Protector - Laurel Dewey [65]
“No,” Jane said, opening the refrigerator door.
“Do you want to have kids?”
Jane jammed the pizza into a vegetable bin. “It doesn’t matter whether I want them. I don’t have them today and I won’t have them tomorrow.” Jane slammed the refrigerator door shut. “Isn’t it time for you to take a nap or something?” Jane lit a cigarette.
“You don’t babysit, do you?”
“Never.”
“So you don’t know any games?”
“No.”
“You like to play cards?”
“Yeah, but I don’t think you’re ready for five card stud.”
“How about board games?”
Jane grimaced.
“Pleeeese . . . ” Emily begged.
Jane let out a weary sigh. “What’s the board game?”
“I’ll get it!” Emily jumped off her chair and ran into the living room. Jane reluctantly followed her and sat down on the couch. Emily opened up a wooden trunk that was wedged across the far wall near the fireplace. After rummaging through the trunk, she brought out a large white box with blue stars across lid. She slammed the trunk shut and ran across to the chair opposite from Jane. Emily opened the board game on the coffee table that sat between them and arranged the playing pieces. “The game’s called ‘Think!’”
“‘Think?’ What the hell is that?”
“I don’t know. It belongs to Mommy and Daddy. I just liked the box cover.” Emily proudly held the cover up to show Jane. “It’s got stars all over it!”
“What about Monopoly? Or checkers?”
“Mommy and Daddy don’t have those.” Emily was quickly separating the colored pieces and sliding Jane’s share across the coffee table.
“So, what’s the point of this game?”
“I’ve only seen Mommy and Daddy play it when A.J.’s Mommy and Daddy were over here.”
“Who’s A.J.?”
“She was a friend from school. She doesn’t live here anymore.”
“I see.” Jane might have engaged Emily more but she found herself fixating on the taste of whiskey. Normally, after dinner, she’d down a beer or two, followed by a shot or more of whiskey. Her eyes trailed over to the Lawrences’ liquor cabinet.
Emily was deeply engrossed in setting up the game board. “You roll the dice and that tells you how many squares you can move on the board. But first, you have to answer one of the questions from this deck of cards.” Emily gathered together the deck and placed it in the center of the board.
Jane quickly turned her attention back to Emily. “What kind of questions?”
“I don’t know.” Emily picked up the instruction booklet. Jane examined the board, trying to understand the direction of the game. “This looks ridiculous. It goes in a circle. There’s no ‘Lose a turn’ or ‘Go to jail’ squares—”
Emily read from the instruction booklet. “ ’The game of Think has no winners or losers.”
“Oh, shit. When did the Communists start designing board games?”
Emily continued to read. “’It is a way to in . . . inter . . . ’ ”
Jane took the booklet from her and continued reading aloud. “ ’It is a way to interface with other players and gain insight into their lives.’ Oh, Christ! It’s not the Communists! It’s the American Psychiatric Association!”
“Here’s the dice. You be green.”
“Are you sure there’s not a little tiny therapist that comes with the game?”
“No, everything’s out on the table,” Emily said seriously. “You go first. Roll the dice!” Jane took a deep drag on her cigarette and rolled the dice. Emily picked up a card. “Okay, the first question is . . .” Emily looked up, just in time to see a ribbon of cigarette smoke pour from Jane’s nose. “How do you make the smoke come out of your nose like that?”
“That’s an easy question! Practice, practice, practice!” Jane took her green playing piece and started moving it across the board.
Emily placed her hand on top of Jane’s hand, preventing her from moving to the next square. “That wasn’t the question on the card. Put that back on the first square.” Jane begrudgingly slid her playing piece to square number one. “Okay,” Emily said, reading the card. “ ‘What is your biggest regret and why?’ ”
“My biggest regret was five minutes ago when I agreed to play this stupid game!” Jane once again started to move her playing piece.
“Are you gonna play this