CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Tonight’s game night falls on a Thursday. Every family member is invited, but we’re all aware that game nights are really only about two people: Tess and me. They take place every three months. I’d prefer it more often, but Mom insists she needs two months to recover. The atmosphere can get...heated. The previous game night, we played Codenames. Tonight, it’s Monopoly.
Tess opens her front door wearing a casual, loose braid. The look in her eyes, however, is anything but casual. She has her game face on. Our competitive streaks are legendary. Once, when we were teenagers, Mom banned board games for six months, claiming she needed a break from all the yelling that seems to accompany every game.
“Mom and Dad here yet?” I ask Tess.
“They’re not coming. They both have migraines.”
My eyes narrow. “How convenient.”
“My thoughts exactly.”
“What about GG?” Lisset asks.
Tess snorts. “She’s still on suspension after we caught her using Google to cheat.”
We pause for a moment of silence in memory of that wildly chaotic night.
“It’s a school night for you,” Tess says to Lisset, “so let’s get started.”
We follow her inside, the smell of rosemary drifting down the hallway from the kitchen. Monopoly is already set up on the dining room table. Good. I appreciate efficiency.
In the kitchen, Aaron is stationed in front of the coffee machine. After greeting us, he asks, “Latte?”
“Yes, please.”
“No Gideon tagging along tonight?”
Tess answers for me. “We don’t want to scare the man away.”
I look at her thoughtfully. Now there’s an idea. I should have invited him. Why didn’t I think of that?
“Don’t even think about it,” Tess warns, reading my mind. “He has to be dating you for at least six months and be fully invested before he’s ready to face a game night.”
I glance pointedly at my watch. “You’re slipping, sister dear. It took you at least five minutes before bringing up me dating Gideon.”
She leans an elbow on the kitchen counter and rests her chin in her palm. “So, has he asked you out on a date yet?”
“Yes.”
“What?” She straightens. “Why am I only hearing about this now? And why aren’t we celebrating?”
“I said no.”
Her head jerks toward me. “WHAT?”
I feel myself getting defensive. “I’m not sure we suit each other. We’re complete opposites.”
“Which is why the two of you are perfect together! He’s all about looking in the sky for rainbows, while you’re visualizing giant mushroom clouds.” She beams at me. “You balance each other out.”
“That’s not how it works.”
“It works that way for Aaron and me.”
I open my mouth, then close it. She has a valid point. Aaron and Tess are opposites in nearly every way, yet madly in love.
It’s time to cut off all the roads her mind is trying to take. “Stop going on about dating Gideon.”
“So naive, thinking you can tell me what to do.”
“Tess!” I bark, using the same tone Mom employs on us.
She jumps a little. “Okay! Jeez.”
I conceal my smile.
“Mom, are you going on a date with Gideon?” Lisset asks me, her eyes wide and curious.
“No, I am not,” I tell her firmly. “It’s all in your aunt’s primitive imagination.”
“It’s okay if you like Gideon,” Lisset tells me. “He’s nice.”
I press the fingers of my one hand to my forehead. We haven’t started the game yet and already I feel a headache coming on.
Aaron must feel the same, because he looks longingly down the hallway to where his study is located. “You know, I do have some work to catch up on.”
Tess looks alarmed. “You’re not trying to avoid playing, are you?”
“Uh, no?” He swallows. “No.”
“It’s like Squid Game ,” I tell him in a stage whisper. “Once you’re in, there’s no getting out.”
“Let’s play!” Lisset says.
Tess rubs her hands together on the way to the dining room. “All right, people, ready to be vanquished?” She looks over at me. “Wait, if I’m the vanquisher, would that make you the vanquishee? Is that a word? It should be a word. It’s now a word.”
I massage my temples. I can’t help but wonder sometimes if she’s secretly adopted. It seems inconceivable I share genes with her.
The game starts off slow. We’re struggling to buy any properties, the four of us landing on Chance and Free Parking and other insignificant squares at an improbable rate. Slowly, though, the game begins picking up speed.
Lisset is the first one to fall. Unfortunately, she played too conservatively at the start and then compounded the error by going for utilities above properties. Her bottom lip quivers as she declares bankruptcy and has to drop out of the game.
Aaron’s brow is furrowed as he watches her turn in her meager assets to the bank. “Maybe we could let her stay in.”
“No!” Tess and I protest at the same time, aghast he would even suggest it.
Aaron levels a reproachful look at me, as though to remind me I’m a mother and not Head Gamemaker of the Hunger Games.
I swallow my sigh. Right, right. I rearrange my face and turn to Lisset, offering her a brief pat on the shoulder. “Well done on losing graciously, Lis. And you’re never too young to learn a key lesson on real estate investments.”
We take a quick break to settle Lisset in front of the TV. I grab another coffee to keep me sharp and we return to the board.
Aaron lucks out by landing on the orange properties and buying all of them. Statistically, along with red, they’re the ones people land on the most. Now he’s trying to buy up all four of the railroads, while Tess and I are in a race for the rest of the properties. The board is getting crowded; houses are everywhere.
I throw the dice and land in jail.
“Hah!” Tess crows.
When it’s my turn again, I study the properties loaded with houses waiting to bankrupt me if I land on any of them. I pick up the dice, hoping I won’t roll a double, which will get me out of jail.
Tess frowns at me. “Don’t roll. Just pay the fifty-dollar fine and get out of jail.”
“No.”
“Come on, pay.”
“No. I don’t want to pay hundreds in rent. I’ll ride it out in jail for a while.”
“What are you doing?” she asks.
“What does it look like? I’m playing it safe.”
Tess is silent. Her expression tells me she’s holding something back. Unease stirs inside me. “That’s boring, Kate.”
“It’s a smart play,” I argue.
“No, it’s not. There’s no risk.”
“Exactly. I don’t mind staying in jail.”
“No one should want to stay in jail.”
I have a feeling we’re no longer discussing Monopoly.
“Uh, Tess,” Aaron tries, “maybe we should let Kate make her own choices here.”
But my sister steamrolls ahead, like she always does, leading with her mouth, while her brain scrabbles to catch up. “The Old Kate was gutsy enough to pay the fifty dollars.”
The implication stings. My jaw clenches in an effort to hold in my temper. “The Old Kate is gone.”
“No, she’s still around, just locked away,” Tess retorts. “Tell me, does New Kate have the key to her prison cell? Maybe she can let her out once in a while for a little yard time.”
Wow. Tess is sparing no punches tonight. Hot anger floods my veins. “Well, when Mature Tess makes her rare appearance, let me know.”
Aaron glances between the two of us. “What’s going on here?”
“You’ve been in jail for four years,” my sister says quietly. “It’s time to get out.”
Hurt swells at the base of my throat. It’s Grandma’s message all over again.
“Lisset is the only piece of happiness you allow yourself,” Tess continues, her eyes boring into mine. “You might have a chance at happiness with Gideon, but you’re refusing to take it. Don’t you see? Gideon could be your double roll. Your get-out-of-jail card.”
“No, he’s not.” How do I explain to her that when I look at Gideon, I feel both hopeful and hopeless?
“You don’t know that. I played it safe in my life because I saw how hurt you were after the end of your marriage. I chose to stay with a safe, comfortable man and pushed Aaron away because of that mentality. I almost lost him. I don’t want you to lose out on your chance of happiness with Gideon.”
My mind goes blank. I want to defend myself, but all my excuses are trapped in my throat.
To my shock, her eyes fill with tears. “I want you to be happy,” she bursts out on a sob. “I love you and I want my sister back.”
Seeing how upset Tess is, I feel my throat burn with emotion.
A squirrel once came through Tess’s cat flap and got stuck in her living room. In his panic, the squirrel kept running toward the closed glass door and banging himself against it, desperate to get out. He could see the garden through the glass, but he couldn’t get to his home.
Every time he hit the glass, he’d scamper back under the couch and then he’d emerge and run full tilt at the glass again. His nose was bruised and bleeding, but that didn’t stop him. He crashed into the glass over and over in his desperate bid to escape.
Is that why I want to stay in a prison of my own making? To avoid getting bruised and hurt?
We eventually managed to open the door and the squirrel escaped and recovered. I have to give him credit, though. He didn’t stop trying. And that’s what Tess is begging me to do. To try. Even if I end up getting hurt again.