The remnants of breakfast had long since gone cold on the dining
room table. Mew had become too curious about the state of the game board and
wandered over to assess the situation. It took her less than thirty seconds to realize
that neither her father nor her brother had improved much. “You are both STILL terrible
at this game.” She chided them as she finished the last of her toast.
Father and son shot up from the table to defend the interstellar gridlock
they had maneuvered themselves into. “Hey! This is why we stopped playing
against you!” Eamon protested.
Mew pulled a chair over and sat down. “Because I’m good at the game
and you two are pretty spectacularly not?” She said with a smile.
Eamon stuck his tongue out. Mew returned the gestured. Their father sat on his
side of the table. “I swear you two are going to be six until the day you die.
I don’t understand how your mother put up with it.” He said with a warm smile.
Mew grabbed the box and started pulling out the pieces for her own
faction. “If you remember, mom was always smart enough to encourage us to
follow the paths we were both interested in.” She answered as she dug through
the box.
Eamon nodded. “We didn’t exactly spend enough time around each
other to get on each others nerves. What are you doing, We’re like fifteen
turns into the game.” He protested.
Mew pointed to an area of unsettled planets. “I’m going to start
on these three planets. You guys have had nearly one and a half games worth of buildup
and I promise to take it easy on you so I’ll give you another seven turns
before I try to win.” She smiled at him as she started placing her pieces.
Her father pointed at his side of the board. “Why not just take
over my team?” He offered.
Mew shook her head. “It’s been forever since we played this game, I
missed this. I know mom’s not here so its not exactly the same but we should
have been making memories like this a long time ago.” She admitted. Eamon and
their father nodded. The men went back to studying their board positions and
resources. Mew rolled the traits and quirks dice. The red dice came up with a
cartoon piece of meat on a bone, the trait showed a DNA strand. “See it’s going
to be even easier for you guy to deal with me, my race is carnivorous and we’re
genetic purists so I’m boned on alliances. You guys ready?” She asked.
Her father was looking at her with gaze that stared more into the
past than at her, and his smile was sad. “Every now and then you remind me so
much of your mother.” He admitted. Mew felt the urge to get up suddenly and hug
her father. He held her tightly and they hugged for a long time. When the
separated she could see that he had begun to cry.
Eamon spoke up as his father wiped the tears away from his face. “Dad
you need to tell her.” He pushed.
Mew looked instantly concerned. “Tell me what?” She asked. Her
father fidgeted with his cards for a moment. Mew’s mind was starting to run
away with her. “Daddy tell me what?” She asked again.
