or not here I come".

I searched behind the steps.. behind cars.. under cars, sides of houses, even in the garbage bins. They were nowhere to be found. It was very quiet. I started to get scared. I was all alone and I just couldn't find anyone. I started saying things like.. ..Come on, you guys.. where are you? It's not funny anymore.. I 'm scared. There was no answer. This was probably the moment I started to cry...still there was no answer.

I was pretty naive, but the words.. "don't look in the B's garage came back to me".... and I thought.. they have tricked me. I bet anything they are in the garage.

So I went to B's garage and the door was ajar. I entered and "TA DA!" .. the motherlode! They were all in there alright.. and they were certainly not playing hide and seek. The three couples had paired off and were all in B's stationwagon.. necking away! I was pretty outraged. Not that they were kissing, but that they had tricked me! They then consoled me and even though they hurt my pride, I didn't tell my parents. It's kind of funny today, actually.