A soft music plays in the background as a group of people in dark colors huddle in a group. The music is interrupted by cries, cries of sadness, wails that the child couldn’t understand. All he sees is a casket being lowered into the ground, he looks to ask his mother but the look on her face convinces him to do otherwise.
“Mom, can I go walk around for a bit?” the child asks looking up at his mother. The woman stares at his face before agreeing with the request that the child stays within her sights. The little boy lets go off the woman’s hand and slowly walks far from the dense crowd painted in grey. He moves to the tree and stands there observing the crowd, he sees the rest of the children chasing each other. He aches to join the crowd but sadly he doesn’t know any of them.
“Hey,” a voice says. The little boy averts his gaze from the crowd and looks to his right, stands there is a girl around his age. She wears a white dress, an odd choice given the rest of the people were adorned in blacks and grey. She had light brown hair with brown eyes and pale skin, almost glowing under the sun.
“Hello,” the boy meekly says, clasping his hands together as he was next to a complete stranger. “I’m Mika! What’s your name?” she says innocently, smile bright and stare unwavering.
“I’m Tony. Nice to meet you, Mika,” Tony says, moving to shake her hand but before they touch, she moves away. “Ah! Sorry, I’m.. not comfy touching people,” Mika says, moving her hands behind her back and shuffling between her feet. Tony pulls his hand back looking down, “Sorry,” he mutters.
After that awkward introduction, the two find themselves similar in a way. They shared the same interests and even played some games together, however, not once they touched. Tony looks again at the crowd of children, Mika notices and follows his line of sight. She smiles softly, “You want to meet them?”
Tony whirls around, embarrassed at being caught, he opens his mouth to refute but Mika beats him to it. “Just go to them, they won’t bite. They aren’t like that you know.” Tony stares at her, “You know them?”
Mika nods. “Those were my friends, we had fun together.”
Tony confused at her wording moves to ask but she shushes him once more. “I played with them but I’m going away. I don’t want them to be sad. Can you play with them for me?”
Tony nods staring silently at her hand close to him but once again never touching.
Mika shooes him off into the crowd of children. “Oh yeah, don’t tell them I’m going away, please. I already did that before talking to you.” Tony nods once more moving towards the children till he is but a meter away. He looks back and Mika is gone, ‘She must have left already,’ he thinks.
“Hello,” the boy starts, I’m Tony.” The 3 children stare at him before taking his hands and pulling him into the group. “GUYS, I found our seeker!!! How do feel about hide and seek, Tony?”
Tony can only nod at the loud boy’s question. Then, another girl who looks a year older than him steps closer and lightly pats the loud boy’s head.
“I’m sorry about that, this is Don, I am Angie, and the quiet one is Kean,” Angie says gesturing to the quiet boy that stands to her side. “Nice to meet you, Tony.”
“OKAY!! Now that introductions are done, can we go play now?? Please, PLEASE?” Don says to Angie who only pats him again, “Yes, we can Don. If you are quieter, can you do that?”
Don nods frantically while making a motion of zipping his mouth shut. Kean looks meekly to Tony and softly says, “You are it Tony, can you count to 30 while we hide?”
Don nods and covers his eyes and starts to count, “1.. 2.. 3.. 4..”
While all this unfolds, a girl in white hides behind a tree, her head peeking out. She smiles softly and disappears to the wind, ‘Off to find a new friend!”
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