P.S. I have no clue what the real rules to life are (LOL) so it's going to be wrong but deal with it. (Oh, like you remember the rules anyway.)
The Game of Life
The board was all set up and… "Ok, so what are the rules Football head?" Helga asked Arnold who was sitting cross-legged at the other side of the board game. "The rules? Well, no real idea honestly." Arnold finished this confession with a small laugh.
Helga rolled her eyes and picked up the 'Job' cards. "Um, let's pick a job card or you want to blindly guess?" Arnold looked at the cards in Helga's hand for a moment and decided, "Let's not look and just grab a card. I mean life's kind of like that, right?" Helga took all the Job cards and fanned them out in front of Arnold face down. "Age before beauty."
Instead of thinking about it like Arnold was sometimes prone to do, he just grabbed the first card that caught his eye. "Accountant? I hope this job doesn't reflect my real life path at all." Arnold looked at the card with slight disgust. Helga let out a laugh that sounded more like a muffled grunt and handed the cards to Arnold. "Don't forget to shuffle them, four eyes."
"I'm not wearing glasses." Arnold stated in a matter of fact tone
"Doi, you're an accountant, that equals glasses. Let me pick a card."
Arnold shuffled the cards and opened them up face down so Helga could pick. She thought about it for a moment then grabbed the card that was last on the right. Not because she liked that card but because if she grabbed that one she could manage to brush Arnold hand with hers and make it look innocent.
'Ahhhh….' Went Helga's inner conscious, until she saw her card.
"Teacher? Blah, why would I want to do that? Urg, this game is dumb." Arnold let out a laugh and started to divvy out the cash according to the career cards.
"Hey, just be glad you aren't the 'Hair stylist' but if you could have picked which card would you have wanted..." Arnold asked innocently not looking Helga in the eye.
"Well, the 'Artist' I guess…what about you Dilbert?"
"Haha, very clever. Me? I would have been the 'Adventurer'."
"There isn't an "Adventurer" card! Pick one that is a choice in the game"
"Fine. I guess 'Entertainer' isn't all that bad. I mean its way better than doing taxes." Arnold stuck out his tongue in disgust at the last part.
Helga bit her lip as a memory flooded her mind. "You can be an entertainer, as long as you promise not to be a magician."
Arnold's eyes went big as he remembered his somewhat failed magic show. "Well, if you hadn't disappeared...it won't have been such a disaster." Arnold realized he needed to change the topic fast.
"But what do you mean by 'being an artist? I know you write good poetry from school but do you draw or something too?"
Helga just gave Arnold a blank stare. He already knew she had taken up painting in the last few months so why was he asking a question he already knew the answer too? 'Why must he always pry and yet make it look so innocent? God, he makes my blood boil and yet…' Helga's eyes started to glaze over without her realizing it.
"Helgaaaaa…?"
Helga shook her head for a moment, "Painting, you already knew that might I point out. Doi, you caught me painting in the park late at night a few months ago, remember?" For a moment Helga wondered if he did remember...
Arnold gave a smile. "Of course I remember. I was just doing what I do best."
Helga had had another fight with Bob about god knows what anymore. It had been so late (or early) and Helga had just gone downstairs to get a drink but alas nothing was ever that simple. She had needed to clear her head, after the pointless fight and the park was the best place to do it. She grabbed her poetry notebook but before Helga ran out of her bedroom she noticed the small carrying case in the corner. For Christmas the year before, her parents had given her an artist carrying set. It had promptly been thrown in the corner and forgotten. For some reason an urge came over her to take it with her.
She grabbed it and shoved her notebook in the bag. Slamming the door she ran down the stairs.
"If you leave young lady I am locking this front door! You can sleep on the stoop for all I care, do you understand?" Bob thundered from the living room he didn't even have enough decency to leave the front of the TV to confront his youngest daughter.
Helga stood there for a second wondering the best way to answer, a witty comeback? A threat? No, Helga realized none of that really mattered. Would it make Bob look up from the TV?
So without a word Helga opened the front door and without a peep stealthy slipped into the night. She made her way to the park slowly and thought about the situation she had gotten herself into.
"It's not that bad really." Helga thought out loud. "I mean I have a few bucks in my pocket, I'll grab something from the 7/11 besides I have the fire escape. The real question is did I leave my window locked?" By then Helga had walked to the neighborhood convenience store and started to look at the drinks. A nice pumpkin latte was in order and a doughnut. Not the breakfast of champions but hey she was a growing girl.
Helga stepped back outside and felt a small chill. She continued making her way to the park. 'If I ever leave I think I'll miss the park most.' She finished her doughnut before she reached the park but wanted to save the latte for later.
Helga reached her favorite spot, which was a lone oak by the lake. The tree was huge and the long sweeping branches alone could inspire her. She sat down so close to the massive oak she could almost feel herself dissolve into the trunk. No one would find her here. She put her latte down in a secure place between two roots and after removing her poetry book took her first real look at the painting set. It had come in a postal style carrying case. She glanced inside and found colored pencils, paints, brushes, a sketchpad, markers and a few other miscellaneous artsy tools.
Her original plan had been to write poetry about a certain yellow haired football head but today the yellow marker seemed more attractive than the yellow imagery she could come up with using her lead pencil. So grabbing the markers she opened up the flap, pulled out the yellow marker and stared out at the lake. 'Now what?' Helga's mind asked her.
After a moment Helga realized her head was still distracted from the fight she had had with her Dad. She hated to do anything artistic in that mood because she would always go back to that poem later and see in the imagery that something else had been on her mind. Not wanting to ruin her first real attempt at drawing since the third grade Helga closed her eyes and mediated.
Instead of meditation though Helga fell asleep, with a start Helga woke up. Foggily she thought 'That seemed a lot longer then I meant it to be.' Helga looked at her cell phone it was six in the morning and go figure, not a single missed call. "I don't care. I bet he never even when to go check on me."
With a grumble Helga remembered the sketchpad still resting in her lap. 'I still have time to draw. Bob goes to work at 9am; I'll stay here till then. I have my cold latte-which is yummy and hours of entertainment here.' With that Helga reached into the marker set and pulled out a colored pencil. After gazing out at the lake for a few minutes to get the feel of the atmosphere Helga began to draw.
She had finished the lake; bench on the west side of the lake and a tree or two but something was missing. Helga began to rummage through her canvas bag and pulled out the paint set. She had finished her latte long ago, so she walked over to the edge of the lake and filled the latte cup with water. Sitting back down once she had reached the tree, she laid the latte cup in between two roots again and picked up the paintbrush. "What now?" Helga pondered this question for a moment before finally going with the blue again and painting over the lake to give it a more three-dimensional look.
She was so engrossed with her painting she never noticed the sun that was beginning to rise or a certain football head that had made his way over to her and was looking over her shoulder at her painting.
"That's really pretty looking. I didn't know you painted."
Helga was so engrossed with her painting her only reply was, "Really? It's my first painting. You really like it?"
Arnold took a moment too long to answer because that second was all Helga needed to realize what was going on. "Arnold?" Helga went to press the drawing against her chest like she would have done with her poetry book but she realized that wet paint on her blouse was the last thing she wanted so Arnold was able to continue look at her art work. "What. Do. You. Want?" Every syllable was pronounced with an undertone of 'Go away now.'
"Nothing really, just saw you over here and wanted to say 'hi' and was also wondering what you are doing up so early. Couldn't sleep?"
Helga realized she probably had huge black bags under her eyes and that was enough indication on how much sleep she had gotten but as always Arnold was trying to be polite. 'Must he sugar coat everything?'
"Yeah, long night." Helga come to the conclusion that she wasn't really in the mood to argue with Arnold, she was just too tired. 'Plus that can be my excuse later when he tells me I'm acting strange."
"So what made you come out and paint on this fine morning?" As he said these words he slowly sat down next to her, almost acting like she was a deer in the headlights and the slow movements were meant to not scare her away. "I always knew you had an artistry side to you. Your school projects are always much better than everybody else."
Helga let out a sigh and looked out over the lake. Usually she would be enraptured but today…
"Tell you what, I'll go grab us some coffee and you can tell me all about the painting when I get back, ok?" Arnold slowly stood up and smiled down at her.
"Yeah, lots of cream please." Helga just continued to look out over the lake lost in thought as Arnold walked away to the convenient store.
"What was that all about?" She whispered to no one in particular.
She had almost forgotten about their little 'encounter'. It had been nice. Another recent event of them getting closer or was her mind just playing trick on her? Helga supposed it was better just to leave that thought alone.
"Football head I think anything is worse than doing taxes, although I have never done them I've heard big Bob go on about it enough to know I don't want to know."
"I agree, Grandpa always acts like he died the day before so his tax broker will leave him alone when it's time to do taxes for the year. Grandpa in a white sheet as a ghost…you can spin first while I'm sorting the cash. I'll be the banker too, unless you want to be."
"Nope go for it. Ok, spinning the spiny thing." Helga reached for the spin dial in the middle of the board and gave it a quick turn with her right hand. "Seven, woot. Oh, doi, I need a game piece. Throw me one will you."
Arnold opened up the box, "Which color you want?"
"Ah, blue's fine." Arnold started to hand over a blue car and then a red one. "You have the blue minivan and I have the red sports car."
"That's a riot Arnold, now hand them over."
Helga placed the red car at the starting line then took the blue one and moved it seven places. "Let's see, I landed on pay day! That's what I'm talking about, hand over the cash." Helga held out her hand with an extremely smug look on her face.
Arnold counted out the pay from her career card and handed her the payday money along with the starting amount. "Hey, Helga did you notice the box says 'For 9 and up' I just find that funny for a game called 'Life'." Helga let out a little laugh, "I think that at nine we were competent enough to play this game, even though it may not be by the rules. Besides that stems more from laziness then stupidity." Arnold nodded his head in agreement.
Helga began to laugh and stole a look at her cell phone. '3am huh? Not much longer till sunrise? I wonder if this will all change when the sun comes up. What a weird night it's been but…' That was when Helga came to a resolution.
By the end of the night she would kiss Arnold.
Review and Love
