Beyond…

Okay you hide then. I’ll count to ten and then come looking. Don’t go too far…

One… Two… Three... Four... Five... Six... Seven... Eight... Nine………….. Ten! Ready or not here I come.

Palms over face I stood listening. He was near. I could hear him. His breath full of excitement… quiet giggles… twigs breaking under his feet.

I can hear you, you know. You’re making it way too easy. I’ll count to ten once more. Find somewhere better to hide. One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six... Seven... Eight... Nine………….. Ten!

Silence……….

I listened… seconds ticking away… no sound of him. I took my palms off and opened my eyes. A maze of giant trees greeted my sight. Trunks so huge it was almost like I was walled inside. I looked up. The dense canopy let through only thin slivers of light… not enough to find him. A hundred trees blocked the path in every direction. I stood there indecisive and still. It’d never been this way before. He was terrible at this game. It hardly took me a minute to find his hiding place. And then he’d ask me to close my eyes and count again. But this time… this time there was no sign of which way he went… no shoe trail… no hushed giggles. It was getting darker by the second now and I couldn’t make up my mind on which way to go looking. If I went the wrong way I risked us both getting lost. I’d stay I decided. I’d stay here for he couldn’t have gone far. I sat down beneath a tree and my mind started counting.

One... Two... Three... Four... Five... Six... Seven... Eight... Nine…………..

And I counted… I counted till the highest number I knew. And then everything went dark.

Somewhere else, in another world, a heart monitor fell flat.