We all have those moments in our lives where being curious has gotten the best of us, and it could have or did get us hurt. For me, that moment took place when I was seven years old. It was a Saturday morning and rainy. I only remember it was rainy because I would have been outside playing. It was just me and my dad, since my mom had to work. We were watching re-runs of Scooby Doo. It was my favorite show in the world and still is. After a while though, I started to get bored and wanted to play. My dad was trying to entertain me by bringing out board games, like he always does since he thinks kids still do that.

Finally he offered to play hide and go seek. YES! I loved that game. He let me go first so I ran to the same spot I always hid thinking he wouldn’t find. I hid behind my parent’s bed frame (there was a little nook between the wall and the bed’s actual frame that I was just small enough to fit into. My dad pretended to look for me blindly for probably five minutes. Then it was his turn to hide. I started to count to 50 while thinking about where I wanted to hid next. There! I thought of the perfect spot that I could go where no one would ever think a kid would hide. Then I reached 50. I ran to go find my dad. I looked all over the first floor but he was no where to be found. Then I made my way up to the second floor, I still couldn’t find him. He ended up hiding in my bedroom closet. He scared me by going behind my clothes and shaking them when I had opened the door. It had took me a while to find him but eventually I did.

By that point I was starting to get very hungry. I’m very cranky when I get hungry so my dad decided to make some lunch; so he wouldn’t have to deal with a cranky kid. My dad told me we could have lunch then continue playing. I was cool with that, food and games, what more could I ask for! He probably made either grilled cheese or macaroni and cheese. I loved anything with cheese back then. Of course I had it with a big glass of chocolate milk. When I was finished eating it was time to go back to the wonderful game of hide and go seek.

Now it was my turn to hide. Remembering the secret spot I thought of earlier I slipped into the basement. There it was the big and powerful drying machine. Well at least big and powerful to a little kid. My dad would never know I was there! He knew I hated the basement because I was convinced it was haunted. I climbed into the dryer. I took one last glance at the basement then slammed the door shut. I was a genius, I’d won the game and I was sure of it. I remember the smell inside the dryer, the classic small you get when you mix heat with cotton. The smell was almost unbearable since I was so close to where it was coming from. Don’t ask me why I thought it was an ok idea to climb in the dryer for a hiding spot in hide and go seek, because I have no idea. Back then I just did whatever my mind told me to.

Five minutes later I was convinced I had fooled my dad. I just sat curled in a ball waiting for him to come. Fifteen minutes later I was starting to get a little worried. I could hear his feet on the floor upstairs, frantically trying to find me. But I wasn’t scared enough to give in and walk upstairs to tell him I was ok, I wanted to win no matter what. Twenty minutes later, Now I was scared. I couldn’t hear his feet running around upstairs anymore. Did he forget about me? I didn’t know this then but now I do know that he had gone outside to try and look for me at the beach across the street from my house.

I tried to open the door to run and tell him that I was ok. But the door wouldn’t budge. Now I was freaking out. I was stuck. I started kicking at the door but it wouldn’t move no matter how hard I kicked at it. Most likely because I wasn’t strong enough since I had no muscle. Maybe if I started screaming he would hear me. I probably spent another fifteen minutes screaming and banging so he would hear. Then I started to get tired, probably because there wasn’t much oxygen in the dryer. I decided to take a nap.

I am not sure how long I slept for but as soon as I woke up I started screaming and banging on the door again. By that point I think my dad was probably back in the house. He’s partially deaf in one ear, so it was hard for him to hear me banging on the door. He finally thought to look in the basement and when he got down there he had probably seen me shaking the dryer and opened the door to let me out. Yay! I was finally out and saved. He looked so scared. He gave me a big hug and told me never to do that again and then took me out to ice cream. I got my favorite flavor, mocha chip. He was probably just bribing me with ice cream so that I wouldn’t tell my mom what had happened. She ended up finding out anyways though but she just laughed and said it was something that I would have probably done.

To this day I have avoided the game of hide and seek and have not had any “genius” ideas to hide in the basement.