Free Our Heart by Brian MacLearn Page A

hay bales and not throw theirs. They would hoard them and try to wait out the initial frenzy. If the game wasn’t progressing at a reasonable pace, then the person running the show would yell and tell the entire group they were now on the clock. He would start counting time down from ten minutes. It was one of the most popular games, and many people would play the game several times. During the day, they would rotate the color of flour in the baggies.
    When our time finally came to enter the field, they gave us purple-colored flour to use as our ammunition. The opposing team had green-filled flour baggies. To be safe, they would twist the top of the bags until all the empty air space in the baggy was let out, then it was folded over and the opening sealed with a small piece of duct tape. To color the flour they would use different colored packets of Kool-aid, which also necessitated the need to change clothes or hit the water games to rinse off the stickiness, too, not that anyone who played minded it one bit.
    We ended up with Zach Branson’s little brother David on our team. He was barely twelve, the minimum age you needed to be in order to play the game. He was grinning from ear to ear, once he learned he was going to be playing with us. He couldn’t stop rambling. Over and over he told us how he was going to pop out from behind one of the cardboard cutouts and nail his friend Aston, who was playing on the other team. The other team had Aston and his older brother Jarrod, Zach, and some of their friends. We all just smiled at David, knowing he’d last about thirty seconds as soon as the game got under way. His brother, Jarrod, and their teammates were going to make tough opponents. This would be a battle without any mercy. Jarrod and I got along pretty good, but he and Matt had always been extremely competitive with each other. I had no doubt things would get really interesting. I’m sure they were both thinking about taking the other one out, and in the most painful of ways.
    We had it all planned, rationalizing all the options and possible outcomes. As soon as the horn sounded, the three of us were going to run straight at the other group. We hoped to take them by surprise. After we did an acrobatic dive and roll we’d jump up firing. If we did it right, we would catch them off guard and, even if they did manage to throw a baggy, the odds were it would miss us.
    Both teams had to stand on a white chalked line on opposite ends of the field. In the center of the playing field there was a four-bale stack of hay. The top two bales were standing on end and placed so that they were on a slight angle, touching at the top. If you weren’t careful, a well-placed shot could hit you through the gap. Other bales of hay and decorated cardboard castles were also placed in strategic spots throughout the battlefield. I stood in the center of our group and Jarrod was directly opposite me. I could see him from the shoulders up over the bales of hay in the center. His brother was on the far end to his right and directly across from David. Matt was on one side of me with Nick on the other. Next to Nick was where Allison stood. I could hear Nick tell her to stick close by him and he’d look out for her. I was just about ready to say something in response to Nick’s overly apparent come on, when I heard Allison’s response back at him. I smiled when she instructed him how she was more than capable of taking care of herself and if anyone needed watching out for it was probably him. I turned to Matt and he rolled his eyes, as he looked back at me. Both of us just smirked at each other and, with Nick under control, we prepared for battle. Neither of us got a chance to make a comment, anyway, as the horn sounded and the game began.
    I wanted to keep an eye on Allison, but the plan of attack made it next to impossible. With the blare of the horn, the three of us rushed forward, and so did Jarrod and his friends. After five quick steps we