Suzie’s House 150: Games People Play

“You’re kidding, right? You don’t really expect me to play that, do you?” Gene’s upper lip curled in derision.

“Sure. Why not?” Diane set the Monopoly board in the middle of the kitchen table. “I’ll be the bank.”

Who says Monopoly is a kids game? It was a great way to keep the boys occupied until it got late enough that she could send them to bed. What time were twelve year olds supposed to go to bed, anyway? Wait, Gene was thirteen, wasn’t he? Diane couldn’t remember. She’d tried to put them to bed at 9pm the first couple of nights, which proved disastrous. Then last night she let them pick their own bed time and hand ended up collecting them at the front door from the police when they broke curfew. Maybe if she suggested it later, say 10 pm. She needed to kill time.

“Who wants to be the top hat?” She beamed at them in a way they would probably think was totally false.

“I’ll take the shoe,” Ben said. He grabbed the rumpled old bum’s shoe done in pewter and the cowboy boot and made like an invisible man walking.

Diane grinned. It was just like when he was a little boy.

“Give me the wheelbarrow.” Gene reached across and filched it out of the box.

Diane took the iron for herself and placed it at Go, then slid the dice to Ben. “High roll goes first, then clockwise from then on.”

The three of them settled in, arranging their money and getting more comfortable. Diane brought over a plate of cookies. Ben rolled the dice, and they were off. Diane tried to pace herself, aiming for a set of property on all four sides of the board. Ben automatically bought anything he landed on. Gene landed on Boardwalk and didn’t buy it.

“Aren’t you going to buy it?” Diane asked. “Park Place is still open. You could get a monopoly on them.”

“Nah.” Gene shrugged.

“Why not? You have plenty of money sitting there. Don’t you know Boardwalk and Park Place can make or break a game? If I’d landed there I’d get it in a heartbeat.” Diane riffled through her personal stack of $100s as if they were cards in a deck, and leaned on her opposite elbow.

Gene shrugged again, looking all the more uncomfortable.

If it had been Ben, or even if she and Gene had a longer standing relationship, she would have pressed the point. Something about the uncomfortable way he eyed the blue-banded square made her suspicious. Instead, she took a deep breath, then gestured toward Ben.

“You’re turn.”

He rolled, and landed on the exact same square. “Hah! I’m going to get it instead.” Ben stuck his fist in Diane’s direction. “One deed to Boardwalk, if you please.”

“Pay up first,” Diane didn’t bother to straighten up. She knew at a glance that Ben didn’t have enough money to be able to buy it.

While he counted his tens, then eyed his properties, she rolled. And landed on Boardwalk.

“Nooooo,” Ben howled. “That isn’t fair! I was going to buy it.”

“He’s right. It isn’t fair. I mean, you’re the bank, and you’re the one making us follow the rules, and now YOU get to buy it?” Gene gave her that thousand-mile stare that used to give her the willies.

“I haven’t enforced anything you couldn’t find in the official rules,” She pointed at the rule booklet, to which she’d referred a few times already.

“Still isn’t fair.”

They were probably right. Diane wasn’t sure what hang up was keeping Gene from investing anything, while Ben invested too much. Even if she didn’t buy Boardwalk, she would probably win.

“All right. I’ll tell you what. We’ll have a little contest to see who gets to buy it. Ben, if you win the mini-contest then you can mortgage some of your property to come up with the money.”

“What’s the mini-contest?” Gene asked.

Diane considered seeing who could hop on one foot the longest, or flipping quarters, or various other possibilities. Then she got a brilliant idea.

“We’ll pile up our markers. Whoever can get them all balanced with their own little figurine on top buys Boardwalk.”

The boys looked at her askance for a minute, eyed Boardwalk, then simultaneously dived for the pieces.

“Wait!”

Too late. Houses and hotels went flying. Dice jumped, and money scattered. The kitchen table skidded noisily, catching and grabbing the floor for the few inches it moved before everything settled with both boys on the floor.

“What are you doing?” Diane leapt to her feet.

Ben and Gene rolled one over the other, both trying to get or keep the playing pieces. Grunts and shouts punctuated their efforts. They fetched up against a table leg and sent a chair clattering over.

“Oh my god.” Diane stared at them. What was she supposed to do about this?!

Then Gene giggled. Gene? Laughing? Diane could hardly believe it. He simply didn’t strike her as the type. Once Gene started, Ben quickly followed, both laying on the kitchen floor on their backs, laughing at the ceiling.

“I win.” Gene held up… Diane’s marker. “Oops. Maybe not.”

“Don’t look at me.” Ben held up Gene’s marker.

Diane found Ben’s marker under his foot.

“Oh! You boys,” she chastised.

And then it hit her. She’d been half afraid of them all this time, seeing them as nearly grown up because both boys were so big, but they weren’t men at all. They were like overgrown puppies. Puppies she knew how to handle. That was when she started laughing. By the time they were done, it was time for bed. She gave them a stern look and amazingly enough, they didn’t argue.

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