Hide and Seek

By Jenny Morelli

PROMPT—Never will I forget ...

When I was five, my whole world was Floor is Lava, snowball fights, and Hide and Seek, the game I was playing when I killed my brother.  

‘Sh, I’m dead,’ he whispered when I found him. 

My heart pounded. Until then, I didn’t understand death beyond a fallen bird, a crushed bug. Mom’s happiness from a fight with Dad.  

Aunt Anne hadn’t died yet. Neither had our dog Chipper. 

I paced the threadbare carpet. Wondered how this happened. 

Were we playing so long he died of old age? 

Did Chipper, that awful canine beast of ours, bite him? 

Did he hold his breath too long when I got close?

How will I live without my big brother?  How can he be dead when he wants to be a doctor? I couldn’t breathe past my panic, so when Mom called for me, I nearly hit the ceiling. This was it. I had to tell her I killed her son. She’d kill me, then be stuck with Lizzie, who’s just like Dad in all the worst ways.  

With a shaky breath, I plodded into the laundry room.

Mom handed me a pile of Wonder Woman Underoos and pink ruffled tops. ‘Honey, take these to your room and…’ 

‘Mom, John’s dead!’

She blinked. ‘What?’ 

‘We were playing Hide and Seek and I found him and he said Shh, I’m dead.’ 

She swiped a lock of brown hair from her face as I braced myself, but the corners of her lips tugged up.

‘Oh, Honey,’ she sighed, steering me away. ‘Tell John not to do that.’  

With my tall stack of laundry, I staggered back to my brother behind Dad’s chair, and with a confident breath, yelled like I was casting a restoration spell, ‘John, not to do that.’  

I counted the ticks on the grandfather clock until he shifted onto his knees, newly animated and very alive. Relief spilled from my lungs. It worked! I declared him back to life! 

I dropped my clothes and hugged him, but he shoved me away. ‘Fine. You win.’

He stomped off, but all I could think was yes. I did win.  

I made my brother not dead anymore, but after that, I vowed to never play the deadliest of childhood games because imagination is dangerous in the mind of a sore loser.

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Jenny Morelli is a NJ high school English teacher who lives with her husband, cat, and myriad yard pets. She seeks inspiration in everything, but mostly, loves to write of her nightmares and personal memories. She’s published in several print and online literary magazines including Spillwords, Red Rose Thorns, Scars tv, Bottlecap Press, and Bookleaf Press for four poetry chapbooks. Jenny writes from Aberdeen, NJ.