Hide and Seek                        柯佳慧 Jia Hui Ko

Little Johnny liked to play games. His favorite game was “hide and seek.” He used to play that game with his mother. When his mother went out to buy something, he would stay in the house and wait. On hearing the sound of his mother’s motorcycle, he would rush to find a place to hide himself. Sometimes he hid under the chair, sometimes in the closet and sometimes behind the door. He would wait there patiently and happily. “Honey, I am home, where are you?” When he heard his mother’s summoning, he would keep silent because he knew his mother would come to find him. He thought that was an interesting game. If he hid under the chair but his mother went to the room, he would feel funny and started to giggle. If he hid behind the door, he would jump out suddenly to give his mother a shock when she walked into the room. Every time when they played hide and seek, he would be the hider. He thought hiding in somewhere and waiting to be found was so exciting.

They played that game very often when he was ten. In fact, he was nine at that year, but his mother said that nine was ominous. Although he did not think that nine was unlucky, he still pretended to be ten. For one reason, he was used to obeying his mother. For another, he was eager to grow up when he was a little boy.

    Unfortunately, his mother passed away at that year when he was really ten.

    “Well, bad things would come if God wants to, no matter you are nine or ten…,” he thought.

    From then on, he started to live in the world with his father only. His father Simon was a man who did not talk too much, and he never played games with his son.

    After his wife’s death, Simon thought, “I should take care of this little child; I should act like a father and a mother.” In fact, he loved his wife very much. He was not handsome at all, but his wife was the most beautiful lady in the town. One day, when he sat on the stairs in front of their house. He looked at the sunshine and at the people walking by. He saw a couple kissing. “Mmm…, so wonderful,” he thought. Then he started to think of himself and his wife. They never did that before. They never kissed on the street. He wooed his wife for seven years. His wife did not want to talk to him and did not want to go out with him in the whole seven years. He thought the reason was that he was not handsome and rich enough. But he never gave up. He believed that she was the only one he would ever love in the world. He was so obsessed with her. He loved the way she moved, the way she talked, and especially the way she smiled. She never talked and laughed as loudly as other women did. Whenever he saw her, he felt his heart beating so fast. But she never came to him, never smiled at him. He once gave her a bouquet of roses by his own fair hands, but she refused. From then on, he put one rose in the mailbox in front of her house every day. He had to get up early in the morning so that no one would see him. He just wanted her to know that there was one man in the world who loved her so mush. And day after day, year after year, he did that for seven years. One day, she come to his house and asked him,“Would you love me? Would you want to marry me?” He was stunned on hearing what she said. He thought she was moved by him finally and he thought he was the luckiest man in the world. After they got married, everything went great. Nine months later, they had their child and it was a boy! Although most of the time his wife was a little indifferent to him, she was still so decent and so beautiful.

After he recalled the old memory, he stood up and walked into the house. He missed his wife and wanted to see her picture. He walked into the living room and sat down in front of the table. When he took out the drawer, he found that there was a deck under the drawer. He was so curious about that. He took it out, and he found a letter. It was addressed to his wife “Lillian”. He opened the letter, and started to read.

“Dear, I can not tell you why I leave you.

     I promise, I won’t forget the wonderful memory we had.

     My love, please forgive me, and forget me!

     Farewell  

Your love”

After reading this letter, Simon could not say even a word. He knew that the letter was written by another man.

“Well…every puzzle got an answer,” he thought. At that moment, he understood why his wife asked him to marry her, and he understood why they had their child so soon after they got married.

He did not close his eyes at that night. He recalled everything happened before.

Hatred and wrath filled his heart.

“How could she do this to me? I loved her life more than my own!”

“She never loved me! She never loved me!” He talked to himself again and again.

He had to make a decision.

The next day, he woke little Johnny up early in the morning.

“Wake up, little Johnny, we’ll go to the amusement part.”

Little Johnny was so happy and exciting. But, strange enough, his father did not look so happy as his son. Little Johnny did not notice that because he was so excited to go for a trip. And then Simon put two hundred dollars in Johnny’s pocket. Every time when little Johnny went out with his mother, she would put some money in little Johnny’s pocket. She once said, “Most thieves want to steal a woman’s purse for her money but no one will know that the money is in the child’s pocket!” “Wow, two hundred dollars! Daddy, it is not a small amount of money!” Johnny said to his father. His father did not answer.

    Four hour later, they arrived at their destination finally. Then, Simon told little Johnny, “Don’t you want to play ‘hide and seek’ here? That would be very interesting! Isn’t it?” little Johnny never played games with his father, so he thought they would have fun. Then he agreed with that idea. And his father said, “Well, this time we change roles. You’ll be the seeker. Don’t you think that being the seeker is more interesting and challenging?”

Then, they started the game.

“One, two, three, four…twenty-five…thirsty-nine…ninety-nine…one hundred!”

He started to find his father. This was the first time he be the seeker. “Well, it is challenging, but the amusement park was too big…,” he thought.

And two hours, three hours, and four hours passed by……

Johnny felt so tired and wanted to give up.

“Daddy, I don’t want to play anymore, could you get out? Let’s go to play pirate’s boat, Ferris wheel and roller coaster!”

“Daddy, I am tired. I give up!”

“Daddy, where are you?”

Finally, it became dark.

Finally, the amusement park was closed.

He started to feel nervous, so he sat in front of the gate of the amusement park waiting for his father to find him.

He waited until the last man walked out of the amusement park, but his father did not appear after all.

He had never seen his father since that day.

And he never played hide and seek anymore.