It was a nice warm summer day when the leaves fall and made excellent beds.

Four children were playing in the school yard after the school had ended. John , May , Jenny and James had been friends since kindergarten. Mary was the youngest of them but it seemed she was in charge of the group.

It was she that proposed the game ‘hide-and-seek’ and the rest knew Mary always get what she asked for. A simple game of rock-paper-scissor was all that was needed for deciding who would be the seeking.

John lost the first round and the game began in earnest. Their school was located in an old building and finding places to hide was not the issue , at least not for the kids. Then the next game which Mary was to be the seeker.

After counting down to 100 , Mary took off the blindfold scarf and looked around in excitement. She memorized the steps as her friends ran and started climbing up the staircase towards the science labs.

Once she reached the second story , she turned her head left and right to glanced at the long corridor before deciding on the chemistry labs at the left. She opened the door and ever slowly peeped into the room till she was satisfied that there was nobody in the room. And she continued that way for all the rooms on the floor without finding anyone at all.

Surprised as she was , she was not the one to give up easily. She then continued the search across all the rooms in every story yet she couldn’t find anyone at all. In despair , she slowly came down the stairs and to her amazement , her friends were waiting for her in the main lobby!

“Where were you guys!” , said Mary. “I wasn’t able to find any of you!”

They all looked at one another and then back at Mary. Each of them tell their own tale and all of them said the same thing. Someone had tapped on their shoulder while they were hiding and they thought it was Mary!

Cool breeze blew through them as they screamed and ran out of the school.