Winning

There was a time, a season, where we would play marathon Monopoly games, don't know why, it was a big passion. Choosing the little icons, car, train, top hat, thimble, dog, and then tossing the dice, going round and round the board. Endlessly fascinating, buying up properties, playing fast and loose with multicolored money, nope, rarely would I be the banker, being the youngest and all, and oh I loved the "chance" cards, never knew what you'd get, or lose.

One day as we were playing, I was winning, luck of the draw, I guess, and Danny, he got this look on his face, I knew something was going to happen. He took the board and turned it upside down, he said "I call it. I win."

Well he called it. And in those days you could call something and it would be so, like those magic abracadabra words. And I just sat there, bewildered, 'cause he called it, so he must've won. First time I realized the game could be changed! And really, he did win. For I've never remembered any other of those many many games, but I always remembered that one.