20 In 5 -- Vol. III -- Freeze Tag With Jack

By Dave MacPherson

Some kids just play mean...

Even then, I didn’t like freeze tag. It is a baby’s game. Pretending to be frozen after being tagged got old fast. We used to play real games: touch football, softball, or even volleyball when the park workers remembered to put up the net. But that year, around the time school started again, all anyone wanted to play was freeze tag.

It was because of the new kid, Jack. He didn’t go to our school. Maybe he wasn’t even from our development. He just showed up to play. He was small and blonde. Very blonde. Like white.


Jack was the master of being It. When he froze you, you stayed froze. Really frozen. You couldn’t move. Your joint and muscles would rust and there you would stay until the game was over. When he tagged all of us, and he always did, then we would all be able to move again. If he tagged you in mid-leap, you would crash to the ground, still stuck in the same position when he touched you.


I hated it. If we were going to do freeze tag, it should be in the normal way. If I was going to be frozen, I wanted to be immobile by my own power, by willing myself to not move. I didn’t need the help of something beyond my grasp.


One day in October, I went up to Jack before the game started. I said to him, “Hey, you know for this game, can’t you not freeze us for real? Can’t we just pretend to be frozen?”


Jack looked at me with his blue eyes and said, ...


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What? What does Jack say? To read the finish of "Freeze Tag With Jack," you'll have to purchase a copy of the new edition of "20 in 5." Currently available directly from Smashwords in a variety of e-book formats. Or you can purchase it from the Mis Tribus eBook Store. 


Included are the ending to "Freeze Tag With Jack" along with 19 other flash fiction stories. Brought to you directly by Mis Tribus.