Hide and Seek

By Harsh Nayan Ashar

Dev was tired and heading home after the game of hide and seek he played with his friends. He really liked playing hide and seek but he was very bad at it and would always be found and would never win, but this day was different, because no one could find him as he had found the best spot to hide. He was walking home alone as all his friends had left, he was thinking of ways to tease them the next day about how he won his very first game of hide and seek. His house was at a distance from the ground and he had to walk 20 minutes to reach the ground and vice versa. Dev was happy as he had received good marks in his quarterly tests conducted, he was made the monitor of his class 6B and now that he had won his first game. He decided to celebrate it by having ice-cream when he reached home. He started trotting towards his house, upon reaching he ran to open the door and tell his mother about the game he just won and how no one was able to find him. Dev entered the house and ran to the living room to look for his mother as this was the time, she spent reading her book, he knew how she loved reading, he called her out as he reached the doorway but there was no response, he peeked in the room and was surprised to find it empty, he turned around and ran to the garden hoping to find his mother on the swing. He ran through the kitchen towards the backdoor which opened in their garden. He opened the door to find that his mother was not even in the garden, dejected he closed the door and turned around thinking where his mother could be, he realised she would surely be in the bath, there was never a day when she did not have a bath in the evening. He crossed the kitchen running towards the stairs, taking 2 steps at a time in his excitement, he reached the bedroom door and opened it, running towards the bathroom and pulling at the door to find it empty as well. Dev was now confused as to where his mother was, she never left the house without him and would always leave a note at the door if she had any urgent work. Dev decided to surprise her and wait for her today and hug her when she entered the house like she always hugged Dev. He started walking towards the living room to switch on the TV and wait for his mother. He switched on the TV and walked towards his favourite rocking chair, before he could switch the channel to his favourite cartoon channel, he saw his mother on the TV bawling, he could not figure out what was happening and then he saw the reporter was about to speak, he instantly increased the volume as this was their local news channel and it was showing a photo of him. What he heard blew his mind away, the reporter said that while playing a game of Hide and Seek the local boy had suffocated inside the metal box, he was hiding in, apparently, he fell asleep and someone had closed the hatch unknowingly, he was found by his friends and they were the ones who had called his mother there. He could not believe what he was seeing and all he remembered was falling asleep while playing the game of Hide and Seek.

By Harsh Nayan Ashar