Just Once
"One, two, three, four, five," the young boy counts, his hands covering his eyes. He stands in the center of a large field while his playmates run frantically around him, their squeals of laughter sounding through the air. "Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Ready or not, here I come!" He drops his hands and spins around eagerly. His eyes fall on someone poking out from behind a tree.
"Found you," he calls and points wildly at the little girl. "Found you, Becky!" The girl steps around the tree, grinning wryly at him as she bounds towards him, her long blond hair streaming behind her. He takes a moment to grin back before taking off in search of the other children.
He sees a shoe poking out from under one of the picnic tables as he passes and moves closer to investigate. "I see you, Liam!" he yells at his friend. Liam climbs out grudgingly from his hiding place, frowning at being found.
Claude runs off again, this time towards the play equipment. "Found you two," he says to two younger children hiding in the cubby house.
Having searched the playground, he moves to the undergrowth area surrounding the field; the hardest place to find people in. "Come out, come out wherever you are," he taunts in a big, intimidating voice. He hears the sound of a muffled giggle from somewhere close and follows the sound.
"Gotcha!" he yells at the boy in the tree but kindly offers him a hand to help him get down. He continues on until everyone is found and are all gathered in the center of the field.
"Okay Gavin, you're it," Becky says with authority, pointing to a small boy with long red curls. The boy nods and puts his hand over his eyes. "One, two, three…" he begins.
The other children scatter, giggling, tripping over each other in their haste to get away. Claude runs to the biggest tree in the entire field, hoisting himself into its foliage quickly. He loves hide and seek, it is by far his favourite game. He is surprisingly good at it and, not excelling in many other games, he always uses his knack for hiding to the best of his abilities. And he never hesitates to rub it in that he can never be found.
He hears Gavin reach ten and ducks down in his tree, knowing that. should someone glance up, they would see him. He can hear his friends run through the field and their squeals of protest when they are found. He hears approaching footsteps and, knowing they are Gavin, holds his breath in the hopes that it will further hide him.
Gavin passes his tree slowly, his quick eyes searching each section of the undergrowth for lurking children. He doesn't notice Claude in his hiding place, even though his gaze passes right by him. Claude doesn't think anything of it though, grateful only that once again, he hasn't been found.
The game passes quickly until he is the only one not yet found. He hears his friends calling his name and after awhile decides he might as well get down.
"You didn't find me," he gloats as he walks up to the rest of the children. They range in size, from the few older kids to the little five year olds who mimic them.
"Where were you hiding?" Gavin asks, stepping up so they are face to face.
Claude points at his tree, still gloating. "I was hiding right there," he says proudly, practically glowing with glee. Gavin's face hardens and a stubborn look comes about it.
"Were not," he says saucily. "You cheated." Claude's mouth falls open in shock, although this accusation is nothing new. Everyone often accused him of cheating and the arguments often brought about the end of the game. Still, he can't resist.
"Did not," he says, stamping his foot.
"Did too," Gavin retorts, stamping his foot right back. "I walked right past that tree and you weren't in it!"
"Maybe you just didn't see me!" He pokes his tongue out at the younger boy. "Maybe you weren't looking hard enough."
"I was looking super hard!" Gavin cries, almost in tears. "You cheated!" His voice has a desperate tone to it and Claude knows he has as good as won.
"Guess you're not as good a looker as you think you are."
Tears well up in Gavin's eyes and his mouth trembles. "I don't wanna play this stupid game with no good cheats anyway!" he yells and storms off. Lucy, the oldest girl in the bunch, shoots Claude a disapproving look and runs off after the bawling boy.
"You took that too far, Claude," Greg says, staring down at him like he's nothing. "I think we've had enough of hide and seek, anyway. Let's play tag instead." And because it's Greg who says it, it's not a suggestion.
The rest of the kids scatter and run off squealing and laughing as Greg chases. Instead of joining in the game, Clause walks dejectedly back to his tree, his head hanging down and his feet shuffling.
He climbs up to the waiting branches slowly, knowing that no one will even miss him. He climbs higher than he did for the game, wanting somehow to escape the happiness of everyone else. He wants the brilliant green of the leaves surrounding him to completely hide him from the rest of the world. He wants them for protection.
He sits on a stable branch in the middle of the large tree, miserably noting that he can still hear their screams of laughter. But they're distant now; instead the quiet of his sanctuary surrounds him. It seems that this is how it will always be: him, detached from his pears, no matter how close he is.
He wishes that one time, someone would stick up for him. He wishes that one time, they'd be on his side instead of against him. He wishes that one time they wouldn't look at him with disdain when he appeared from the shadows. He wishes that one time they wouldn't accuse him of something he didn't do. And he wishes that one time he could somehow explain the reason they didn't see him.
But he knows he'll never be able to do this simple thing and, even if he could, they'd never listen anyway. Because he's different. And he doesn't know how and he doesn't know why but sometimes he gets the feeling that he's meant for something beyond this small English suburb, playing games with the neighborhood kids day in and day out.
He'll just have to wait a little longer to find out exactly what.