Prompt: Buttons

A timed write

Photo by Clever Sparkle on Unsplash

Button button who’s got the button? Did you ever play button button who’s got the button? It was a game of children much older than me yet I caught it at the end of its arc through kidland. How do you play? You sit in a circle, placing your palms — smelling vaguely of vanilla wafers and playdough — together in a prayer position except horizontally instead of at your sternum. “It” says “Button button who’s got the button” as they go round to each participant, slipping their fingers between each kid’s hands and back toward themselves. Being furtive and deceptive, counting on the button recipient to not let on. Feeling the power of being able to bestow the button on a conspirator. I smile, just thinking of how this worked. The point of the game was for everyone to guess who in the circle of praying hands actually got the button. A funny intimate game. I didn’t understand it when I was very small. But once I learned it, I was always ready and yearning to be “It” at Sunday School. To be the one placing the secret button, going around the circle, looking into each child’s eyes and wondering, “Will you be the one to hold my secret?”