Dating : Hide n’ Seek

I felt a chill run down my spine as soon as I heard his voice. Before I knew it, I was under my thatha’s cot. I had goosebumps because I was pressed against a cold iron suitcase trunk. I was in the company of a scurrying cockroach and a completely disoriented spider whose web I had destroyed. I was breathing hard.

I heard the man ask my ajji,” Where is she? I know she is hiding”. She denied having any knowledge about my whereabouts.

I heard him opening the door of the other room to look for me and he would come into this room next. I knew he would find me if I stayed in the same place. I had to get out of this house. Next to this room was the door to the garden and thank god it was open. I knew really good hiding places in the garden. There was a big rose bush on just to the right of the door. I could hide under it for ages. I slowly crawled from under the bed and tiptoed to the back door. I saw my ajji facing the other way as I walked out of the door. Good! At least this way, she has complete deniability.

They had trimmed the rose bush the day before. I just couldn’t hide next to the wall. I literally had to hide under it. I started crawling under the branches of the rose bush and then my hair got caught on a thorn. As I was trying to untangle it another thorn scratched my face. I was about to yell ouch when I realized pain was a small price to pay for freedom. I went deeper and deeper under the rose bush and hid near the very far end. As my frock was green in color, there was no way he would find me because I was so well camouflaged. I saw him approach the rose bush. Through the small gaps among the green leaves I could track his every move but he was completely unaware of my presence. He went turned back and went into the outhouse. That’s when my toe started stinging. I realized I had stamped all over a tiny ant colony and they had started their initial assault on me and if I didn’t go away this would turn into a war.

I knew another perfect place. I decided after they search the outhouse, I would camp out there and hide among the gunny bags of rice. But they were still in the outhouse and these ants were getting meaner by the second. I guess outhouse was quite dusty, because I heard him sneeze loudly. He must be allergic because he rushed back into the house, I decided to bolt to the outhouse. In my urgency, I didn’t notice the large rock and I stumbled. I ended up scraping my knees. As I ran to the outhouse, I heard him near the kitchen. It is always good to know about your enemy’s whereabouts. I moved the big wooden door that made a loud creaking noise. But I guess he was too busy questioning ajji. I hope she does not give in. I saw the bags in the corner. I tried moving one of them so I could make it onto a sort of a fort. They were way too heavy, I just ended up climbing over them and hiding in the corner. I heard him say, “I will get late if I don’t find her.” I was never going to go away with him. The dust was starting to get to me as well. I sneezed really loudly when the entire house was silent. They definitely heard me and if I kept sneezing they would find me in no time. I had to think of another place to go. Of course! The guava tree. It was even the season of the guava fruit. I could probably stay up there all day and if I got hungry I could just eat the fruits. It would also be higher up and be a good vantage point.

I guess they were running out of patience because I heard them call my name several times and also tried to trick me that they have chocolates and dolls for me. I am a smart girl. I will not fall for their lies this time. How old did they think I was, four?

As I moved away from the bags and walked out into the alley between the main house and the outhouse, I heard them on the other side. I walked close to the wall of the main house. And when I approached the corner, I looked across and when I saw no one was around, I bolted across the pathway till I reached the kennel. The quickest way to reach the highest branches of the tree with the juiciest guava was to climb onto the roof of the kennel and then reach out to the branch and go from there. Rocky was sleeping in the kennel. As I came close to him his ears perked up. He must have been annoyed that I woke him up from his siesta.

I knew how to climb a tree because my cousin had taught me. At least in theory I knew how to do it. I was confident I would be able to get up on the tree without the boost I had gotten the previous time. As I climbed the kennel, Rocky got up and came out of his kennel and started looking at me curiously.

I held on to the biggest branch with my hands and started to swing. I was hoping to swing enough to put my legs up on the branch and then go from there. My first swing, my toes touched the branch. This time I was planning to jump to give myself that extra push. As I was about to swing. I almost slipped. The branch shook vigorously and one of the small hard unripe guavas fell on rocky’s head. He was really annoyed and obviously wanted me to stop. He started barking. I tried to shush him. He would not listen to me. I had to find a backup plan otherwise I would get captured in no time. They knew most of my other hiding places. I had no choice-I had to switch to the grand plan. I bolted towards the big green gate. I had never been able to open it because I couldn’t reach the latch on the top of the green gate. I knew I had to reach it this time.

I climbed the gate and almost reached the latch with my pinky and it had almost unlatched when it fell back in place. I had to be on the tippy toes and change the angle. As I had tried it one last time the latch slowly started to lift. I concentrated hard so as to not lose balance of my toes and the pinky finger and the latch. The latch was almost open and I gave it a final push and the sound of the gate unlatch made me giddy with joy. This was freedom. I climbed down and was about to walk out when I heard, “where do you think you are going? It’s time for school and you have not yet gotten ready.” Alas! I was captured. I had to concede defeat. I still will live to fight a battle another day. Tomorrow, I’ll need a better game plan. May be hide food in my bag.