everybody was king fu fighting...

"Who wants to be an ultimate NINJA?" the cry rattles out over downtown Denver...

I do, I do! And so does Matt!!

- - -

Matt and I walk through Civic Center park on Saturday afternoon, after enjoying a free day at the Denver Art Museum. Being in a particularly spontaneous and artsy mood, and being with a particularly spontaneous and artsy man, I can’t help but use my mood and company as an excuse to stand and watch the game the 30 or so middle school kids are playing in the park center.

Matt and I stop to watch what is going on: it seems a non-descript red-head boy with a fake, pretentious accent is the ring leader of this merry band of kids. There are no adults in sight; and although the kids look pretty young and impressionable, they seem very well behaved and trouble-free. However, they are playing a game where, apparently, people kill each other and die. We know this because Super Red Head keeps calling out names and yelling ‘Dead!’.

After a few minutes, the game and rules begin to take shape: the kids are formed in a (loose) circle, and the movement goes in a clockwise direction. Super Red Head calls your name, and seemingly you are allowed to take one step towards the closest person and "attack" them with a karate-type move. And, if you are the one being attacked, you can also move, but are called 'Dead' if you get touched by the attacking ninja . Easy enough, right?

We watch Ben, an emo-looking skateboarder, win the championship title of Ultimate Ninja for this round, and watch as the kids then reassemble back into this Ultimate Ninja/slow, freeze-tag-like game. Suddenly, five girls with big eyes, bounding energy and retainers come up and ask if we want to play. The girls take what seems one breath and explain the game, where they are from, what they are doing, where they found the game, and why they love it so much. All in one breath! The energy of these girls is astounding! They demonstrate the game, explaining offensive and defensive moves, and 'ninja kills'. And, the hardest part of the game is the freeze: once the moves are over, you have to freeze in whatever position you ended up in. Which explains why we saw almost 30 kids in weird, frozen poses, and guessed they were on all on some weird drugs.

Matt thinks hard about getting in on the action, but can’t decide. Me, I’m in (I wanted to be in like ten minutes ago) but don’t want to say it because then I’ll look like an eager 27 year old trying to be 12 again… However, after asking a few more times, the girls almost give up when I tell them we will both play.

Ulitmate nina begins... jumping into the circle, we all get very, very close and put our hands in a fist and then into the middle for a cheer.We all yell out ‘Who wants to be the ultimate NINJA?’ , raise our fists in the air, and then jump backwards as far as we can, forming the ultimate ninja circle.

Matt lasts maybe two rounds, his defensive moves were (sadly) just not up to par; I, however, end up lasting more than a few rounds and get to experience the ‘inner circle of ninja’ (which is apparently the smaller, redder bricks we were gathered around). My ninja moves sustain me until there are about five or so other kids, who were clearly intimidated by my large, huge muscles and amazingly nimble one-step ninja moves. However, victory did not last long, and I was eventually tagged and called out. If only I was as limber as Super Red Head.