Scrabble

• Amber Curtis, Grade 11
• Short Story
• 2009

Jo had left her dishes in the sink for the last time. Messy, un-organized, unemployed Jo, is the only person in the house that has issues with cleaning up after herself.
This is bad news for Sara, Sara understands that when sharing a house with strangers it is best to be neat, clean and courteous and the sight of Jo’s un- washed dishes makes her angry.

The idea was simple: a bet, a wager, a gamble...a game of scrabble. The terms? Simple. If Jo wins, Sara will gladly do her dishes for the rest of the year. But if Sara wins, well, Jo will have to move out.

Both parties have agreed and the game is set up and everything is perfect. Sara is happy, deliriously happy, she has this in the bag, she has already won. Sara was her schools spelling bee champion four years in a row, she has a large vocabulary and she has never lost a game of scrabble in her life. Sara doesn’t tell anyone this though.

Jo looks nervous as she shuffles her tiles, they click together and make hollow, plastic-y sounds. Both girls have drawn tiles to decide who will play first. Jo gets to go first. She puts down her tiles onto the board, she is very slow and deliberate and pushes her tiles so they are perfectly inside the lines. Her first word, RAGE, is only four letters, not a strong start. Sara is glad of this and Jo is smiling, she is so proud and this makes Sara angry, really mad. She is sure that Jo has planned all of this just to get under her skin and she is successful. Jo exhales loudly as she picks up another four letters and arranges them on her tray.

Sara is confident about her word choice, she takes her time and makes sure to shoot the other girl a glare as she lines up her letters, PANIC is a good word and it goes through two double letter scores. She is winning. And Jo, Jo looks shaky and pale and Sara knows it’s because Jo knows that she will be packing her stuff very soon.

There is a short pause as Jo takes a sip of water to calm her nerves. There is a fine sheen of sweat across her forehead and she breathes quickly. Her next word, OBSTRUCT. Is quite good, surprisingly so. And she has managed to use all her letters.

Sara takes a second to bite into her apple and then, embarrassingly so she swallows it too quickly. It’s stuck, she cannot breathe she cannot think, all she can do is gasp and cough and flail. After an eternity Jo is kind enough to pat Sara on the back until the apple is dislodged and Sara sucks as much air into her lungs as is humanly possible. She regains her composure and spells out her next word; SLAPPED. Seven letters, double word score, quite well done. Jo jumps slightly in her seat and she looks shocked her eyes are watering slightly and her cheek is slightly red, almost as if...no, surely not. There is a look between the two girls, mutual hatred and a sudden understanding of how this game actually works. It’s dangerous and Jo feels as if this is headed for disaster, she considers stopping and going and doing her dishes but the game has been started and must finish.

Jo has found new energy, and she re-arranges her letters and hastily puts them down; BRUISED. She looks across the table and almost immediately the skin around Sara’s eye begins to turn an ugly purple. Sara raises her hand to her eye and gingerly touches it. She hisses slightly and pulls her hand away.

This is war, and the game isn’t even about keeping score anymore, both girls are in this to win it. But it isn’t yet clear how this game is won.
Sara’s word, KICK, is played over a double word score, and Jo is thrown off of her seat by it. Winded, She lies on the floor before climbing back onto her chair and lifting her shirt slightly to inspect the damage done. There is a distinct shoe shaped print on her ribs its red and raw, slightly swollen and hurts like hell. Jo looks at her letters, she has a few options, but when she realises just what her letters could spell she feels sick. Ignoring her conscience she placed her tiles on the game board. They hit a double word score, and a triple word score, twice. Bad news for Sara.

The word; DECEASED looks different from all the others on the board. The type is slightly bolder, and larger but she may be imagining it. She isn’t imagining it when Sara goes limp, her hand crashes into the scrabble board, scattering all the letters.

Jo has won. She checks for a pulse and doesn’t find one, she looks for any sign of life, but doesn’t find one. She looks for the phone and it’s between the sofa cushions, but she is unsure of who to call or what to say, somehow “scrabble killed my housemate” doesn’t sound like it would go over too well with the police.

Jo calls an ambulance, she doesn’t bother doing the CPR that the operator tells her to, it’s no use. She is told that the ambulance will be there in ten minutes.

She goes and washes her dishes while she waits for them.