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“London Bridge is falling down,” the children began to sing an old nursery rhyme passed down from generation to generation until one little girl suggests another idea.
“I don’t want to play this boring game. We always play this, and we know what happens at the end.”
“What?”
“Absolutely nothing,” she retorted. “That’s why I have a better idea. Let’s play Duck Duck Goose, except this time, we change the ending. Whoever we tag gets locked in the closet in the dark until the next person gets caught.”
The children were up in the spare room of the house while their parents were downstairs near the creek having a gathering. Everyone was dressed in their favorite clothes because it was a Labor Day weekend, therefore, favorite clothes consisted only of fun clothes. The children generally were ready to play in their shorts and T-shirts, but there was one little, seven years old boy who just moved into the neighborhood. He didn’t play immediately, but only sat and watched everyone, not saying one word - not even hi. That changed when there was a knock at the door of the upstairs bedroom.
“I’ll get it,” a little boy said marching happily to the door, ready to start an awesome new game of Duck Duck Goose, but when he opened the door, he stood back to get a better look at the new boy who would be joining them for their Labor Day fun this year. Eventually, he spoke. “You coming to play, too?”
“Yes, Eric,” responded the new boy.
“Whoa! He knows my name!” shouted the boy, totally surprised by the new boy knowing his name. He threw his hand up to his forehead while his mouth fell open. “How do you know my name already?”
Before the new child could answer, Shelby, the prissy and proper little girl who lived at the residence, got up to go greet him. She was the only one dressed in an off white dress that her mom insisted marked the start of the ban on the color white for the rest of the year due to it turning Fall.
“Hi!” She felt like a bigger girl now that she could introduce another person into her own little world. Shelby extended her hand. “What’s your name?”
“Hi, Shelby.” This was the only thing the boy said, never telling anyone his name. However, he did shake her hand, which he noticed made her feel very important, so important that she didn’t even ask for his name again. Instead, she stuck her chest out and guided him inside by his hand. He simply followed.
The boy knew everyone’s name. Besides Eric and Shelby, he had also watched intently as Brian and Veronica, the fraternal twins, consistently second guessed one another and argued over the smallest things, such as who was standing where and who was first. Therefore, when he was guided to where they were all sitting in a circle, he released Shelby’s hand and asked the twins a question.
“Should I sit by you or,” he asked the female twin before turning to her brother, “should I sit by you?”
This caused an eruption in the big playroom which the new boy stood and watched, never once sitting down because that was never his intention. The new boy loved figuring things out about people. He never really had any true friends because it was always puzzling to him why they cared so much or why it meant so much to everyone.
As the children argued, he glanced up at Eric who was laughing hysterically and spinning around in a circle, and while Shelby tried her best to set things back together in her small world of order, he pulled a pitch fork from the back of his trousers, the one that he took from the cookout while the parents were having fun. Then, he decided to play his own game.
“It’s time to eat!” Shelby’s mom ran upstairs after about thirty minutes, only to open the playroom door to four children leaning against the walls and the new little boy sitting sieza style with the bloody pitchfork on the floor. When he heard the door open, he stared back at her. She continuously screamed in horror, and he answered her screaming calmly.
“We were just playing a game.”
