Hide-and-Seek

When I was about six years old, we had our own little house in the countryside. That very first summer, I quickly made friends there, but I became especially close with one girl my age.

One of our favorite pastimes was hide-and-seek. Since we played almost every day, I knew her favorite hiding place was the corner behind my stove. Every other game, she'd always hide there.

So we were playing again. I was driving. I started searching, although while I was counting, I clearly heard the distinctive commotion behind the stove. I searched through the cupboards and under the beds for appearances' sake and then moved behind the stove. But she wasn't there. This confused me a little, because I'd heard her hiding there again.

I walked around the entire house, even went outside and searched all the sheds, and, despairing of finding her, I started screaming that I gave up. I screamed for at least twenty minutes, but she still didn't appear. Then I simply went about my business, thinking that sooner or later she would emerge from hiding. But more than an hour passed, and she still hadn't appeared. My parents began to wonder where my friend had gone, to which I replied that she had gone home.

That evening, her grandmother came over and asked about her granddaughter. I hesitantly stated that she had gone home. Until late that evening, the whole family helped search for her, as it turned out she hadn't shown up at home since early that morning. Closer to midnight, the tearful grandmother went home, and my parents questioned me for another half hour, but I had nothing to say.

The next morning, my parents went out to search for the little girl again, while I stayed home. And then, less than an hour later, someone snuck up behind me and grabbed me abruptly by the shoulders. I flinched and screamed. Turning around, I saw my friend. "Now I'm driving," she said, as if nothing had happened.

When I told her that my family and hers had been looking for her for almost a day, she simply laughed and didn't believe me. She said she stood behind the stove for 15 minutes, as usual, and when she got tired, she simply came out and came to me.

At home, she was scolded, although she had no idea why she was being scolded, and I faced further questioning.

I went to that dacha four more times. Each time, we discussed the incident and still couldn't find an explanation for what had happened.