Word of the Day Challenge: Hiding

Bo Fransson, Watercolor

When I was little, I used to like to play hide and seek.

I never  in things, or under things- I used to hide up in the trees, on a roof, somewhere up high.

Then I could watch the game.

I could see people running for ‘base’ I saw them being found, I watched them moving from one hiding spot to another- which I thought was cheating. But really it did take nerve because if you got caught you could get tagged and you were it.

From my perch I could watch the efforts to find me-

sometimes I’d see people looking in cars, knocking on doors and asking a neighbor if I was hiding in their house.  Sometimes I’d hear wild theories about how I might be hiding in that refrigerator in the alley that we were supposed to stay away from, or maybe I got kidnaped or maybe I went home or maybe ANITA WAS LOST.

Sometimes they gave up on me and the game went on.

Sometimes I would drop down and run for base.

Sometimes I’d go to the corner store and buy some candy and go back up my tree.

Once I was up there watching the game roll on below me and I thought all I had to do was cough or sneeze or say’ hey ‘ or ‘look out below’ and someone would see me and I’d be back in the game.

I’d be back in the thick of it, just be a kid playing hide and seek- but really what I liked was the feeling of being there, but not there. I felt like a ghost just waiting for the right time to say ‘boo’ and the beauty of it was I never felt the rush to do that.

Which probably explains why I loved to play hide and seek so much.

It was a game for one little kid who would grow up to be a ghost one day.