Chapter 30
The Kid’s Game
Tasha and Jake were standing in front of the massive iron structure, still indecisive about whether to move on.
“You always said to me that you want to be a detective right?” said Tasha. She was trying to convince Jake to play more, as she didn’t want to go home.
“Well, yeah...” said Jake.
“Well then! Here’s your chance! Use what Alvin taught us! Create a game for me and let’s solve it together!” shouted Tasha.
“Create a game?” asked Jake.
“Yeah, you know his methods! What did Alvin told you about the game?” exclaimed Tasha.
“… Many?” muttered Jake.
“Do you remember the school play we had?” inquired Tasha.
“Which one?” asked Jake.
“The land is far away. The peace in the air feels like the calm before the upcoming storm! Now let us see where, let us observe! We row the boats as we go!” said she, as if giving a recitation.
“Oh, yeah, I remember it now,”
“Of course! Come on, do you really want to go back and live a boring life? Or, do you have guts to do something other than ordinary?” said Tasha, look amused. Jake thought for a second and still unsure, looked at Tasha. Her eyes were beaming madly.
“Ok! First, we need players!” he shouted.
“Ok!” exclaimed Tasha.
“We need a criminals and victims.”
“We’ll put it there!”
“Criminal is hiding on a mysterious room! They are scheming in the dark room to lure victims in!”
“Yes! Yes! Now how does he do it? How does he set a trap? How can he make sure the detective cannot get to him?”
“First layer is always balanced. So, if someone moves unpredictably, then it would be a very bad choice; in order to get to the abnormal behavior, we need a new player!”
“Who is this new player Jake? Who is it?”
“It will be a shame to reveal it now. It will become a spoiler!”
“Is it family? Relatives? Friends or even more strangely, it is detective himself? How many players are we seeking?”
“The stage is there, students walking in uniform; they go into the school so that we cannot get to them. I guess we are the criminals and they will become a victim! Now tell me how do we get in Tasha? We have to be invisible so they cannot see us!”
“We’ve already solved that, steal their uniform!” said Tasha.
“So, who do we need?” asked Jake.
“We’ll see!” shouted Tasha and dashed toward the school door, Jake chased her. Everyone in the field was bamboozled by them.
“They spotted us!” Jake exclaimed.
“Of course they spotted us! Run!” shouted Tasha. They were inside the school. They hid in the corner under the stairs. Students moved in herd, walking around with their heavy backpack.
“We moved a pawn, they will move soon. They will tell someone with the authority, and they will come to smoke us out and even behead us in public as they’ve done it to our comrades!”
“Rest in peace those poor innocent bloods! How do we hide from such an audacious men? Where is our secret room, the last place they’ll ever expect us to be?”
“Ventilator?” said Jake, making a dumb expression. Tasha frowned, shaking her head. They peek at the hallway. Fewer students were walking around.
“Let’s move there!” Tasha hissed, pointing at the janitor’s room across the hall. They’ve waited until the class bell rang. No one was around now. They tiptoed, opened the janitor’s room and slowly closed it.
Tasha snooped from the door and saw some fat boy with a candy bar, roaming around. She went out to the hall way slid to his back; he didn’t seem to notice merely shoveling the candy into his purplish face. She suddenly went to his front and jabbed his chin and as he staggered, she grabbed his head and banged his head on the floor. The helpless kid became unconscious. She dragged him into a janitor’s room where Jake was gulping and sweating, and closed the door behind him. No one was in the hallway. Jake sighed with relief. When he turned around he saw Tasha stripping her clothes, Jake blushed.
“Wooa Wooa,” Jake made a weird noise.
“Shut up Jake,” Tasha hissed, throwing her clothes at him.
“Wooa,” said Jake. And Tasha took out the uniform from an unconscious boy, putting the uniform on.
“Wait here and start building a maze,” muttered Tasha, gazing at him.
“O… Okey!” stuttered Jake.
Tasha winked, rolled up her sleeved as the uniform was quite big for her and got out of the room and toddled on the hallway.
Jake looked at the naked boy on the floor, grabbing Tasha’s clothes; he tried to remember what Alvin taught him about creating a strategy. He recalled Alvin saying to him,
“Jake, I do not want you to enter the world of schemer because I want you to become a good boy. But I guess right now there is no stopping you isn’t it? When you do scheme, the most important thing you have to do is not to be lost in the train of thought. In the world of schemers, there are so many thing that you cannot even perceive in your mind. Because the mind can deceive you, Jake, especially when the opponent himself is a schemer, so be cautious. But if you do fail to see anything, all you can do is flipping a coin. Remember, flip a coin if you are unsure, and at least by doing this you can default from the game,” said Alvin at the time. He took out the coin and flipped it toward Jake. Jake caught it in the air.
“Ok, that is not helpful at all…” murmured Jake. “What were the other things?”
“The people make choices to maximize their utility. So it is better to deal with the group in general, rather than dealing with the individual, because the group is simpler.”
“The group is simpler…” murmured Jake, thinking hard. “Their intention is to look for the intruders… The time, the sound of footsteps, and Tasha’s distinctive appearance… What is the chance that Tasha being seen by others? What is the chance Tasha makes it on time? What if they find me before Tasha comes back?”
Jake looked around the room, it was full of plastic bags and boxes. He gazed at the knock-out boy in his underwear, peacefully lying on the floor. Jake’s heart pumped hard. He tried to put the boy in the box but he was too heavy. So, Jake removed the stuffs, mop, broom and sponges, from the corner of the room.
“The chance that he might get up…” Jake murmured and lifted the boy’s head, closed his eyes and banged it right on the floor. There was a sound of low thud.
“Sorry…” murmured Jake. He put the plastic bag on top of him. And he started stripping too, and put his dirty clothes with the piles of rags.
On the spur of the moment, the army of angry footstep was heard. Jake quickly banged his face on the floor hard; his head wringed, tears came out. He bit his lips not to cry out and he did it one more. He grabbed his face in pain and laid flat on the floor and the janitor’s door burst opened. The footsteps came near and the man shouted.
“Mckee!” the man shouted. “I found one of our students! I think he’s been attacked by those vicious devils!”
“Oh good! Where are the intruders?” said the other man.
“Check the rest of the floor! Look at what they’ve done to this poor boy! I’ll take him to the medical room!” shouted the man.
Jake was lifted up by a huge hand, couldn’t think much due to pain and dizziness. The man blubbered restlessly. ‘The chance that Tasha will hear this noise was very low, and now they know Tasha is on that stupid uniform, they will look for any abnormal behavior. They will soon gather all students and check their faces and names. It will take a while. Well, maybe it won’t, because Tasha’s uniform is a lot bigger than her body. Now they are carrying me to the place I don’t know,” Jake thought, suddenly became afraid. “How is she going to find out which room I’m in? I guess she will look for me when she is safe, but can she be safe to walk around? She will be in the room where they gathered all the students. If I
go to the place, she will definitely see me!’
They were at the stairs; the guy is walking slowly, panting. Jake suddenly opened his eyes. The man who was carrying him almost dropped Jake. Surprised but excited, the man shouted. “Oh, oh! The boy’s alive! All you alright kid?”
“I saw them sir! I saw their faces! And they… they took my clothes!” Jake shouted, the man startled and let go of Jake. The man took off the coat and put around him.
“Oh you poor thing! The villains took it dear, I know it is awful thing for you to endure and I know you are too young to understand, but bad people do that my dear!”
“I… I…” Jake took a deep breath, surrogating as a victim. “I’m alright sir. I’m alright! I’m tough! I want to find this person who did this to us! Let me help you!”
The man seemed to be dumbfounded.
“Of course, of course, oh such a brave boy! When this day is over, I’ll grant you a golden star!” exclaimed the man.
Jake sniffed and put around the coat to get warm. His face was still aching.
“You are too kind sir!” said Jake, frowning at pain.
“Now, let’s go, they are all gathered my dear, so tell me what does this person look like?” asked the man.
“He was big, but hard to describe sir, because I was knocked out on the floor. But I’m sure I’ll remember when I see him again!” yelled Jake.
“Such a brave boy! After such a horrible event! Oh look at the bruises on your face, let me get you some stitches first!” he exclaimed. Staring at Jake; that was the time when Jake realized his mistake.
Jake was too skinny, almost malnourished compared to others, but the man doesn’t seem to notice, still shocked by a sudden awakening of Jake. ‘What if he finds out?’ thought Jake, perturbed.
‘What should I do?’ Jake became anxious. And certain man came across the hall, walking toward Jake and said,
“Hello there, Randolph,” the man sneered. He had an awful dry skin; he could see the scales falling apart from his face.
“Karl! Have you checked everywhere?” yelled Randolph.
“Yes, I have,” said the man with a low voice, looking at them loathsomely, but doesn’t seem to care much about the event.
“This boy has been attacked by those intruders!” hollered Randolph. Karl stared at Jake with his penetrating gaze. Jake startled, his heart almost stopped. And Jake saw his shrewd smile, as if he knew what was going on.
‘Damn it!’ Jake thought.
“Let’s see to it, shall we?” said Karl with a low gurgling voice.
‘Ok… What am I going to do?’ Jake thought. Inside his mind, Alvin was munching peanut butter and jelly sandwich, talking to Jake.
“Jake, if you are lost in the thought, you won’t see the obvious answers, but I know you can’t help yourself being lost in the maze. But this dilemma of over thinking of certain matter goes same for your opponent. So, if you think the opponent is playing game with you, lose him in his own track of thought. If you succeed then you might find a gap. Find a gap Jake, find a gap. Time is your friend,”
Jake was deep in his thought. He should’ve just gone to the medical room; they would have informed the others about the attack in the auditorium, but too late for that now.
‘This mummified guy is enjoying this. I doubt he cares about some kids broke into his school. So why doesn’t he take me in now? He is playing us, trying to capture both mice without efforts, damn it! This guy knows that Tasha will look for me!’ Jake screamed in his head, ‘they are looking for the criminals, and the victim’s in the Janitor’s room. The detective just figured out the trick, and now I’m screwed. The obvious truth is that I fell into the dilemma. Only way out is to mess up this man’s reasoning. But what is this dehydrated man want? Pure enjoyment, of course, he is a schemer. I lose if I fail to entertain him. Oh, his eye is almost beaming, how do I entertain him? What is the solution? Did I just lose the game?’