Lesson 3 - Epiphany - Hide and Seek

"...forty eight, forty nine, fifty. Ready or not, here I come!"

I peeked out from my hiding place high in the hay mow and watched Kevin run across the barn toward the tack room. Kevin was my secret crush. He was fourteen and I was eleven. He rarely deigned to play with us little kids, but today, for some reason, he agreed to play hide and seek.

The barn was old and huge and filled with tons of hiding places and my best friends, Marianne and Shelly, had hidden in some of the more mundane spots. But I had elected to climb all the way up - fifty feet - to the top of the latest cutting of alfalfa. I was so high I could see the barn swallow nests in the rafters.

One after another Kevin found all the kids who had been hiding. Marianne was in the grain bin, as usual. Shelly was inside the big hay wagon, curled up under an burlap feed sack. My heart started beating faster because, for once, I was going to beat them at something.

I waited for my chance to climb down from the mow.Then I saw it as Kevin went down into the cellar of the barn where the cows were kept. I started scrambling down the ladder and realized that I was never going to make it "home" (also known as the barn door) in time.

A thought suddenly occurred to me. If I jumped I could make it! I was halfway down the ladder, a mere twenty five feet above the floor when I let go of the wooden rungs.

The plan seemed to be going surprisingly well until I hit the hard packed dirt floor. Pain shot from my ankle straight up my leg, but that didn't stop me from crawling to the barn door and shouting "Olly, Olly Oxen Free."

All the kids gathered around me. Shelly, the tomboy, was amazed that I'd done something so dangerous. Marianne just thought I was stupid. I wondered what Kevin would say. Would he think I was stupid, brave or just some crazy little kid? Kevin didn't say a word. He just picked me up in his arms and carried me to the house to call my parents. I was in seventh heaven.

Later, at the hospital, while they finished putting the cast on my leg, my mother asked what had possessed me to jump from the hay mow? All I could say was that it had seemed like a good idea at the time.