“One step, five step, seven step, four. Two step, three step, eight steps more!” Carly sings as she skips around the gray patterned carpet, bumping into the vivid flower couch. “Ready or not here I come!” Carly shouts, a laugh escaping her lips as she saunters down the hallway in her grandparents house, her eyes wide open, she’s ready to see and catch anyone and anything.
She peeks into the bathroom: no one there. She turns, looking into her grandparent’s bedroom. She slowly walks through the doorway, her body fully in the room. She slowly walks around the room and looks over every inch of it, under the bed, in the closet, around the dressers, and around the cabinet: no one there either.
Carly only has one more spot to look: the mud room. She tip toes toward the door at the very end of the hallway, following the dark gray colored path, hand clamped over her mouth, trying not to make a sound. She reaches her small hand up to grasp the door knob and opens the door. She takes one step, five step, seven steps, four, and looks in all corners, under the orange bench, and in the coat closet. Her shoulders fall as she realizes that once again, no one is in that room.
Carly walks back into the hallway, closing the door behind her. Looking down at her feet, a frown pasted on her lips she retraces her steps down the dark gray path. She walks by the door that leads to the closet, and then walks back; she stands at the door, and decides to open it. She realizes no one could fit in the small closet since the vacuum takes up most of the room. Carly now determined continues her hunt.
Carly stops dead in her tracks, she hears something, a quick patter of footsteps. She thought it was coming from behind her, down the hall that she has already walked: twice. She looks into the bathroom again, just to have the same result, nothing. She walks out of the bathroom and stands in the frame of the door. She looks down the hall, then turns her head and looks in the other direction. Carly once again stops, as if she ran into an invisible wall. “Hey that’s cheating!” She yells at her two sisters sitting on the flower couch, right in front of her.
“How is that cheating when it’s the point of the game?” Rachel yells back, her laughs breaking her words. Carly runs over to her sisters. She’s always the one getting picked on. Being the youngest has its downsides.
“Rachel, Kelly, you two should try to include your sister more.” Grandma says, her words floating through the air, coming from the kitchen. Being the youngest has its perks too.
“What should we do now?” Kelly asks as she rises from the couch; she strolls over to Carly, putting a hand on her back guiding her towards the couch, speaking directly to her. Carly’s face lights up, a huge smile pasted on her lips, unsure of what to do with so many options.