kids

kidlets 3 · "Hide-Go-Seek" by Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon
                 a simple story of a simple game

Hide-Go-Seek
by Dr. Philip Edward Kaldon

Billy ran into the kitchen, letting the screen door bang loudly. He was already rummaging deep in one of his mom’s kitchen drawers when her first squawk came his way.

“Don’t slam the door, Billy!”

“’Kay, Mom!” he shouted back, finally finding the roll of aluminum foil.

“What are you doing?”

For once Billy was pretty sure he wasn’t doing anything wrong, so instead of freezing in place like he usually did, he continued to yank off several large sheets of foil until he had a large handful.

“’M playing, Mom,” he said. “Radar came by.”

“He did, did he?”

A greenish shadow appeared behind the lower half of the screen door.

“Hel-lo, Mrs. Pat-er-son.”

“Hello, Radar. Billy said you came by to play.”

“Yes, Mrs. Pat-er-son,” Radar said.

“You can come in.”

Radar thought about it, then suddenly he appeared on this side of the door. It was disconcerting every time she saw the rounded green alien child do that, but Mrs. Paterson tried not to show shock.

“We play Hide-Go-Seek now.”

“Oh,” Mrs. Paterson said, nodding her head. She understood the need for the foil now. “That’s nice. Take Maggie with you.”

Billy almost made the mistake of showing in his face what he thought of his little sister, but caught himself. “Come on, Squirt – we’re going out now.”

“Wait for me!” Maggie yelled, running after the two boys.

Outside Billy began to carefully fold up and roll the foil around Radar’s two large antennae. Then he made a little foil hat for Maggie. Hide-and-go-seek was a serious game – there’d be no cheating amongst the aliens.

“I’ll go first,” Billy said bravely. He leaned up against the big tree and buried his face in the crook of his arm. “One… two… three…”

He felt, rather than heard, the sudden rush of air into the space Radar had occupied. It really was a neat trick to jump from place to place, and while Billy wished he could do it, too, he wasn’t really jealous of his best friend anymore. They were just different.

“… ninety-eight… ninety-nine… one-hundred! Here I come, ready or not!”

Billy looked around the back yard. Nothing. Good – he didn’t want it too easy. Then he spotted a bit of green behind the rose bushes. Creeping over there, he was all about to call out… when he realized that he’d been fooled by an old broken flower pot.

Giggling mocked from behind and Billy whirled around to see Maggie running from underneath the old wheelbarrow and making it back to the big tree. “Home free!” she called out.

Great, Billy thought. Now he just had to find Radar.

It took another couple of minutes of steady searching. Radar was getting real good at this game, Billy had to concede. He peeked under the back stairs. Three bright blue eyes against a oval green face looked back at him. Billy reached out.

“Tag! You’re IT!” he yelled and then Billy began to sprint back towards the tree.

He heard something clatter behind him and Billy realized Radar had tripped over some junk. The tree was getting closer and closer – and Billy took just a moment to glance back and see that Radar was running hard but was still only halfway to Home Free.

Just as Billy closed in to the tree, Radar suddenly appeared, blocking his way. No fair! Billy’s mind practically screamed.

But Radar wasn’t about to cheat. Instead the alien boy held out a hand to Billy. “Billy beat Radar fair-and-square. Radar concedes. You’re good. I like Hide-Go-Seek.”

“Yeah,” Billy said, taking his friend’s hand and giving a shake.

“My turn now,” Radar said, adjusting the foil wrapped around his head. “Go and hide. Hide good.”