Page 48 - WTP Vol. IX #6

Iwas seven.
My extended family was seated in a cramped living room, stomachs full, heads empty, and glasses stained with wine.
Funny, isn’t it? How the game is no longer a game when the child does something wrong?
Let me set the scene: I am ten years old. My parents are in the kitchen discussing my youngest sister’s recent selfish outburst.
Martyna had hidden her gummy worms behind the bookshelves.
My cousins argued over whose moonwalk was the real 1
winner of the last round of Just Dance . My parents played their favorite game.
When Veronica discov- ered the hiding place, a reenactment of the Battle of Antietam2 took place. Veronica was not on the winning side of the fight.
Martyna was four at the time, so her childlike reac- tion should have been no cause for concern.
She’ll grow out of it.
Except for the fact that my oldest brother was exactly the same.
Inevitability of
The aforementioned game lacks a name and its rules are simple, but unspoken. An unbroken chain of unsaid pain, one may say.
1. Begin by picking a child.
2. Then a trait. (Could be hair color, nose arch, or simply intelligence. The options are limitless.)
3. Next, hypothesize as to which respective parent could have been the possible source of the given trait.
4. The game has no official start nor end. No one ever wins. No points are kept. There is no goalie. Nor net.
5. In that case, I suppose it is slightly unfair to even call it a game at all.
6. But it does the job. Keeps the parents amused and the children validated.
Martyna age one, about three years before gummy bear incident.
My mother reminds my father.
He bought his own toilet paper.
Veronica and me, age four and seven.
1"Just Dance is a motion-based dancing game for multiple players, with each game including a collection of classic and modern songs each with their own d"ance choreographies. During each song, players mirror a dance performed by actors on the screen, following commands that appear on the screen, and are awarded for their accuracy" -Wikipedia.
Come back to the cramped living room for a moment, to the moonwalk, and the newly resurfaced game.
My hair was pinned in place by a Minnie Mouse hair band that failed to match my obnoxiously orange dress.
My parents ushered us into the corner of the room since the remainder of the floor was flooded with toys.
My hands went around my
sister. A camera pointed at my face.
Hating the idea of someone else wasting his hard- earned money, he locked it in a shelf above the oven.
His wife and children left him and his locked toilet paper. Now he has no one but his złoty3 to keep him company.
She’ll grow out of it.
Horrified, my parents issued punishment. No television for a week.
That’ll teach her.
Oh Veronica you have such pretty hair, just like your mother! But those chubby cheeks, oh they are definitely your father's!
My sister did not eat her cake that night.
I suppose the game has a limited audience. Not everyone can swallow the bitter tasting commentary. I still reach for water to help ease the sting.
2 The Battle of Antietam took place in 1862 during the American Civil War. Although the Union claimed victory, military historians consider it a stalemate. Very revealing, I suppose.
3 The złoty is the official currency and legal tender of Poland. I dol- lar = 3.73 złoty as of January, 2021.
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viCtoria Kuzma