- Text Size +

He kept moving towards the side of the house, under the cover of several flower petals. She came and towered in front of the garden.

"There's no room to slide out under the front door. So you're either in the house, or here," she said, "If you're inside, you'll have to come out eventually, or take the risk of being caught inside. I'll start looking for you here."

She began brushing petals with her fingers, to check where he might be hiding. He reached a fully grown lettuce and thought, "She's searching the garden faster than I can run through it unseen. She'll catch up to me for sure at this rate. I'll have to hide in this lettuce."

He pushed his way between the outer leaves of the lettuce, and poked a tiny peep hole with his finger. Looking out, he watched the lovely looking Miss Balfour searching under every flower until she came to the lettuce. She then searched under every remaining flower as well.

Finally she stopped moving and said aloud, "Well, if I have to search inside for him, I might as well have some salad first."

She picked his lettuce and took it to the kitchen bench, broke off the outer two leaves (with Henry still hidden between them), and placed them into a bowl. She fetched cucumber slices, capsicum, onion rings, and baby tomatoes. She took a spoon, and carried the bowl to the front room, sat on the couch by the window, and ate.

Looking through his peephole, he stared up at her, as her pretty mouth consumed the tomatoes and then the cucumber.

 

"Hey, why isn't she keeping an eye on the floor?" he thought, "She's looking up all the time. If I were on the floor, she would be increasing my chances of eluding her. She doesn't seem to care. How ironic it would be, if she's given up the chase, and then eats enough of this salad to find me."
As he watched her eating the salad which covered part of his lettuce leaves, the suspense was driving him to despair. 

"I hadn't thought of serving you with salad," she said suddenly, "It's a novel idea, but I'll finish the salad now, clean you up, and save you for tomorrow's lunch.”

She continued spooning cucumber into her mouth.

"She knew I was in here all along!" he thought, amazed that she had finally outwitted him for the last time, "She picked the lettuce to have another thrilling game with me. She's been eating the salad calmly keeping secret the fact that she'd already found me."
"The bulge between the lettuce leaves gave you away in the garden," she said, "I thought we'd both have a more interesting time, if I didn't tell you."

There was no further sense in remaining under the top leaf. He pushed it off him, and looked up as she reached for the lettuce and said, "Thank you."

As she used her fingers to assist with eating it, he looked up in awe and said, "You truly are brilliant, Miss Balfour. You deduced exactly which door I would run towards, and you had plans for the other possibilities anyway. You even managed to find my hiding spot and serve it in a bowl, without letting me know that you knew I was there. You're a very clever and lovely lady. You've caught me, and I'm yours to eat."

"I'm grateful for the compliments, but my intelligence has had many more years to develop than yours."

You must login (register) to review.