SoCS – Ready or not, here I come

 

Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Conscious Saturday for September 28th. The prompt for this week is: “ent” “ten” “net.” Use one, use two or use all three (bonus points for using two, double-bonus points for using all three.

One …Two…Three…Four..Five..Six-seven-eight-nine ten! Ready or not, here I come!” shouted the little boy. His forehead was pressed against the trunk of a maple tree, hands on both sides of his face to shield his eyes. Now he pushed away from the tree and turned around. The yard was quiet, almost eerie in the near-dusk light, but he knew his siblings were lying in wait.  He rarely won this game of hide and seek they played almost every evening. His brother and sister were older, more resourceful at finding hiding places and quicker to make it to home base before he could tag them. But he played anyway, hoping to one day be considered their equal and allowed into their circle of two.

He looked around cautiously. A small section of the hedge that separated their yard from the neighbour’s quivered. Was it the wind or was Robbie crouched behind it?  Slowly and as quietly as he could, he inched toward the hedge. He was almost there when he heard two voices from behind yell in quick succession “Safe!” Crestfallen, he turned to see Robbie and Sophie at the maple tree, with smirks on their faces. “You’re such a dork,” said Robbie. “Better luck next time,” said Sophie.

The boy turned and headed toward the backdoor of their house. There was still time to watch television before bed. Today, he would rather do that with his parents than continue to be teased by his brother and sister. But he was a determined little guy and he couldn’t resist turning and saying over his shoulder “Wait until tomorrow!”