Hide and Be Seeked

Hide And Be Seeked
By Stan Levine

"One-Two-Three-Four-Five-Six-Seven-Eight-Nine-Ten. Ready or not, here I come!" I called out to the hiding children at Mathew's house. It was his birthday party. He was seven today. I was younger than him. The house was quiet. Some of the lights had been turned off, and it was dark. I didn't like the dark, because it was scary there. I could see shapes moving in the dark. Somewhere in between the space between space, i could see little tiny speckles of light clomping together to form shapes. I could see shadows of strange people lurking behind furniture. I walked into a bedroom, not knowing whose it was. Mathew had two older brothers, and a younger sister named Sally. Sally would have been my age, if she hadn't died of cancer last year. Suddenly the door gently closed shut. The room was pitch black, and I panicked. "Hey! Who closed the door?" There was the sound of laughing. "It's not funny! Open the door!" I screamed. The room got cold. I stumbled around blindly feeling out with my hands in front of my body for a wall. I had lost my orientation in the dark, and had no idea where the door was. "Don't be scared." The voice said. It sounded like a little girl's voice. "Let's have a tea party." It was Sally. I collapsed to the floor on my knees, and buried my head in my hands. "MAAAAAAAAAAAATHEEEEEEEEEEEEW!" I screamed in tears. Then something heavy fell, and shattered on the floor. I peaked out from a small crack I made between my fingers from my eyes, and saw the light shining out from beyond a door. I mustered together all of my courage and ran for it, but the door wouldn't open. I was trapped! "It's lonely here...Please don't go." The voice said. I stood still, and looked slowly over my shoulder. There was a glowing blue light hovering over the bed. "Come play with me." Then the furniture started to move again. "EEEEEEEEEEE!" She screamed, "Hide! They're coming for us." I dropped to the ground and crawled as fast as a lizard under the bed. There was stomping and howling and things in the room rumbled about. "It's Fred. He's a big Meanie. Don't let him find you, or he will hurt you to get to me." After a little while, the noises stopped. My heart pounded in my chest. The blue light glowed from under the bed. I saw her face. It was Sally. "Sally...Is it you?"
"Yes. It's me."
"What's it like....Being dead?" I had never spoken to a dead person before, so it took a little while to find the right words.
"It's cool. I can hear my Mommy's thoughts. She misses me. I'm sad here, and I'm afraid of Fred...That Meanie. Thank you for playing with me."
"Um..Sure."
Then she started singing some nursery rhyme as she disappeared. The door opened, and I left the room. Everyone sat around in the living room watching a movie when I walked in. Mathew said "Hey Ben, Where were you? We all got tired of hiding and we couldn't find you."
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

The End