Bored Games

Bored Games

The game was in full swing. Kate was ahead. I wasn’t ever sure if she was really good at Monopoly, or just really lucky. In real life she was basically unnoticeable, by choice. She lived next door; we had been best friends since diapers. Jeremy lived on the other side; he was croaking. Had about enough money left to keep him floating for one more round, if he was lucky. I was in my normal don’t know, and don’t care, mode. I actually try to lose as fast as possible; I hate board games! And then there was Melissa, we never quite knew what Melissa was, it didn’t matter anyway, because somehow Melissa always ran everything.

Today we had gathered at my house, as usual on Saturday morning. But it was raining pretty hard so we were on the covered porch. Jeremy said his dad said it would last most of the day. That’s when my mother came out and suggested Monopoly. My own mother! You’d think one’s own mother would know them by now! But with nothing else to do, we started the game.

I remember I was the boat. One of my dreams in childhood was to take a trip around the world someday. (I didn’t find out how seasick I could get till my teens, I immediately made new plans…) By lunch we were really tired of it, but not quite ready to quit. Mom brought us each a sandwich and milk, then, less than fifteen minutes later, Jeremy accidently bumped the board and all the pieces flew off. The initial shock turned to gales of laughter, so loud Mom actually came out, and shut the door on us!

Funny how sixty-seven years later, that absolutely nothing special, rainy day, is still stuck wonderfully in my head.