|
|
|
Story Time: Hide and seek
Summer holidays were always a source of fun for kids, and they always will be. It was during these summer holidays that my uncle and aunt went abroad to spend the holidays, leaving the house in charge of their two older children. This was splendid. All the kids in the family were staying or spending most of their time in that house, which was empty, ideal and a heaven for games.
It was a day like any other when all the cousins had gathered in the house. Of all the games we played, ‘hide and seek’ was the ultimate favourite. There is a unique fun in playing hide and seek with a large group of cousins in an empty, free-from-adults house, which you cannot find in any other game or place. An older cousin, N bhai, was sent to start counting, while we scattered off to find hiding places. Now, in one of the rooms there was a large steel wardrobe, on top of which there was a large suitcase. It suddenly occurred to one of us that we could hide little F up in the large suitcase so he would be safe from getting caught. We did just that, making sure there was a crack to let in fresh air. F was small and so fitted comfortably. It was a lucky thing, as you will find out later! K hid in the wardrobe itself and the rest of us ran to find places elsewhere. What happened was this:
When N bhai had finished counting, he set off to find the kids, making a whole lot of noise and threats as he went along. He was about to enter the room with the steel wardrobe when he saw A baji coming along with a stack of clothes that she needed to put in the wardrobe. So N bhai cunningly decided to take cover behind her so that he could tag people before they saw him. Now, A baji didn’t know that K was cramped in the wardrobe and K didn’t know that it was A baji who was there. So when A baji opened the door, there was a loud yell of TAG! and K toppled right onto her. In turn she fell back onto N bhai and they all went backwards onto the bed! Oh, the confusion! It was a mess of clothes and screams and yells and the screeching of A baji about playing such games, and then there were the yells of TAG from the other children running in. The riot continued even after A baji had given her lecture and strode out of the room. N bhai was furious that everyone had managed to tag him and there were yells of unfair and let’s restart the game. Most of us were rolling on the floor with laughter!
It was quite a while later that we heard a strange noise. We were puzzled, and were trying to find the source when someone cried out, “Oh my God, we forgot about F!” Sure enough, the creaking and muffled cries were coming from the suitcase. Up on the wardrobe, it seemed to be bouncing! Oh my, the look on F’s face when we let him out! He was crying and screaming in his squeaky voice and in a fit of rage, threatening to tell our parents. It was really difficult trying to calm him and our laughter!
Although we are now too old to play ‘Hide and Seek’, whenever anybody mentions the game, I begin to laugh with the memory of this comic incident.
|
|
|
|
