sort of like tag, but there was something else involved, and Randy wasn’t quite sure he liked it.
The game had started simply enough.
One of the boys was ‘it,’ and he had to count to a hundred while the other boys scattered and hid. Then the boy who was ‘if’ began hunting for his friends. When he spotted one of them, he yelled the boy’s name, and began chasing him, trying to tag him. If he succeeded, that boy became ‘it.’
The catch was that once the boy who was ‘if’ had named his prey, the other boys could come out of hiding to help the prey.
Suddenly, whoever was ‘it’ was transformed from hunter to victim.
Randy had made his first mistake right at the start. When the counting had begun, he had run off by himself while the rest of the pack stuck together. He had found a hiding place deep in the woods, near the creek. He waited, sure that he wouldn’t be found, listening for a name to be called out, at which point it would be safe to emerge.
The minutes had passed interminably, and Randy tried to figure out what was going on. Finally, he rose from his hiding place only to find that Adam Rogers, who was ‘it,’ was standing only a few yards away.
“Randy!” Adam screamed and the chase was on.
And that was when Randy realized his mistake. The other boys, all together, were too far away to help him. Within a few seconds Adam had slammed him to the ground, crowing at having won a victory in the first round.
And now Randy was ‘it.’
He counted through to a hundred as fast as he could, then looked up.
No one was in sight.
He moved away from the base point next to the main house and started across the lawn, his eyes searching the woods for a sign of his friends.
Nothing.
He moved into the woods, searching carefully, knowing that he would have to find one of the boys alone if he was going to have a chance at winning.
He caught a glimpse of Adam and started to shout his name, but then saw one of the other boys, Jerry Preston, peeking out from behind a tree only a few feet away. Pretending not to see either of them, Randy moved deeper into the woods.
He stopped every few seconds, listening, sure that all the other boys were following him, yet unable to hear them.
Then, ahead of him, he saw Eric Carter, his red hair giving him away, crouched in a clump of laurel near the fence. He moved closer, trying to pretend he hadn’t seen Eric.
He looked around, searching the woods behind him for the others. There was silence.
When he judged he was close enough, he suddenly let out a scream.
“ERIC CARTER!”
He hurtled himself forward as Eric exploded out of the laurel and began to run parallel to the fence. For a second Eric seemed to be outdistancing him, but then Randy began to gain. He had almost caught up with his prey, when three boys suddenly burst out of the forest, one of them slightly ahead of him, one next to him, and the other just behind him.
Once again, Randy had fallen into a trap.
He turned to face Adam, who was the closest to him, but Adam suddenly paused, and Randy felt a blow from behind. He stumbled, then fell to the ground as Billy Mayhew and Jerry piled onto him. In the distance, Eric Carter had stopped running and was now watching the fracas, his face wreathed in a smile.
Randy fought as hard as he could, his arms and legs flailing, but it did no good.
“Throw him into the fence,” Jerry suggested. “That’ll finish him off.”
Suddenly the boys were off him, but Adam was holding him firmly by the shoulders as Billy and Jerry each grabbed one of his legs.
“On three,” Adam yelled. The boys began swinging Randy, with Adam counting off the cadence.
On three they let go and hurled Randy into the fence.
There was a shower of sparks, and the air was suddenly filled with the odor of burning flesh.
Randy fell to the ground.
The game was over, and the boys gathered around Randy, staring at him curiously. Adam Rogers glanced at Billy Mayhew.
“Do you suppose well get in trouble?”
Billy shrugged. “We didn’t last time. Why should we this time?”
Then, chattering among themselves, the boys started back through the woods toward the Academy, leaving Randy lying on the ground next to the electrified fence.
Sally Montgomery had spent much