I Spy

“I spy with my little eye something yellow”, said Jenny. The children are playing a game every kid loves called I spy. Jim is looking all over the yard to find something yellow. He sees so many things. There is the yellow stripe on the street, the yellow mailbox at the neighbors and the yellow flower box on the house. Jim is sure it can’t be the stripe on the road and Jenny cannot see the mailbox from where she is. He has one question he can use.

He decides to ask “Is it on the house?”

Jenny says “No it is not on the house”.

Jim was sure now, so sure he just yelled out, “The mailbox, it’s the mailbox!”

Jenny laughed at him because he was so sure of himself and said, “No silly, it’s the marigold in the flower bed”.

Jim was so upset with himself because he did not see the flowers, but flowers are something boys just don’t look at or know their names. Some other kids from the neighborhood started showing up and they all played I spy for a while. When they ran out of things to spot, they all decided to play tag.

Jenny said, “I will choose teams since I am the youngest”.

Jim said, “No Jenny, we can each pick one at a time to be on our team”.

They each chose their teams and made a plan on how to get the other team.

Now the rule was that one team would count and the other would go find a place to hide and when the line was called out everyone had to try to make it back to base. When one of the team made it to base they could call out alia li oxen free, which means, all in, all in, all in free.

Jenny’s team gets to hide first. Now jenny is really good at this game because she is so small and today is a good day for the game because she has her flower dress on. That is good because base is the tree right next to the flower bed.

Jim begins to count, “one, two, three, four, five all the way to fifty”. Jenny went over and layed down in the flowers. When Jim gets to fifty, he calls out, “Bushel of wheat, bushel of rye, who evers not ready holler I”.

When no one calls out then he says, “Bushel of beats, bushel of clover, who evers not ready cannot hide over”. Then the whole team takes off to find the other team.

Jenny starts to snicker as the kids all run off and she waits just a couple seconds and stands up.

“Gotch ya!” yelled Jim.

“That’s not fair you didn’t move. You have to go look for everybody”, Jenny said.

While the two of them bickered about who cheated, Suzy, who is Jenny’s best friend, touches the tree.

“Jenny, you was just distractin me so Suzy could get in free”, Jim said.

“Well you was the one who didn’t go look for the hiders”, Jenny said.

Suzy called out to everyone else, “Ali, ali, oxen free”.

All the kids got real upset with Jim because he was supposed to guard the tree. Jim got mad and decided he was just gonna go home and get his bike and go for a ride. You see, Jim really likes Jenny, but is afraid to tell her. That’s why he stayed by the tree so he could catch her, or at least make her think he was gonna catch her.

When all the kids left, Jenny and Suzy sat on the swings and played and talked for a while.

Suzy asked Jenny, “Why do ya think Jim is always over here playing with you instead of being down at the ball field with the other boys?”

Jenny gasped, “You better not be thinkin what I think your thinkin”.

“You know I was watchin ya and when you stood up he didn’t even tag you,” Suzy said.

Suzy started singing that stupid rhyme to Jenny, “Jim and Jenny, sittin in tree, k i s s i n g. First comes love then comes marriage, then comes Jenny pushin a baby carriage.

Ooh, Jenny got so mad! She looked a Suzy and told her, “You just better git on home now before we get to pushin something else around”.

Suzy skipped home singing that song and Jenny walked over to the garden to pick a flower. She really loves to smell the flowers. The she hears something. She turns quickly while saying, “I told you, you better…, Oh, hi Jim. What are you doing back here. I thought you was going home.”

Jim started to stutter a little and said, “N n now J J Jenny. I want t to t t tell you something and y y you better just l l listen up”.

Jenny laughed and said, “W w well, sp sp spit it out.”

Jim said, “I knew you spied the flower this morning you know how? Cause I know how much you like marigolds.” He pulls some flowers from behind his back and said, “I’ve been growing these for you”. He handed her the flowers, got on his bike and took off for home.

Jenny could not believe what just happened. She was stunned for just a minute, looked around to see if anyone was there and yelled to Jim, “I really like you too Jim!” A tear fell from Jenny’s eye as she gleefully walked into her house.