(TFT) After the ban

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

After the ban

   After the ban is lifted I remember the last sessions we ever had at
Darryls.  After being evicted by the cat we started to play in the office.  A
tiny little room on the other side of the carport.  Except for sharing the
roof its not even really part of the house.  Playing in there just isnt the
same either.  It has a single window with a loud air conditioner in it.  We
move a table and some chairs in, but one can barely get around them.

   We mount heavy curtains over the glare of the top half of the window.
Darryl hangs some posters over the bare walls.  He even uses a variety of
candles to try and create some atmosphere.  But somehow it just doesnt work.
Luckily we get so caught up in the games that our surroundings evaporate.  But
between sessions it is not enough and it shows.

   Its a cramped little room.  Getting up to go inside and refill on tea is a
major ordeal in unpacking ourselves from around the table.  There is no
leaning back in the seat possible.

   Darryl becomes obsessed with acquiring a skull from this bizarre gift shop
at the mall called Spencers gifts.  A half sized solid plaster thing that
costs all his allowance money and weights quite a bit.  He tries to drip red
candles onto it and make them stand up on it.  He fidgets and works with it.
But he can never get it just right.  Sort of like the Office.  He tries over
and over.

   Mark brings a small cedar and cypress jewelry box.  His treasure chest.  He
keeps some silver half dollars, dice, and a few colored beads as jewels in
there.  It smells nice, kind of like the scented candles, but it just sits
there.  A treasure chest filled with silver half dollars.  At least when he
goes in it, it takes our minds off the room.

   I neatly pack and unpack all of the miniatures each time we play.  Two
large square cracker tins are used with a piece of felt folded back and forth
over each layer.  Half of the miniatures are painted, half are not.   But no
matter how a session goes I make sure to pick up every single one and fold
them back into their tins snapping the lids back on.  So this is the scene
when Darryls Mom forbid him to play D&D anymore.  At least we still had our
pewter mugs for Iced tea.

   Then Months later I get a phone call from Darryl.

   ``YALL COME OVER!  MY MOM SAYS I CAN PLAY.``

   Of course I immediately know he means AD&D.  I rush to tell Mark.  We pedal
the 4 kilometers at record speeds.  We fly off our moving bikes into his
carport, and just before I can knock the kitchen door opens and Darryl says
``Come on it.``  We set up on the kitchen table, and play all night while
making grilled cheese sandwiches and drinking Marshas new Sun tea.

   ``She doesnt boil water or anything.  She just puts the tea bags in a
glass pitcher and sets it in the window or on the deck out back.

   ``How did you get her to let you play again?``  Mark asks.

   Brian Sciner, Scott Johnson, and just about everyone else we know are still
banned.  Maybe Darryl has found the key.

   ``I told her, `look mom.  Its not like were sacrificing cats out there or
anything. 

   Mark and I chuckle in relief.  He used humor.  Wise approach.  The
breakfast table we are seated around is heavy oak, made of thick pieces, and
round.  The chairs are comfortable.  One can even walk around the table freely
to move miniatures during a fight.  And Darryl is making some of the best
grilled cheese sandwiches I ever have.  We have Ice cream when the sun rises.

David Michael Grouchy II
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