Cave

As soon as my hands hit the ground a major shot of pain went through my entire body. The first thing I felt was the hit of the fall, this shock that goes through the body when you land wrongly. Then, I could feel burning pain, coming from my hands and knees. I should have stayed down and kept quiet, I knew that. I knew that I should have shut up and handle the pain, but it was too hard - I had to sit up and see what happened.

Trying to keep as quiet as I could, I slowly brought myself to a sitting position. There wasn’t lack of light around, I just realized; there wasn’t too much light, but nor was it dark or anything. Where the hell was I? I still had no idea. I looked over to my hands – both my palms were bleeding, filled with scratches and wounds that were stuffed with rocks and dirt off the ground.

My first instinct was to shout and curse, but I knew I really shouldn’t do such thing. Instead, I tried to gently clean my palms off everything. It burned. Biting my lips to prevent myself from shouting in pain, I took out all the rocks, leaving bleeding wounds wide open, infected from the ground.

What I needed right now was water; I needed to wash my wounds. Even the tiniest cut would burn at the contact of simply air. I had a bleeding wound - a few of these, even – and it had met infection of dirt and air along with rocks and whatnot; it burnt, and beyond. But sadly, I had nothing; no water, no bandages, no one who could help me - nothing at all.

At a pathetic attempt to make the pain go away, I blew at my palms. Obviously, it had turned out as a horrible mistake – the burning that followed my silly action was making the pain too close to unbearable. Looking down at my hands, I knew I had to stop the bleeding somehow. I looked around, trying desperately to find something to help me out. My eyes connected with the possibly only thing that could help me right now; the sight of my blood stained shirt. It shouldn’t be too hard to make a bandage or two out of the shirt, and that should definitely help.

Biting my lips harder, I tried my best to rip the shirt into pieces, at least enough to somehow wrap it around my wounds helpfully. The pain was horrible, the burning doubled itself and I could feel my brain explode and build back again just to explode once more - but eventually I succeeded, I got two good pieces of shirt.

It was quite a task to wrap the shirt around my palm since I only had one spare hand at a time, and not in the best condition if I may say, but I managed to somehow bandage both my hands. I don’t know if it even helped or only made things worse, but I hope at least it’ll stop the bleeding, and maybe save the wounds from getting even more infected.

Just when I was about to check other parts of my body that ached, such as my knees, I heard a loud noise - a shout of pain. I looked around me quickly, but there wasn’t anything close, so I tried my best to listen carefully. There was silence, but not for long, after a few more seconds I could hear some blurry noises. I couldn’t tell who it was and what they were saying, but there were definitely people interacting with each other.

Then, out of nowhere, another shout of pain came, followed by unclear anger yelling - and then a weak voice of pleading. I didn’t need to hear more than that, I could barely recognize it but I was pretty sure it was Matt, and that he needed help.

Without any additional thinking I jumped off the ground on my legs, determined to help a friend in trouble. I collapsed back on the ground right after, of course, which followed by quite some pain. I sighed and let the pain pass a little, waiting a few seconds before getting up again.

This time, I got up slowly, careful to stay steady and find balance. Once I was up, I looked around one more time, trying to understand where I was - there was nothing. Everywhere my eyes landed looked the same and I had no idea where I came from, nor was I able to tell where the shouting was coming from. I was lost, and I felt lost - trapped in a strange place all by myself trying to find my way helplessly.

“Mummy, when are we going to be there already?” I asked impatiencely from the back seat of the car. We are going to a lake at Liverpool which is completely out of town! It is very cool to go far away, but the ride there takes so long that it is getting boring. “Just a few more minutes” my mother said with a smile and I let out a frustrated sigh - a few minutes are like forever! “You said that last time, too! I wish it was few seconds,” I said annoyed and crossed my arms.

“Is Larry there yet?” I asked, afraid that we are late and by the time we will get there he would be gone already. Larry is the coolest person I know! I never met him, but my mother says that he is a good kid - and he is almost seven, which is almost two years older than I am! He goes to school and mother said that he will be starting the second grade in just a month - a month!

“I don’t know, Dom,” she answered without any worry. I don’t want to miss him, I have to meet him! “What if he is? What if he was there and I wasn’t so he went home?” I asked worriedly. If I am bored on a car, I could only think how bored he is out there without anyone but his mother! And he probably wants to go home, too. To do almost-seven-years-old stuff, like school things or maybe work.

“Sweetie, he is only coming to play with you - he won’t go home until you do,” mother explained, but I didn’t believe her. Why wouldn’t he go home when he needs to work? Working is so cool, I can’t wait to work too. But first I need to go to school and I’m still too young for that, but I can’t wait for school either, school will be so cool.

Suddenly the car stopped. For a second I thought we were there and I excitedly looked out of the window, but we were still on the road surrounded by cars. “Mummy, why’d you stop? Hurry up!” I said annoyed, I wanted to be there already and the drive was taking so long!! “We’ll be there in a minute, alright? Don’t worry,” she said and laughed. I rested my head on the door and my gaze went higher to look outside of the car - cars started moving and the background was changing slowly until the car stopped again.

Hearing the familiar sound that announces the car is really stopping and we’ve arrived our destination, I unbuckled myself and jumped out of the car. My mother shouted after me to not go anywhere and watch out from other cars so I stood next to the car and looked around me.

The place was so nice, it was a huge park with so many places, it was really big. So filled with so many trees and statuses and just so many places to hide at! And behind all the green of the grass and between all the trees and the signs, I saw something shining - the lake!! Still looking around, my eyes caught with the most beautiful view a kid can see - an ice cream car!!

As soon as I saw the car, I knew I needed ice cream. I looked to both my sides to see there are no cars next to me so mother won’t be angry, and ran towards the ice cream paradise. It took me about five seconds to get there, and I had yet to decide what I’d love to have on top of my vanilla - I was certain about the flavor - ice cream; chocolate stick or colorful little ice cream candy?

Once I reached the car, I stood there waiting by it. Of course, I could hear my mother telling me to stop and not go anywhere, but I didn’t respond because there was nowhere else I would go to, all I wanted was ice cream.

When mother got to me, she gripped my hand right away. “Dominic, do not run like that! You could have gotten lost!” Her voice was a little panicked but also a little angry. Again, I didn’t respond because there was no need to. But I hoped she wasn’t angry at me! If she was, I won’t be getting an ice cream, and I really wanted some ice cream!

“Can I have ice cream?” I asked, smiling at the idea of it; I love ice cream. “It’s cold outside, Dom,” she said with a laugh. “Please?” I want ice cream! So I had to try and beg a little. And she said yes! I hugged her and smiled, explaining that I want vanilla ice cream but I don’t know what I want on top of it. Instead of helping me decide, she said that I eat too many sweets and I can only have ice scream with nothing on it. It was really sad, because I loved sweet things, but better just ice cream than nothing, so I agreed.

After I got my ice cream, I walked holding my mother’s hand with my left hand while holding the ice cream cone with the right one. The park was pretty big and quite cool too. My eyes flickered through the place around me, searching and taking in. I barely noticed I was walking, everything caught my eyes. This place could be so great for games! And swings, there are even swings! I almost ran over to the swings, but my hand was still inside my mother’s palm, so I gave it up and kept walking.

It wasn’t long before we could already see the lake completely, I could even spot a few ducks inside of it! Once again, I just wanted to run and do something with my surrounding, but I was still trapped in my mother’s grip. As we got closer to the lake, I figured out that we were going towards two people that were standing by the lake, watching the ducks.

“Mum is that Larry?” I asked excited, with a smile on my face. “That sure is, sweetie, why won’t you go say hello?” she replied, and let go of my hand. Suddenly, I felt so unsure of myself. Instead of running to Larry excitedly, I grabbed my mother’s hand again and held her tight. I didn’t know what to say to him, does he even know me?

Luckily, mother didn’t say anything. She walked over to where Larry was, and I was walking with her. I kept my gaze down, though, and finished my ice cream. I had no idea what was going on around me, all I saw was my feet. Actually, I saw my shoes, my super cool shoes. They were the kind that lights when you step hard on it, so cool!

“Dom, this is Larry.” I heard mother’s voice trying to get my attention. I looked up from the floor, prepared to introduce myself, when I noticed the kid in front of me. He was a little bit taller than me, and honestly looked quite friendly. But he had a batman shirt. I cannot be friends with people that have batman shirts, this is embarrassing!

“Batman is awful,” I simply said, taking my hand away from my mother’s and crossing my arms. I heard mature laughs of adults and someone saying something, but I ignored the grown ups and waited for Larry’s reaction.

“He is not! He totally beats Spiderman!” What nerves this kid’s got! Spiderman is just so, so much better than Batman, everybody knows that. Batman does nothing, Spiderman is so awesome! “Does not! Spiderman is the best!” I said angrily and looked at him unpleased. Larry didn’t seem so cool to me anymore.

After that, nobody said anything anymore. I didn’t want to talk to him, I didn’t want to know him and I didn’t want to play with him. I was right, I knew that I was. Spiderman is just better, and if anyone doubts that, then they must be very stupid. I’ve never liked stupid people.

“Hey kids, don’t worry it’s just a cartoon! Why won’t you play something instead?” Larry’s mother interrupted our silence. Just a cartoon, what does she even know? What a stupid family, and I’m stuck with them now for the day! “So what do you want to do?” Larry asked me. I wanted to go home and watch Spiderman, but I knew I couldn’t do it now. “Wanna play hide and seek?” I suggested unexcitedly, simply because there were so many places to hide around.

Larry shrugged in respond, so I quickly shouted ‘Not it!’. “Hey, that wasn’t fair I wasn’t ready!” he responded to my claiming, and I just grinned. “Of course not, because Batman doesn’t have the senses Spiderman does!” I said proudly proving my point. We agreed that he’ll be counting on the closest tree all the way to twenty.

“One, two, three…” I heard his voice and looked around quickly, thinking of a good place to hide. My eyes spotted a bench a few meters from the tree where my and Larry’s mothers were sitting, so I ran over there and hid behind it. “Shush!” I said quietly as I saw the older women about to say anything to me.

When I looked at the tree again, Larry was no longer there. I looked around the park, but saw him nowhere to be found. Where was he? I got up to try and find him, so I could run to the tree before he does, but then he was right in front of me. I ran as fast as I could, my shoes lighting all over, but Larry beat me at it.

“And Batman wins!” he announced, an annoying smile on his face. I hated him at that moment. “But it wasn’t fair, you cheated!” I said annoyed. “Did not! Now it’s your turn to count,” he said gladly and I just wish I could have proved him wrong. He must have cheated, I was sure of that. There’s no way he could have found me like that!

Angrily, I stepped over the tree and closed my eyes. “One, second, three, four, fifth…” I started counting with my eyes closed. Where is he going to hide? He’s probably gonna go to some other tree. Probably the tree on the other side of the bench, I’m quite sure of that. I’ll show him that batman never wins.

“Twenty!” I announced and opened my eyes. For a second, I looked around me and when I saw nothing, I started walking to the tree I thought he was hiding at. I was so going to win this time! When I was half way to the tree, suddenly I heard a shout from behind me. “Batman strikes again!” I turned around quickly, seeing Larry next to the tree. How’d he get there?! He must have cheated again!

“You can't hide there!” I said. “It’s against the rules!” I explained; Batman never wins. “Sure I can, and I just did” he said knowingly and I crossed my arms again. “No you can’t, you lose for cheating! Your turn to count” I said. “But I won!” Larry argued. “You cheated, cheaters never win” I explained again, repeating what my mother always tells me. “You’re such a baby, I didn’t win! But there, I’ll count, what a crybaby!”

This time I was going to win for real. As soon as Larry closed his eyes, I sprinted away from there, trying to not fall to the ground. I ran around the lake, to the other side of it, and hide between some trees. I couldn’t even hear Larry’s counting anymore, and that was a good thing. I didn’t know if he was done or not, so I started counting to myself.

One, two, three, fourth, five, six… I sat down between the trees and looked at the ducks on the lake. It was such a nice place, I wish I was here with someone who likes Spiderman, it would have been so much more fun. Spiderman would never cheat, that’s for sure.

Twenty eight, twenty nine, twenty ten…what comes after twenty ten? I don't think there is a twenty eleven. Either way, Larry must have finished counting by now. But I’ll wait longer before I come back, so he wouldn’t find me before I win. The sun was shining on the lake, and there were people feeding the ducks. It was such a nice place, really.

I was hungry. The ducks are so lucky to have someone feeding them, because I want some food too now. I’ll ask for food after I win Larry, though. Winning is more important. But I didn’t eat anything since the morning when we left home! Except for the ice cream, but I’m still hungry. Because I had ice cream with nothing on it, maybe if I had chocolate with it, I wouldn’t have been hungry. I’m going to be so angry if I lose the game because of my hunger, just because mother refused to let me eat chocolate!

The people that were feeding the ducks disappeared, and I think it’s been really long since I got here. I got off the floor and stood up, looking around. The park wasn’t as filled with people as it had been before. In fact, it was quite empty. The sun was now covered with clouds completely, and I couldn’t even see blue in the skies! Only barely.

And I was hungry. I knew I should go back now. I looked around, and I wasn’t sure where I need to go. I’ve never been in this place before, and I just realized that I don’t know where I am. I started walking towards the ducks, but I saw nothing familiar. I tried to run around the lake, but I was too hungry to go so far. I think I was lost. “Mummy?” I asked loudly, hoping that she would here me. “Mummy where are you?” I asked again, I was panicking by now.

Nobody answered. I sat down on the floor and started crying. Mother always comes when I cry, she would come now too, right? She has to come! What if she went home? What if she thought I died? I just got lost, mum, I did not die! I was in the middle of a place I don’t know, surrounded by strange view that I wasn’t familiar with and I was hungry. But worse, I was all alone. I just wanted to go home.