Hide and Seek

SEVOfTF

The darkness went molecular on me, filled with spots of light.

I squinted my eyes shut. They wanted to open. My face muscles

wouldn't let them. A dim widening amber color began to burn at the

core of my vision.

I was a whole lot better at this, I thought, as a kid.

I was leaning on the windowpane, dizzy as a fresh-water sailor.

"Ninety-eight. Ninety-nine. One hundred."

I opened my eyes.

I was wildly out of focus, blinking out toward the high grass and

trees. And then I did focus.

Out there in the grass, something blinked back at me.

I jumped.

It was as though I'd been leaning on a hot plate Neck, arms, back and

shoulders jerked back involuntarily. My arms slammed shut like traps.

My mouth made a little wet popping sound as the jaw dropped open.

It was unexpected as a cobra in the upstairs bathroom. The brain takes

a clout from the nervous system. And it's a moment before you start

working again, before the gears mesh, and you can see what you saw.

I looked again.

Two eyes, not twenty feet away. Unmistakable. Shifting and glowing in

the moonlight.