"Move it, you flat leaver," Charlie poked Terry in the back forcing her to move faster. "Follow the line or we'll lose them."

Terry felt the sharp pain from Charlie's finger and the worse pain caused by the words he said. Flat leaver, that stupid expression they called you when you left the game too early. Gee, it was only follow the leader and she couldn't always do the stupid things the gang decided.

"See they're climbing onto the ledge and we're not there." Charlie said.

Terry hoped Charlie wouldn't poke her again. She turned to tell him not to poke her, but his size made her shiver and she kept quiet.

"Terry, follow me," Sally the girl in front of her said. Sally's hands were up in the air and she was getting ready to climb onto the ledge. In the distance Steven, the leader, was jumping down and running through the alley. Everyone else did the same thing.

"Come on, Terry, jump after me," Sally called out to her as she jumped. Terry gritted her teeth and leaped. Her feet hit the hard cement and for a second it hurt a lot, but she ran through the alley behind Sally.

"Run, Terry, or we'll miss them," Sally said panting and turning around to see Terry.

Sally ran onto the sidewalk and there in front of them was the whole gang. They had stopped in front of the scary apartment house in the middle of the street. The house had a big iron gate in front of it with sharp spikes on top of each railing. The kids played "Red Light, Green Light", and "Giant Steps" inside the gate all the time. Terry remembered the day she was walking by this place alone. An old woman who looked creepy had stuck her head out of the first floor window. She had straggly gray hair and a big sharp nose. Terry quivered and waited for her to go back inside before she walked past.

Why were they stopping at the gate? Terry hoped the game would stop so she could have lunch. Her stomach was rumbling and she wanted a tuna fish sandwich from Jake's on the corner. She looked up at the first floor window. It was closed. She let out her breath. There was an opening with a gate to let them in. But today they didn't use that gate.

"Hey, Terry, hurry up," Sally said as she ran to catch up with the rest of the line.

"What are we doing?" Terry couldn't see anything at all. She worried that her turn would come and she wouldn't be able to do what everyone else was doing. She wanted to leave, but then everyone would call after her, "Flat leaver, flat leaver," like the last time when she left before the game was over and the whole gang had yelled at her so loudly she could hear them halfway up the street. Today it had been her turn to be the leader, but the rest of the kids wouldn't let her go to the front of the line. So here she was stuck between Sally, the new girl, and Charlie, the loudest and toughest boy in the group.

"Hey, flat leaver, move it, the line is moving," Charlie was pushing her to go.

They were almost up to the gate and Terry still didn't know what they were doing. Then she saw one of the kids slide through the corner part of the iron gate. It looked easy. You slipped yourself through the little space and got into the inside of the gate where there was plenty of room for the whole gang. It was Sally's turn and Terry tried to watch, but Charlie kept poking her in the back to move and she had to turn around to tell him to stop. Again, no words came out of her mouth when she looked back at Charlie. But this time she managed to scrunch up her eyes and glare at him.

It was Terry's turn and she walked up to the corner of the gate. Almost all the kids were inside the gate except her and Charlie.

"Let's go already. " Charlie pushed her up to the gate. Terry could feel the scratchy metal on her fingers as she gripped the bars. How can I get through this little space? Terry thought in a panic.

Terry tried while everyone inside the gate yelled at her to get through.

She put her head through first and it just fit. Terry tried moving it a little more so she could get her body through too, but it wouldn't budge. She tried getting her head out of the gate, but nothing moved. Her head was stuck there.

"What's taking you so long, loser?" Charlie sounded angry and Terry was silent. The gang would never let her play with them again if she didn't do this and left.

The kids inside the gate continued to shout to her.

"Come on, you can do it. Just get your body in. You're almost there."

Terry wiggled her body as much as could, but she couldn't get through the bars. She was stuck. The iron bars were on both sides of her head and she could smell the bitter iron. Her stomach growled more. Her heart was pounding.

"No, I can't do it," Terry yelled to the crowd.

"You're just a big baby," Charlie mumbled to her and tried pushing her through to the other side.

"Leave me alone," Terry finally said to Charlie. Now that she was stuck in this gate, she wasn't as afraid of him. She had more important things to think about than Charlie.

"Why can't you move?" Charlie sounded angry and frustrated at the same time.

Terry's heart started beating faster. The kids inside the gate were looking scared too. What if she was stuck here forever? She tried one more time to get herself through the opening or to get her head out of the opening. Nothing worked.

Soon all the kids slid one by one out of the other corner of the gate and came over to Terry. Even Charlie stopped bothering her and everyone was real quiet, like in school last year in second grade when her teacher had yelled at the class,

Finally, Steven said, "You're really stuck, aren't you? "

Terry couldn't nod her head, but she whispered, "Yes."

All the kids started talking at once. Then one at a time each kid came over to Terry and tried to help her. They tried pushing, pulling, squeezing her, but nothing worked. Terry's head wouldn't come out of the gate.

Terry wondered how long she'd be there and if she was ever going to eat again. Her stomach growled to remind her it was time for lunch. Tears formed in her eyes and spilled onto the hot cement. Terry started sweating from the sun beating on her, and the iron pinched her neck. There was no way to get comfortable in this position.

When everyone had tried and failed to get Terry's head out of the gate, Steven told one of the kids to get Terry's parents. Terry knew they would be angry when they had to come get her. They owned a dry goods store that sold materials for sewing and they never closed in the middle of the day. Terry wondered what they would do when they saw her inside of these bars. She wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. She wanted her mom. Her dad would be angry, but mom always knew what to do.

Sure enough her parents came running down the street like they were trying to catch a bus. When they got to her they were out of breath, but each of them hugged her as tightly as they could and both stepped back to see what had happened to her.

"How did you get yourself into this mess, honey?" Her mom asked first.

"Mom, I'm so glad you're here. We were playing follow the leader and the kids went through the gate and I followed, but I guess I didn't go in the right way." Terry stopped, because she was crying again.

"Terry, we'll get you out, don't worry." Her dad sounded like she would be out in no time.

Her mom tried grease first. She asked for butter and someone went into the apartment house and came out with a whole pound of butter. Her mom spread the butter on both sides of Terry's head along the iron gate rails. Then her mom pushed from one side and her dad pushed from the other side. It didn't work. Terry's head wouldn't move.

Then her dad went back to the store and brought back his tools. He used his pliers and tried to pull apart the bars on either side of Terry's head. They wouldn't move.

Soon her dad left again and when he returned he whispered to her mom. Terry's fingers on the steel bars started to sweat. She began to think of horrible things like needing to stay in this spot for the rest of her life. How would she sleep? How would she go to the bathroom? As soon as she thought of this, of course she needed to go.

"Mom, will I ever get out of here?"

Terry's mom answered in a calm voice, "Sure, Terry. Of course you will. Be patient and try not to move too much." Terry had butter on her neck and the bars were slippery with it. She was starving and now the insects were finding her easily, because of the melting butter. Near her feet a circle of ants had formed in a puddle of butter. Flies were buzzing around her neck.

Soon Terry saw people opening their windows on every floor of the apartment house and hanging their heads out. It was 1953, and people got most of their excitement from what happened outside their windows. She didn't know it, because she couldn't turn around, but the whole block was gathered around her. The kids were in front, so were her parents. Behind were all the other grown ups in the neighborhood. So, it was a surprise to her when she heard a huge shout as a siren filled the air. The siren grew louder and louder and then stopped suddenly. Terry heard loud grown-up voices and one louder one giving orders. Soon the crowd opened and three firefighters came up to Terry dressed in their uniforms.

"Now little girl, don't you worry. We'll get you out of here in no time."

Terry wasn't too sure, because so far no one had done this. But firefighters put out fires and saved lives so they can get me out if I do what they say, she thought.

Soon more firefighters came up to Terry and started pushing and pulling her with no luck. They left and returned with a strange machine that looked like a giant pliers attached to a long hose, made a loud noise, and opened and closed. Terry wondered how they were going to use this.

The firefighters put one end of the giant pliers around each bar and it started pulling them apart as if they were made of cloth rather than iron. They pulled apart and for the first time in hours Terry believed she was going to get her head out of there. The bars pulled farther and farther apart and soon a little smile formed on Terry's lips, which kept getting larger and larger as the opening got bigger and bigger. Then as if this was the easiest thing in the world and they did it everyday, the firefighters pulled Terry's head out of the bars.

There was a loud burst of applause and screaming and crying and people hugging everyone. The firefighters had used "The Jaws of Life" to pull the bars apart. They told Terry's parents if this didn't work they were going to saw off one of the rails. Terry was glad they didn't have to do that. She was thrilled to be out of the bars. She turned around and faced her parents.

"Mom and Dad, I'm sorry I made you close the store. Are you angry with me?"

Terry's parents hugged her so tightly to them that she couldn't breathe and she knew they weren't. She rubbed her neck and it hurt. Her Mom said there were marks there, but they would go away. Her mom got a wet towel from the same straggly haired woman who had terrified Terry the other day and who now smiled down at her. She wasn't so frightening after all.

Terry turned to face the crowd. All of the kids crowded around her and wanted to know how she felt.

Steven walked up to her. "Ya know, Terry, the whole gang thinks you were really brave when all this was going on." He stopped and Terry gave him a lopsided smile. "So," Steven stopped again and looked around at all the kids, "We want you to be the next leader for Follow the Leader."

"You really want me to be the leader?" Terry couldn't believe it. "Sure, I'll be the leader, but we're never coming back here. Is that a deal?" She gave everyone a big grin.

Charlie, Steven, Sally, and the rest of the gang all answered, "You're the leader,
Terry."

"I am, aren't I! See you tomorrow. " Then Terry hurried down the street with her parents to Jake's on the corner to eat her tuna fish sandwich and a special chocolate ice cream soda.

The End

Barbara Ehrentreu has been a teacher for over 16 years. She has been a serious writer for more than 4 years. Her stories have been published online in Moondance.com and muse apprentice guild. She has written a YA novel that she is readying for submission to publishers.

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