Lost Child of Hide and Seek

When I got home, I received dozens of voice messages from a parent. They had been sent in the group chat with other parents of children in the same kindergarten class as my daughter, Lily.

[Ms. Channing, didn't I tell you that my daughter is allergic to furry toys? Why did you allow that boy, Sparky, to give my daughter a hugging bear?]

Ms. Channing quickly denied this. No child called Sparky had ever studied in the kindergarten.

Another parent was also furious about this.

[How can you claim that? My son said Sparky would always force him to play hide-and-seek. If he refuses, Sparky would grab his hair!]

I quickly asked Lily what this was about.

Lily took out a hugging bear from behind her back and told me about it.

[Ms. Channing can't see Sparky. Only smart children can see him. Sparky is a little boy with red eyes. Every child who plays hide-and-seek with Sparky will get a hugging bear.]

I thought Sparky was some child's nickname. I asked about him while stroking my daughter's head.

"What's Sparky's real name, Lily?"

Lily shook her head with a questioning look.

"Sparky doesn't have any other name. He's called Sparky! His eyes are redder than his lips. They're so pretty."

Red eyes?

That did not sound like a normal child.

A child would never appear in the kindergarten without the teacher being aware of it. I continued asking Lily about him patiently.

"When did you play hide-and-seek with Sparky?"

Lily's eyes widened innocently. "During naptime. We weren't able to sleep, so Sparky brought us to play hide-and-seek."

I messaged the teacher, Ms. Channing, about it.

Ms. Channing shared footage of the kindergarten with me right away.

"We can guarantee that all the children had been asleep during naptime, Mrs. Ford. All our teachers had been watching the doors. None of the children had gone out to play hide and seek."

It was just like Ms. Channing had said. All the children were sleeping peacefully in their little beds in the footage she shared.

I pointed at my daughter sleeping soundly in the footage and was quite stern when I spoke.

"Lily, try to remember. Were you playing hide-and-seek with Sparky in your dreams?"

She looked back at me seriously with a retort. "Sparky plays hide-and-seek with us every day, Mommy. I can't be dreaming about Sparky every day, can I? He even gave us hugging bears."

I took the hugging bear Lily held up to me. I was about to check this with the other parents in our group chat when I noticed an ongoing argument in the group.

Gina (Janice's mom): [My daughter's asthma is working up because of this hugging bear. I won’t let my daughter risk her life for this toy.]

Ms. Channing got anxious and shared the student list in the group.

It was strange that there was no one called Sparky among the 120 students in the list.

Charlie (Jonah's dad): [My son has the same hugging bear. I thought it was a gift from the kindergarten, but my son said that it was from a child called Sparky. He said Sparky is a boy with red eyes. It doesn't sound like a lie when he can describe that boy clearly.]

Ms. Channing immediately denied this. [Our kindergarten has never given any hugging bears to the children.]

Sarah (Cindy's mom): [Stop giving Ms. Channing such a hard time. I've asked my daughter about it, and she said she's never met a boy called Sparky. She didn't even receive any hugging bear.]

Everyone was sharing all sorts of information, which forced Ms. Channing to make the announcement.

[May anyone whose child has seen Sparky or received a hugging bear please make a trip to the kindergarten. We would like to look into this.]

The group chat was finally silent. Lily, who had been quiet all this time, suddenly sighed.

"Janice won't be able to make it to the kindergarten tomorrow.

"She was the first person caught by Sparky when we were playing hide-and-seek. Sparky said he'll be taking her to the dark room as punishment."