Hide and Seek

Based on true events: (unfortunately  . . .)

The Charmer: “I don’t know what to do, my family is here and I need to join them for dinner. I know you’re here and we’re hanging out so maybe you could hide out down by the water. Dinner will only be an hour or so, and then I will come and find you.”

Me: “So I just wait for you and make sure no one sees me?”

The Charmer: “Yeah. Actually it might be kind of fun having you hide out. You know, it will kind of be like playing hide and seek.”

. . .

Days later, after I shared this unfortunate story with some friends of mine, they suggested that I should have ordered a pizza to my name, if I had in fact decided to wait, and had it delivered to the house.

I guess hindsight really is 20/20 after all?

…

“There are a lot of different strategies for hiding. One is to hide in plain sight.”

The rules for the game of ‘Hide and Seek’ are simple and straightforward enough. They are so simple and straightforward in fact, that most people easily catch on to the rules of the game starting from a very young age.

Remember that initial ‘high’ or adrenaline rush that you experienced when you found a really great hiding spot and no one could ever find you? And, no matter what, you would never share your secret location with anyone?

When I used to play as a child, I would get very anxious and excited at the idea that someone was seeking me out and was trying to find me. I wanted to stay hidden for as long as I possibly could, however the most fun for me, was when I was found.

I never thought, that years later as an adult, I would ever play the game by a different set of rules that left me wondering if I would ever be found.

First thing’s first. The rules of the game.

1. Select the players. The first thing you need to do to play hide and seek is to recruit players. At least two people are needed to play the game.

*Well, I had definitely recruited a ‘player,’ except in this case, he didn’t want to play fair, which brings me to rule #2:

2. Set down rules. If you do not set down any rules, you will have people trying to cheat.

*In our version, there were only two players, myself and, for the purpose of this blog, let’s refer to him as: ‘The Charmer,’ made up the rules as he saw fit.

3. Determine who will be ‘It.’

*Generally whoever is ‘it’ has to look for the person in hiding. This however, was not the case for me.

I was contemplating Rule #4:

4. Begin the game. Once the person who is ‘it’ has been chosen, he or she stays at home base (in his case – in his home eating dinner with his family), closes his or her eyes, and begins counting out loud to 10 at a steady pace.

*Was he going to care enough to count? He was giving me more than enough time to hide ..

Rule number 5 states that: all of the players who are not ‘it’ should run off and quietly hide from the player who is counting.

*Unless the player asks you to ‘hide out until after dinner’ so that no one knows you are with him. I followed the first part of rule number 5, and ran off quietly.. AWAY from the player to a place where I hoped he would never find me again.   

Rule #6: Begin the Seeking. Once the player who is ‘it’ has finished counting, he or she yells: “ready or not, here I come!” to warn the other players. At this point the player who is ‘it’ must try to find those who are hidden.

Rule 7: Change the person who is ‘It.’ The player who gets found first becomes ‘it’ in the next round of the game.

We never took turns and he never counted to ’10’ because I never gave him the chance to even start at 1.

I believe I won the game however, because I have been happily hiding from him ever since that day.