Betty Fuller was laying on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, waiting for her children to get here for their first family game night in about 7 months. She exhaled slowly, rubbed her eyes and thought about if she could even go through with tonight, thought about how much it meant to everyone, and how much she'd missed her children since the last time they'd all been together. It had been the longest gap in family game night they'd ever had, so she knew she had to go through with it, even if-
"Betty?" Harold asked, sitting down on the bed next to her, smiling. Betty sat up and took his hand, kissing it gently as he continued talking, "You feeling okay?" "I'm feeling alright, I guess...I don't know, honestly. I'm a little scared. It's been so long since we've done this, I hope it's still as fun as it ever was," Betty replied, as Harold leaned in and kissed her forehead, stroking her hair. "It'll be a blast, trust me, you'll be so happy," he said, making her blush. Even after all these years, even after what happened, he could still make her blush. *** Ashley and Anna were sitting in Ashleys car, driving towards her parents house. Anna ran her hand down her rather pregnant tummy, smiling at it. Ashley glanced down, and then their eyes caught and they both giggled. Ashley turned into a new lane, and came to a red light. "This all feels so surreal," Anna said. "I know what you mean, but, it'll be good," Ashley said, "I have missed having family game night, honestly. I can't wait to see them again. Plus, my mom will probably give you a bunch of maternity clothes, if you don't think they're too ugly." "I'd rather be comfortable than pretty," Anna said, "...good god, I've given up on myself." "You're pretty in anything, come on," Ashley said, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel to the radio, not noticing Anna blushing, feeling extremely complimented. Just then, someone pulled up beside them in the lane and tapped on their window. The girls glanced at one another, then Ashley began rolling down her window to see a guy sitting on a bike. He pulled his helmet off, and it was a rather bearded Jason, but his hair was dreaded and he was wearing what appeared to be a necklace of an elephant. "Ladies," he said, waving at them, "I'm sorry I haven't called you since I've gotten back into town, but I've only been here a few days, so I figured I'd just wait until I saw you tonight." "...what is that smell?" Ashley asked, sniffing the air. "Diesel," Anna said. "That's me," Jason remarked, laughing, "It's patchouli oil. It's my fragrance of the month." "The fuck is fragrance of the month?" Ashley asked, trying not to laugh. "It's just a fragrance made from a species of plant. I'm just so tired of the over masculinized colognes they have on the market, aimed at making men feel bad if they don't smell like a generic, macho thing, with names like Musty Cave or Lumberjack. I wanted to try something different." "Trust me, you smell like a musty cave," Anna said, making both the girls laugh. "I'm not going to take that personally. We all have our likes. I'm going to take your humor with good nature and just admit that I like how I smell and that I like myself right now. I finally feel good, and it feels good to feel good." "Where's...where's your....car?" Ashley asked, in between gasps of air from laughing, wiping her eyes of tears. "It's at my place. I'm trying to use this bike now for exercise, plus it's better for the environment," Jason said, "It's a fixgear, best on the market. "Oh, hang on," Ashley said, pulling her cell phone out and answering it, "Hello? Oh yeah, let me tell him. Hey, Jason, the 90s called and they wanted me to tell you that you're a walking stereotype, and that, what's that?" she asked, pretending to be on the phone again, "Alright, let me tell him, and that Felini thinks you're pretentious." Jason just smiled and shrugged, then the light turned and he continued peddling as Anna and Ashley continued driving, cracking up the rest of the way there. *** Carl was sitting in the kitchen, at the island, looking at a scratch on the floor, their eyes damn near glued to it. All they could hear in their head was the sound of an ambulance. The fact that they were outside when Harold had had his heart attack instead of inside like usual had been eating away at them for many months now. Carl sighed and pushed their bangs out of their eyes. Their hair was longer now, well past their shoulders, and their skin had cleared up quite a bit. They were wearing a soft, deep green sleeveless blouse with a brown skirt and cute sandals, their nails painted coral. They leaned back in their chair and sighed, crossing their arms. Sure, the situation was over, months over, but the fear of that night still lingered inside of them. They bit their lip and started chewing, still glaring at the mark on the floor, so focused that they didn't even hear the door open and hear Jason enter the kitchen. "Hey," he said, tossing his helmet on the counter and heading for the fridge where he got out a carrot juice and took a few swigs, "....hello?" he asked again, this time getting Carls attention. "Yeah, hi," they replied. "Watcha lookin' at?" Jason asked, strolling over beside them. "This mark on the floor. It was made by the thing dad dropped when he had his heart attack," Carl said, pointing at it, "I just...I can't get beyond that night. I should've been in here like I was every family game night and instead I was on the porch and I'm never going to forgive myself for that." "Dad would," Jason said, smiling. "I know that. I know dad wouldn't hold it against me," Carl said, sighing, "I just...I wish I could've done more. Those last few months I really felt like dad was getting to know me and feel proud of me, and that we were getting closer and closer. Then I had to blow it..." "Come on, you know dad's not like that. You know dad loves you, supports you. You know that," Jason said, hugging Carl to them and patting their back. Carl took a whiff of the air and waved their hand in front of their nose. "What the hell is that stench?!" they asked. *** "Do you remember right after we got married?" Betty asked, the two of them sitting on the bed, her legs to her chest, arms wrapped around them, "And all we had to do was sit around in that little apartment and watch TV on a bad signal because we had that rinky dink little antenna?" "I do," Harold replied, chuckling. "But then one night, you said we should just go to a thrift store, for some furniture, so we did, and you found a bunch of board games, remember? And then you told me this story about how your grandma used to play board games with you all the time and that you loved it but hadn't done it in years, and now you really wanted to so you bought them all?" "Yep, some of those are still in that closet," Harold said, "God...it seems like a million years ago now." "It feels like it," Betty said wistfully, "Hell, 7 months ago feels like a million years ago now...anyway, you then decided that we would have a family game night, because you knew it would bring everyone closer. But then...well, that happened, and we stopped having it for a while." "I've always regretted missing that time," Harold said, rubbing his chest, "I feel like we wasted a lot of time on a whole buncha nothing." "Now the family plays game night again. We're not perfect, but we all get along and we all love one another, and...and we're all invested in eachothers lives. It's how a family should be. So what if we have to wrap our identity, our togetherness and support system, around a board game? Who cares if it takes Scrabble to bring us together? We're together. That's what matters." "I'm happy everything's going so well," Harold said, "I was pretty worried for a while that they wouldn't, especially after Jasons shitty behavior towards his wife." "...remember how you told me we bought our house? This house? We had looked at it a few weeks before, and then one night we were playing Monopoly, and it said I landed on some property and I could buy it if I wanted to, and so I did and instead of giving me money for income from it you just handed me our door key?" Betty asked. "I do remember that!" Harold said, laughing and coughing, "Yeah, I remember that. Man...I was a huge dork." "You really were," Betty said, leaning in and kissing him. *** "So...so what you...you just lived in a hotel where animals could walk right through it?" Carl asked as Jason opened up a bag of pretzels and hopped up to sit on the counter. Anna was sitting at the island while Ashley leaned against the wall, one hand in her pocket as she ate an apple. "Well, they like, built it ON an elephant trail, right, so like...okay, the elephants take the same trails every year and they have for a long ass time, so then these contractors come in and they built this hotel that went right through one of the elephant trails, so the elephants aren't gonna learn a new route so they just go right through it. It was pretty cool, eatin' breakfast like, 5 feet from elephants." "I guess that's pretty cool," Ashley said, swallowing her bite of apple, "Any other animals?" "There was a giraffe that would come to the upper level windows and I always fed it salad mix," Jason said, "That was pretty neat." "Any kids ever get eaten by a lion?" Ashley asked. "There were feedings, but they were at weird times, so I never saw them," Jason said, making Anna smirk, "Anyway, it was a wild experience you guys, you really need to check it out." "Well, when I have some time to just hop on a plane and spend a few months in Africa, I definitely will look into that," Anna said, pushing hair behind her ear as Ashley threw her arms up in the air. "When's this game night gonna start?" she asked. "I don't know, I'll head upstairs and see what's up," Jason said. "I'll set up the game board," Ashley said, grabbing The Game Of Life off the counter and heading out to the living room. Once they were gone, Anna glanced over at Carl and smiled. "I like your look," she said. "...oh...thanks," Carl said, blushing, "Yeah, I don't know. I still don't feel 100% comfortable, but I guess I'll get used to it. I get ma'amed everywhere I go and everyone treats me very nicely, but...I don't know, I guess I still think that like, even if they're nice to me that after I'm out of earshot, they're making fun of me, no matter how 'convincing' I seem. I don't know, it's weird." "Being a woman generally is," Anna said, "But hey, you'll make do, you look fantastic." "Thanks, but it's not all about appearance," Carl said, "Like...seeing you pregnant, it makes me pretty uncomfortable, because I'll never have that." "Well, you could always ado-" "I know. I know that. Everyone always tells me that, but that...that isn't the problem. Even if you were infertile, you still have the machinery, you know what I mean? You have all the pieces that it take to make a child, they just don't work the way they should. I'll never have that....I don't know, I'm sorry. I'm feeling really weird lately," Carl said and Anna hugged them, kissing them on the cheek. "It's cool, you know I'm here for you," she said, making Carl blush again. *** "Well," Harold said, sighing as he lay on the bed holding his wife close, "I guess game night should get started. It's only fair, they've waited long enough." "I don't want to leave this room," Betty said. "You're going to have to leave it eventually," Harold said, and Betty felt him start to wipe her eyes dry as he turned her face to look at him, his smile gleaming at her, "It'll be okay. I promise." "No, it won't. It'll be so weird and uncomfortable," she said, starting to sob. "Life is uncomfortable, but you're Betty fucking Fuller, you're the woman I chose to live my life with, and I'll be damned if you decide to stop living it now. I love you," Harold said, kissing her firmly on the lips. *knock! knock!* "Mom?" Jason asked, "Can I come in? We're ready to start game night. I'm coming in." As Jason entered, he turned the lights on and found Betty sitting alone on the bed, hugging her pillow to her chest, sobbing to herself as she softly rocked back and forth. Jason put his hands in his pockets and stood there, staring at her. "...you okay mom?" "I...don't know..." she managed to say. "I know it'll be weird without him, but we're here for you, okay? We love you. You just come down when you're ready. Ashley set the board up and everything," Jason said, kissing his mom on the forehead, as she collapsed into him crying. Jason sat down and held his mother. As he sat there, he heard the tinkling of shattered glass, and looked down to see a picture frame on the floor. It was of his parents. He just kicked it until it rolled over, and kept holding his mother. Harold Fuller might be dead, but his game night would last forever.
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Family Game Night follows the Fuller family, a (possibly too) tight knit family who meet every Thursday night to play board games...and air their dirty laundry. Archives
March 2019
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