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The Monthly Journal of Stephannie Kingston (Chp7)

July 20XX
My mother’s cousin Uncle Bernard just moved home and we were invited to his housewarming party at his new home. It’s been a while since I last saw him though. The food was good, the music was great, the chit-chat and get-together brought back many childhood memories, but we soon really bored of all our after-dinner chit-chat and rendezvous. We were suggesting to each other what are we suppose to pass our time when Uncle Bernard suggested a game of ‘Dark Tag’ which was very popular back during his days.

If you don’t know the game ‘Dark Tag’, I don’t blame you. It’s really old-school whereby the game of hide-and-seek was played in the dark and the ‘Catcher’ had to find everybody throughout the pitch-black darkness. If the ‘Catcher’ has got everyone, he or she must gather them to one spot and count their heads to see if everyone is there. I didn’t think it was a good idea, that this game was lame and for old-timers, but seeing the nostalgic faces of all the adults, I had no choice but to fake a smile and nodded in agreement.

After all said and done, we drew straws to see who will be the ‘Catcher’. I, unfortunately, am the one. When I started counting to 10, everyone’s footsteps were pitter-pattering about, obviously looking for a place to hide. Finally I finished counting and started looking.

I found my brothers first. They were so predictable; they were always together no matter where they went and hiding was of no exception. It’s a wonder that they were born 3 years apart and not as twins. Then I found Uncle Bernard trying to pull it off as a lamp by putting the lamp cover over his head and standing still. I couldn’t help laughing seeing him do that. Even at his age, he still manages to clown around. And then I found his two sons who were hiding behind a trunk at the storeroom. I gathered them at the stairs and went on searching.

When I went up to the attic to see if my ‘victims’ can be found there, I noticed an outline of a girl crouching down at the very end of the attic behind a whole pile of junk. I yelled “Found you!” and pulled her up. She giggled as I half-dragged her to the staircase where I gathered the other 3. She didn’t look like someone I knew, so I asked her, assuming she was one of Uncle Bernard’s family friends, “What’s your name?”

She replied, “Jessie Night.”

Finally, after much effort, I gathered everybody. I counted them in the dark by touching their heads.

“10, 11, 12, 13! 13 of you! Hah, good, I’ve got everyone of you!” I exclaimed in delight. Suddenly everyone was eerily silent, looking at me like whatever I just said was not funny at all. “What? What is it? Why are you all so silent? What did I say?”

“Are you sure you didn’t accidentally counted yourself? Because excluding you, there are only 12 of us,” Uncle Bernard said uneasily.

“Of course I’m sure! I’ve counted everybody, including Jessie Night!”

Suddenly his wife let out a silent scream and moved to the fireplace in a hurry, influencing concerned guests to do so. I was puzzled. What did I do wrong this time? My uncle took me aside and said, “Steph dear, you’d better be sure about what you said. You know how your aunt feels about telling lies…”

“I swear I’m telling the truth! I saw that Jessie girl and I brought her to the gathering spot with you guys, although her arm does feel a little chilly. Didn’t you see her? She was sitting right behind you guys!”

“I don’t know where you heard that name from, but I want you to forget it. Jessie Night was the daughter of the previous owner of this house. She was also playing hide-and-seek with her friends in the dark and she slipped and fell down from the attic window when she was looking for a place to hide and broke her neck. She died on that very spot.”

“But I’m telling the truth…”

“Honey, stop it. Your aunt had already had a hard time trying to forget the fact that the realtor who sold us this house skipped out on telling us this minor detail. I don’t want you bringing it up again,” Uncle Bernard warned, making his way to the fireplace to comfort my aunt, then turned back to me and said, “I don’t know what sick joke you’re trying to pull here. Your mother was right about you having problems. You need help. Real help.”

Now how unfair was that?

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