Hide and Seek

Garrett's little brother would always want to hang out with us, so we'd ditch him. It was the same tactic every time. It's amazing that the little kid would never catch on. "OK, let's play hide and seek, Ryan. Count to 60 and then come look for us."By the time he got to 20 we were out the door and on our way to a friends house. I always felt bad about it. I would imagine Ryan looking for a good half hour and then crying another half hour when he realized that we did it again. Poor kid. I told myself that it was Garrett's problem if Ryan cried. Ryan was HIS brother after all. Why should I care? I did though. One time we were ready to do it again. This time Garrett promised we wouldn't leave. Obviously a lie. Ryan looked at me and said, "Kyle, do YOU promise you won't leave?" That statement had a big impact on me. I promised, and when Garrett was ready to go I told him, "not this time. Let's play with him." I can't remember where I ended up hiding, but when he found me, the look on his face was amazing."You didn't leave! You didn't leave!"He was absolutely thrilled. Ryan had a tough life. His parents were divorced. His Mom was nice to us, but never stopped being a hippy. She owned a New Age store, did drugs, and had a new drunken abusive boyfriend every week. His dad also had his own vices( mostly pornography and alcohol) that resulted in a home completely void of that safe feeling a home should provide. After Garrett moved away, I took Ryan under my wing. Eventually I lost contact with the members of that family. Garrett would often tell me, "It's good that we're friends. You keep me from being too bad, and I keep YOU from being too good." We adopted the yin and yang as the symbol of our friendship. One of us was the black with a spot of white, and the other was the white with a spot of black. After graduation we had already been apart a number of years. I left for BYU, and he left for rehab. I don't know what's happened to Ryan. I think he'll be graduating either this year or next year. Wow. I hope things are better for him.

P.S. COUNCIL BLUFFS FOR PRESIDENT!!!!!