It's a clear, blue, Saturday and Ryan is having a good day. His old and wrinkled parents are still alive and well since he left them 6 years ago, and his life is heading in a good direction. His only problem is that his small suburban house is in the ruins. His walls are cracked and you can't move an inch without hearing creaking in the dusty floors. One day, Ryan decided to go through the old stuff in his closet. He walked through the wooden hallways into a closet near the main entrance. The sunlight shone on the door and you could see the dust floating in the air.

The whole closet seemed almost magical and Ryan knew that it was the perfect time to go through his old stuff. Ryan found himself cleaning out the closet and remembering his childhood every time he looked at his baseball glove, baseball cards, and old toys. Now these things were ragged, dusted, and half-eaten by moths. Ryan had a story about his baseball mitt and about his baseball cards, but the thing he cares more about was one of the toys he had. He remembered his very special toy, one that meant more to him than any other normal toy. This special toy was his small collection of He-man action figures. If you look at them they don't seem like much but they symbolized a lot more than a five dollar luxury. When Ryan found his old bag of He-Man figures, he called his childhood and the important game he shared with his three friends.

Through glassy eyes he looked at the figures and gazed at images of him playing the game and arguing with his friends. He also thought about the day he had to leave them all...

"Yo Rhino", said Ryan's 3 friends, "Come down, let's go play the game, man." "Yeah man, come on down before everybody wakes up," said Chris.

Ryan's town in Pennsylvania was very small and there was only about 200 people living there. The neighborhood Ryan lived in only housed 4 children, including him. The rest were either old, babies, adult, or crazy. The only taste of civilization the town had was the merchandise in the stores. Ryan's parents hated the place and wanted to get out but couldn't afford it. Billy and Jorge were two of Ryan's friends and they were brothers. They always fought except when they were teammates in the game. Jorge was a year younger than Billy so he always lost the fights. Ryan's other friend was Chris, he was an only child with nothing to do at home. That's what he said but we knew that his dad either hit him all day or ignored him all day. All four of them: Ryan, Billy, Jorge, and Chris were friends and very good ones at that. They were the ones who were always playing their game, every day at the same time and at the same place.

"Hurry up man", "I feel like I'm gonna win today" yelled Billy. "I'll be right down!" Ryan hollered back.

He had just woken up and it was eight o clock in the morning when he looked at the clock. The birds had just started chirping and the sounds of life began to get louder and the town was waking up. He scurried out of bed and didn't bother brushing his teeth. He put on his clothes in milliseconds, like all kids do, and tripped, falling on face trying to put his ragged shoes on. He sailed down the stairs and got struck by a beam of light that shone on the closet next to the living room. He smelled all the smells of morning, like fresh air and warm furniture. Ryan opened the closet door and peered in to look for his toys. He hauled out an old gray bag that was covered in dirt and other signs of childhood like gum and crayon. Limping with the bag as fast as he could Ryan opened the door and stepped into the bright, alive day. Ryan smelled the natural odor of the trees, grass, and dirt, and felt a new adventurous day ahead of him. Billy, Jorge, and Chris were impatiently waiting for him to step out. The four of them ran all the way through the woods, each hauling their bag of action figures. They ended up at their second home, which was a small clearing in the woods that had a small pond about 2 and a half feet in diameter. Ryan and his friends had made terraces and small barricades in which their action figures could battle their wars.

"Today me and Billy are a team," said Jorge. "It doesn't matter" said Chris, "we'll win anyway."

They each emptied out their bags of action figures and separated them in order of good or bad. Of course, He-Man was a good guy, and Skeletor was a bad guy. Each of them had exactly 10 action figures without including some vehicles and other accessories. Each piece cost about 5 dollars but they didn't cost a penny, really, because everybody had charmed or irritated them out of their parents or grandparents. The He-Man figures were all faded and covered with dried mud. Ryan and Chris took the good side and Billy and Jorge got to be the bad side. It was lucky for Chris that Ryan was on his side because he prevented Billy and Jorge from their tricks. Both teams assembled their figures in the barricades, terraces, and ditches. They made their battle strategies and tactics as they went along. This game was of extreme importance to the group. Everybody had their own reason for playing the game: Billy and Jorge played to keep themselves from fighting, Chris played to get away from his house and his dad, and Ryan played because he had nobody else to play with. While playing the game everybody was so taken up in the action and fighting that they completely forgot about trouble at home or anything else.

After spending 2 minutes assembling the parts, they started the game. They had put the bravest figures with vehicles right along-side the pond, the backups in the ditches, and the figures who could throw stuff up in the small terraces. Some they hid behind rocks or up seedlings. Right when they were about to start their daily game Ryan heard his mother calling for him in the distance.

"Ryan, come here, I've got something to tell you." "Aw, man, can you just pretend you didn't hear her?" said Chris. "We can't have a game without you, you know it takes four people to play." "Sorry Chris, I gotta go. Last time I pretended and I got a good whoopin'" said Ryan, "you remember, right?" "Yeah, I remember," mumbled Chris. "I guess I gotta go home too" said Billy. "Let's go Jorge." "Naw Billy I ain't budgin," said Jorge. "Fine then, stay right here and let the wolves eat you up," said Billy trying to get Jorge to go back home. Jorge's face turned a little less rebellious. "Uh, I gots to go home now, allright? I'll eat breakfast like real quick and be back," said Ryan, thinking that's what his Mom wanted him to do "It's allright," said Chris, "we'll meet later."



They walked home lugging their action figures and wondering about what they would do that day. Everyday they would play the game, but today there was an emptiness felt by all of them that each of them would never forget about. On the way home nobody spoke a word and only said see you later when somebody walked into their house "See you later" said Ryan as he waddled reluctantly onto his backyard. He walked through the dry grass and dirt to the rotten piece of wood and screen that served as a door into the kitchen. There he found his mother and father sitting at the table, holding hands. Ryan's mother noticed him and walked over to him with eyes filled with feeling and energy. Ryan thought she was about to burst when she told him the words he would never forget about in his life.

"Ryan," she said, "we are going to move away from this old place at last." He thought to himself "old place", "move away", "why, why, why?! Ryan said to his mother with a hurting voice "Why mom? This place is just fine, my friends are right here and I don't think you can replace them. It just can't happen! "But son, we've got to leave this place, it's no place to raise you properly," said Ryan's father. Why did they have to be so nice? Ryan thought to himself; that means they're serious.

Frustrated, he walked out the door because he couldn't handle the look in both his parents' faces. Ryan knew that his parents meant well, but he couldn't handle the fact that he wouldn't be able to play the game with the most important people in his life. His friends, the ones who carried him home when he fell off his bike. Each friend had his own characteristic that combined with all of theirs to make a big part of his life. Jorge was like his own little brother...Ryan could trust him with secrets. Billy was one of those kids who you were glad were on your side because he was big and could fight but for some reason he considered you a friend. Chris was special because he stood up for all his friends...Ryan could tell that Chris was a good kid from the moment they met. They had all been inseparable...now Ryan carried with him news that broke his heart into pieces.

Each of their reasons for playing the game made the game so important and unchangeable. Without the game, he would be sitting at home all day watching dumb shows on TV. and missing the great outdoors and the smell of the house and nature when he woke up. Maybe his friends were just a part of his life, but they meant a lot. They gave him something to do and spend all day doing.

The game was the most important, fun-filled, and helped everyone in their own way. Ryan remembered when they used to play for hours, battling the action figures on the dirty rocks and terraces. They used to drive their vehicles into the grimy pond water and the tadpoles would scatter, but there were always one or two tadpoles that didn't care. Ryan remembered how he used to trick Chris into land traps, and how Billy and Jorge constantly got in fights over who cheated and how, and even remembered how the Doberman that lived next door never got used to him.

Did he want a better life at a far off place, or did he want to stay with his friends and play the game? Without him the game would be uneven and impossible to play unless you waited 5 years for the babies to grow up. Ryan stared into the fluffy white clouds, there was complete silence around him. He lay on the barren ground wondering what was more important, the game, where everybody benefits, or California, where he could get a better education, or so his parents said. There, in the small town in Pennsylvania, Ryan was one of the last kids. If he left, Chris would be at home more often where would get no attention, or too much attention. Billy and Jorge would keep on fighting and he would be the blame. As the clouds moved and the sky slowly turned dark, he wondered to himself, what is more important?



Ryan got up from sitting down in the closet and put the dirty old bag of He-Man action figures on the floor next to him. He closed the closet door and took the bag with him. He walked outside and wandered slowly around the neighborhood until he found his next door neighbors kid. Ryan handed the young child the bag and said to the boy "Now I know what's more important, and I hope you find out when you're older too, stick with your friends and take care of them, other people are more important, remember that." Ryan slowly walked away and went back in to his house to look at other objects. The kid meanwhile opened the bag and gazed in with no amazement. He closed the bag back up and opened the lid of a garbage can and threw the dirty old bag in.