Games

A stranger is sitting, if you call it sitting, in my treehouse as I try to explain to him the game of Monopoly.

"No, no, no," I said. "You're stupid Billy Ailes and you've been left twice. The Boardwalk is yours. You bought it and you own it. You can't just throw it away. Maybe you can sell it, but if you give up all your properties. You will lose the game."

The stranger said, "Losing a game is bad?"

I rolled my eyes and looked at him. I had already told him three times that losing is bad.

Alien smiles. At least I think he was smiling. "Are we keeping the Boardwalk then?"

He was cool, very friendly, but his voice was scary. It does not sound like one word but like many, millions of them, not sound but like an echo. And echoing with applause. As I understood it, every stranger on the ship upstairs was connected to a stranger in my treehouse. When he spoke, they all spoke. What they hear they all hear. What they read, they all read. And there was much to learn. Even financial matters were of concern to them. He started trying to eat the Monopoly bankroll I gave him. I had no idea how smart such a race would be if it went all those easy years to get here, but I also had to admit that it was amazing how quickly he caught my tongue.

"The purpose of the game," I continued, "is to get everything."

"Don't leave someone else?"

"Of course."

"It's interesting," said the stranger. He was silent there as if there was a commotion in his mind as if the strangers returning from the ship were arguing. It seemed like nothing to worry about.

"Ready to roll again?" I said.

"We came to share," said the stranger. He looked like a mini-Predator, pulling out all the popular gears. He was about my height, but I got the feeling that he was older. I mean, he pulled out that vibe. "We have a lot to share, but now we're learning unwanted sharing. We're learning now about buildings. Waterworks. Railroads. We'd like to have ownership. Better ownership than prison. Don't like a prison. You have to double up to get out of jail."

"All right," I said. "But, you know, Monopoly kinda. The game can last forever, and I think you don't have it forever. Why don't we play chess?"

So we played chess. I had to teach him that too. This stranger (are these strangers?) Seemed to know very little. I thought starting it on board games would be easy, but there are no dice. Still, he ended up trapped. What was most difficult for him was not learning to move but an understanding that one piece had to produce another.

"Why can't they share the place?"

"Because, dummy," I said. "It's not fun to move the pieces on the board. One has to win and lose."

"Maybe the black hero likes the white bishop."

"They won't love each other!" I shouted. "They are different!"

More moans in the back, more conversation, and perhaps a swallow of pain on the stranger's face.

"Attack is good?" he finally said.

"The attack is bad," I assured him. "The only way to win. It's the only way to make the game fun."

We played some, and he wasn't too hard to beat.

"Checkmate," I said. "The end of the game. I won. I made the right moves and you lost."

"Are we playing again?"

"Absolutely."

We played about twenty games, where I learned that his ship was as big as our moon but invisible, and by game twenty he was out of my league. It made sense. A sixth-grade student against the collective minds of all the foreigners working together was unjust.

I was bored with chess anyway, so I pulled out my iPad and played video games. That started badly as board games.

“No,” I said, frustrated. "You have to blow people up and kill them God you aliens are funny. You just want to go with your razors and talk to people and heal them and everything. It doesn't work that way. You have to shoot or die. And your school is bad. Here, let me show you how to fry those people."

"Is frying people good?"

"Epic. The most fun game in the World."

There was another concussion in his brain. He then told her to leave. He was glad he met me before he met anyone else. I had given them a lot to think about and they were discussing things for a while and then coming back a week later. He said it would be a good idea if people around the world were ready to play sports. He was sure after the talk and production of the game pieces, there would be a lot of fun when he came back.

That was six days ago and I can't wait until tomorrow.

It's boring here with no one to play with.