It's freeze tag with a healthy dose of King of the Hill and Kindergarten style drag racing.  A line of hyperactive children stretched across a starting line, all focused on the "it" kid standing at some distant point.  The "it" kid enjoys that one coveted and all-too-fleeting treasure of childhood... power.

For they all depend upon "it."  "It" stares at them.  They threaten "it's" elite place, there in the distance.  It's the one place, the one time in all those years when being a loner was being envied.

"It" turns around, exposing the oh-so-vulnerable blindside.  With a cry of "Green light!" the choas begins.  Children tear toward "it" with cautious abandon, the very best separating themselves with the suddeness of the wind, using their wits as well as their speed as they balance between too fast and too slow.  For there are two namesake colors in Red Light, Green Light, and as surely as green means "go," red means "stop."

Sure enough, "it" whips around with an exultant cry of "red light," always expected but surprising nonetheless.  Young limbs struggle to lay claim to the coordination that will allow them to stop on a dime.  If "it" sees them moving, all is lost.  All that distance, so much ground left behind, so very little left to go.  And sure enough, "it" points out the those who's greed for one more foot has cost them.  One cannot get too far behind, but just as surely, one cannot get too far ahead.

On it goes, the ultimate game of stop and go, so renowned that even Bugs Bunny played it.  Finally, when "it" has exhausted the resource of distance, one triumphantly tags, becoming the new power, the new loner, the new "it."

"It" will fall, by skill or bell, sure as children outgrow childhood.  But Red Light, Green Light will always be played, and "it" will always be envied, for children never outgrow their memories.