(TFT) People who don't game

[David Michael Grouchy II <david_michael_grouchy_ii@hotmail.com>]

[Sorry this has little to do with gaming as it is actually about people who
don`t game.]



I start to notice people who aren`t gamers.

     Darryl has a next door neighbor who has the entire second floor to
himself.  The place looks like a stylized bar with a roof that has one slope
as it comes away from the peak, then a steeper slope as it joins to the eves.
Where the hay loft would have been are his double windows over his bed.  He
always keeps the curtains drawn.

     We visit him once and he just says ``Up here.``  climbs the stairs to his
room and sits down on the edge of his bed.  He doesn`t show us around, make us
feel welcome, nothing.  There is an awkward moment for us when we realize the
host is sitting and he has left his guests standing.  Darryl, Mark, and I look
around and make seating for ourselves.  A desk chair, a bean bag chair, and on
the floor.

     ``They make me play the trumpet`` he says nodding to a closed trumpet
case next to where Mark is sitting.  Mark nods and raises the eyebrows of
sympathy.  He then slides a large conch seashell off the bookshelf along his
bed.

     ``I got this in Florida.``  he puts it in my hand.

     ``I`m sitting there with a large conch seashell in my hand.``

     He looks at Darryl and says ``You wana see something?``

     He sounds alive for the first time since meeting him, and he pulls out
the porno mags under his bed.  Way beyond anything I have seen in playboy.
You can see everything.  And it`s like they want you to see everything.

     After 30 minutes Darryl puts down his mag and says ``Hey you want to go
outside?``

     He`s laying on his side absently flipping through a mag and he says
``Naw, ya`ll can.`` and he rolls over on his belly, head towards the curtained
double window and starts reading his mag intently.  He has quite physically
turned his back on us.  We quietly go back down the stairs and exit the house.
What kind of kid doesn`t want to play outside?





     I meet another one who doesn`t want to go outside.  Robbie has a cousin
named Ted Deiker a real gamer who introduces us to Champions and later goes on
to produce Star Treck movies.  But at this time he has a friend hwo is a
little pudgy and won`t budge.  The only think he likes are comic books.

     He curls up sideways.  Legs draped over the arms of the recliner, his
back arched along the shape of a simi circle, and a comic even with his face
resting on his belly.  He actually reminds me of a curled up grub I have
exposed while turning over a clod of dirt in the garden.

     ``Hey ya`ll wana go outside.``

     ``Naw.``  Emphasis from his bottom lip, and he shakes his head.





     My Mom is driving me down river road.  She is taking me to a farm house
to play with a boy she wants me to meet.  I think she knows his Mom.  This is
way outside of the small group of neighborhoods I am used to.  I`m thinking
back on the people I know like I have left that planet forever and have to
make a conclusion about it.

     I find it odd that I don`t want to game with people who don`t play
outdoors.  I reflect that I played outside with everyone I game with first.
Robert Miles & Robbie at recess in the school yard.  Everyone from Activities
class has to take gym all week first.  Then something Robbie said once comes
back to me with new force.  I ask him if we are going to play D&D and he says
``Naw, let`s play outside.  D&D is for rainy days.``

     Gravel pops under the tires, my Mom parks us next to the 3 story house.
Across the street from the house is the monumental presence of the levee to
the Mississippi river.  Stretching off endlessly north and south.  I see
pastures around the house and realize this is an actual farm.

     I play with this kid who shows me his rock collection.  He has labeled
each rock with its type, weight, location found and mounted all of them in a
special case behind glass.  I am very impressed because there are no rocks in
Louisiana.  He seems pleased by the reaction and after letting me touch fools
gold takes me outside to show me all the different types of animals.  Then we
start having fun and just goofily running in and around the barn.  We are on
the way to becoming strong friends when I meet the neighbor girl over the
fence.

     He grudgingly but formally introduces me to her, and her to me.  I like
her.  She has wild windblown blonde hair, a big smile, and she is wearing a
one piece velvet green jumpsuit with long legs and sleeves.  Poking out of the
bottom are cowboy boots.  It`s really cool to me and makes me think of Robin
Hood for some reason.

     He never invites me back.  I don`t know if it`s cause I like her, or if
its cause he doesn`t like me liking her.




     Some people aren`t gamers but we don`t want them to know that we are.
Robbie and I are in a grocery store talking about killing Orcs.  He falls
silent.  There is a little old lady who has stopped pushing her cart and is
giving us the piercing eye of X-ray vision.  Not knowing what orcs are doesn`t
stop her from knowing that we shouldn`t be killing.  For a second I imagine
her leaping forward and throwing a net over us.  We move on, but she seems to
shadow us from there, so we proceed to checkout and leave.




     And then I meet some people who are really gamers, but don`t know they
are.  Like the first time I meet my Aunt Mary Ann.  She Marries my Uncle Frank
at an old classic plantation on the river called Asphodel.  See what I mean.
It could only be cooler if she found an actual old castle ruin somewhere.

     My Uncle Frank is an avid miniature player and WWII modeler.  He tells me
about a Civil War table top at LSU that is so massive there are groups of
commanders playing each side and moving their own divisions.  The generals are
put in separate rooms.  They can only receive and send via written orders
carried by runners, and they have to update their own map from only that.
Though once during each war they can take a physical tour of the battle.  They
come out of the room, but they also become a figure on the table and
captureable.

     When we first meet Aunt Mary Ann she comes to the house with a paper sack
full of dart guns and water pistols.  We commence to having a war from the
front yard, around the garden, to the back.  Aunt Mary Ann, my four brothers
and sisters, and I.  It`s awesome.

David Michael Grouchy II

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