Bridgits Flame: November: Hide and Seek
I wrote this as a personal essay for my English class, and I adapted it to fit the topic because I have been so busy with NaNo, the election, and all.
I hope you guys like it!
I pressed myself down flat into the dirt, not daring to move, not daring to breath. The stars above me shone down traitorously, casting enough light to allow me to be seen by my pursuers. I did not know what would happen to me if I got caught, but it definitely would not end well. Suddenly a sixth sense made me aware that someone was near me, but was it friend or foe?
At The Vineyard, my cousins and I knew that our vacation was coming to a close, and with it would come the end of an era. One of us would be going off to college next summer, and the rest of us had only a few fleeting years left at home. Desperate to make this final trip last longer, we stayed out as late as possible, which subsequently led to at least one of us locked out of our rooms at three in the morning. But this was a small price to pay for all of the unforgettable adventures we had together. The only thing on our minds was spending as much time together in one of the most beautiful places on earth. And what better way to do that than with an epic game of hide-and-seek?
The past five nights of the trip my cousins and I had either relaxed on the porch enjoying an “open tab” at the porch bar. (even if we couldn’t drink any of the wine that was made their.) We drank as many sickly sweet Shirley Temples, ten dollar Strawberry Daiquiris, and eating as many cherries as humanly possible while discussing everything from The Office to politics, or better yet, running around the expansive lake, park, and trees that surrounds the vineyard in what is now referred to in my family as “the greatest game of hide and go seek ever played.” The rules are unflinchingly ridged and cannot be broken. We split up into three teams of two, and the team who had been picked to be IT has to sit inside for five minutes while everyone else hides. The seekers then have ten minutes to find us, before we all make a mad dash for the lamp post that acted as base located on the opposite side of the lake. Other than those few rules the night was a glorified free for all, and what a night it would become!
The layout of the vineyard was perfect for our game, as it was set on a circular property made up of two main buildings nestled between many mountains. The two separate hotel buildings, the east and west sides, had been split up by a vast lake that acted as a reflecting pool, showing the distorted glistening image of the mountains above. During the day many geese and swans could be seen coasting the length of the lake while numerous paddle boats gently drifted across its waters. (But in my family’s case the boats more often than not could be seen viciously racing each other, or at our very worst, crashing into each other.) At night however, the lake reflected nothing, but as if to make up for that, the lights from the hotel danced across the black waters. The lake is bordered by many strategically placed tree that were perfect for hiding in or behind, as long as the many people friendly deer did not wander to close The west side of the hotel looks up upon the mountain top, shrouded in clouds during the day, and at night a black silhouette stands tall as if guarding the property, with the only light on it resonating from a shrine on the top of the peak, casting an eerie glow over the peak and hotel, making the atmosphere perfectly mysterious for our game.
On our last night we had been wandering the property for about two hours when the idea struck us to play one last game of hide and go seek before the trip ended. My partner Maddie and I had been chosen to be IT and we had just lost the last round embarrassingly. To this day I still believe that my family conspired against us to cheat, as we found them all at the lamp post at the exact same time, exactly one minute before the clock ran out, but they swear that they didn’t come out early. I had not been too pleased with this outcome, so naturally the aftermath included me using my more colorful vocabulary, some choice four letter words, and one of my sandals accidently being thrown in the lake, which of course later had some consequences, but at the time I was to focused on winning, this was the last game of the trip and I could not go down without a fight!
After many arguments we finally picked the next team to be IT and the countdown began to find the perfect hiding place. While scouting out a hiding place it is essential to avoid the late night partiers from the two nearby wedding reception at the vineyard who, putting it lightly were just a little bit “dazed”. My guess is they had a little too much wine. My cousin and I sprinted around the lake, partly because we needed to find a clever hiding spot, and partly because we knew there was a good chance that we could run into a renegade deer. We ended up crouching in the trees behind several benches, and a nearby couple thought we had been stalking them, but at the time I could not be bothered with them. I was preoccupied with winning. After six or seven minutes my knees began to give way, and the constant stooping caused my back to throb from keeping still for so long, but I had to keep my position, they could walk by at anytime! Eventually they did and as I spied the bottoms of their brightly colored flip-flops and heard their high pitched voices chattering away I did not even dare to blink until I heard the scuffing of their shoes slowly die away. Once the coast was clear my partner and I lightly tip-toed out of our hiding spot and my muscles exhaled in relief as we began to move to a more open location so we could dart to the base as quickly as possible.
Suddenly foiling our plans, several shrieks pierced the air, and we saw two pairs of shadows darting across the lake one after another. The other team had been found! Scrambling back through the brush, the branches whipping our faces, we hid and peeked between the trees just in time to see one of the teams make it to the lamp post. I watched quietly in amusement as they did their victory dances, their cheers reverberating across the lake, generating many disapproving looks from the hotel staff, but they had not a care in the world. They had won!
However, the search now began for us. Our team had to move even more cautiously now that we had become the only ones left in the game, so we launched a fervent search for a new hiding spot. When we found one, we pressed ourselves to the ground making ourselves almost invisible, when suddenly we heard someone tumbling through the trees. Forced to give up our hiding place again we scuttled out on our hands and knees into enemy territory, but someone caught the scruff of my collar pulling me back into the foliage, and I twisted around in horror, but ended up sighing in relief when I realized that my oldest cousin, Joey, who had just won, had come to help us. He didn’t want to see his sister win any more than I did, so we formed a plan.
I luckily was smaller than my cousin Joey, who was a hockey player with a broad build, which was essential to our mission. We were going to attempt the oldest trick in the book, The Trojan Horse. Our foes refused to relinquish their hold on the lamp post, now that one team had already breached their forces; the only way to get through was to go behind enemy lines. I was going to simply walk straight onto the base with none the wiser!
Joey began to walk across the bridge towards the base, his hands raised in the air as the symbolic white flag, while I mutinously crouched behind him matching his every footstep. Using the dark cloak of night to our advantage, I slipped beneath the radar, but every step was a struggle, as I stifled giggles and the mounting impulse to run. But I had to concentrate, losing was not an option. Having just passed the benches with the slightly tipsy wedding guests, who were surrounded by many empty bottles of wine, we realized that they had caught on to our operation. Thankfully they did not ruin it, but instead came to the decision to aid us with our treacherous scheme. They for some reason thought it would be clever to flank us on both sides, while stage-whispering comments to us. “Go Go! You can do it now, they can’t get you!” I shot a dark look at their red faces and hissed “Wait for it.”
The enemy, standing at least twenty feet away from base waved Joey in, asking if they had found us yet. He replied with a defiant no, and I made my break. Letting out a whoop of laughter I sprinted the remaining five yards, dodging their futile attempts to tag me as I reached the lamp post, slapping my hand to the cool metal sealing my victory! Adrenaline rushed through my veins as I turned to face my adversaries, beaming all the while. Their faces turned into a mask of fury and betrayal, and immediately accusations of treachery spewed from their mouths. But we had not cheated, we had won the game! The vineyard was ours for the taking!