Right Under Your Nose

"I give up!" my six year old mouth yelled into the emptiness of my back yard. "I give up, David!" I hollered again. There was a silent pause and no David. "Fine! Don't come out, but since I've given up, I'm going inside and eating a snack, possibly two snacks and you can't join me because you're still hiding from someone that isn’t looking for you!" My hollers rendered useless seeing that David wouldn't come. This meant that I had to keep looking for him. Darn it all.

I searched under the playhouse, in the sand box, I even went to the lengths of climbing a tree for that boy I call friend. “I really give up this time, David!” I started to walk backwards towards the back door of my house, scanning the backyard for David if he decided that he wanted a snack too. I closed the glass door still scanning.

No movement was made other than the wind blowing the trees. No! I thought. Not being able to find David is unacceptable. I will find him because I am the seeker in this game and I will win.

“WHERE ARE YOU!” I screamed running out the door. I was very determined, even then.

That day became the worst day of my entire life. And that’s saying a lot considering that I was only six at the time. I was still looking for him when dusk rolled around. Then I was called inside. The next day, I found a missing person poster for David at our school. When I got home, I found out that David’s parents filed a missing persons report since he didn’t show up at 6:30 like he was told to.

David was the only friend that I had growing up. After, his disappearance everything came crumbling down. I had no friends for the rest of Elementary, during middle school, and high school. For years I cried myself to sleep knowing that David might’ve lost his life, been tortured, or left on the streets to die because I wanted to play hide and seek.

I spent every free moment I had wondering what really happened to him. It’s been fifteen years since his disappearance. Police gave up on the search for David around the end of year one. It made me so mad because they could’ve done so much more. I always thought that if they stuck to the case, by the end of year four he’d be back. Life would be good again. But, David never walked down 8012 East again.