Hide and Seek

Steven moved through the door behind me. Kim and Casey were behind

him. There was something about it that made you want to whisper.

"Gee," said Kim. "I can see why they'd fight for the place."

I shook my head. "It wasn't this. It was the house, the land. Their

home. And they didn't fight, did they? They just resisted thinking

about it, probably, until they couldn't manage that anymore. Then they

left.

"I don't know. Can an idiot enjoy something like this? I'm not sure

they can."

"Ask Casey," said Steven. She ignored him. We stood silently for a

while, and the raft feeling continued for me. Stars and sea and drift.

I began to feel a little dizzy.

We walked back through the hall and she led the way downstairs. At the

foot of the stairs she stopped and turned and told us to have a seat.

Steve and Kim sat on the third step together with me perched two steps

above them. Casey turned off her flashlight and Steve and Kim followed

her lead. We sat in the dark.

For the first time the heavy silence of the house settled around us. In

the darkness you tended to forget how ordinary it was inside and how

empty. The dark had its own fullness. You started remembering all the

dumb stories again and seeing the place as you had coming through the

forest- not a very normal little house at all, but something grimmer,

fatal, with its cruel history.

"In my bag," said Casey. "/ have lengths of nylon rope."

We waited for her to continue. Her voice had a somber edge to it,

commanding and disquieting. I looked for Steve and Kim just two steps

away from me and couldn't make them out.

I sighed. The Spock show had begun.