Friday, July 4, 2008

Death by Scrabble

DEATH BY SCRABBLE SUMMARY
by: Charlie Fish This story is about playing scrabble by a couple in their house on a hot Sunday afternoon. It describes the husband’s feelings of hatred. He imagines for going out, doing exercise or even sailing the Vendee Globe rather than playing scrabble with his wife. He has been in the house since Thursday morning, and he has none to talk to except his wife. The husband takes the first turn; he starts the game by playing the word “BEGIN”, 22 points. The wife takes her next turn and plays “JINXED”, 30 points. The husband has a bad habit for chewing on the tile. He begins to chew on the letter U. He plays the word “WARMER” and the heat of the sun is pushing at the husband through the window. As soon as the atmosphere becomes hotter the wife chooses to play the word “SWEATIER”. The husband is getting sweatier, he needs water to clean the air, and so whenever the thought crosses his mind, he plays the word “HUMID”, with U, which is chewed on by him. Next, the wife plays “FAN”, she tends to clear the air. She then gets up to fill the kettle and turns on the air conditioner. The next turn, the husband plays “ZAPS” and the wife gets the electric shock. The husband keeps thinking to find a way to kill his wife. As soon as the kettle starts whistling, it makes him feel hotter. The wife then plays “READY” and goes to pour a cup of tea for herself. When it comes to the husband’s turn, he plays a trick. He throws back his “V” and takes a blank tile from the letter bag. He plays “CHEATING” and the wife asks him if he has cheated. But, she chooses to play “IGNORE”. The husband hates her even more, he thinks to play a murderous word with his letter on his rack but still the best he can do is to play “SLEEP”. The wife sleeps all time, she does not even awake when the neighbor argues, breaks the door, smashes the TV and throws all the stuffing out of the house. On the next day she becomes annoying because lack of sleep. The husband tries to find a way to get rid of her. He plays “EXPLODES”, as he puts the last letter down, there is a bang and the air conditioning unit fails. Finally he realizes that all the words they make are coming to be real. She decides to play “SIGN”. The husband feels that he has to test this word. He wants to know if the words are coming to be true, so he must play a word to prove that the letter makes it happen. He starts to chew on the “B” and plays “FLY”. He imagines that by playing this word he will be able to fly, so he sits back in his chair and closes his eyes, waiting to fly. Unfortunately, it does not seem like the way it should be, he then finds a fly, an insect, buzzing around above the Scrabble board. Until then, he keeps thinking to find another unambiguous word, which cannot be misinterpreted, absolute and final. Something that is murderous. The wife takes her turn, she plays “CAUTION”. The husband has “AQWEUK” on his rack plus “B” in his mouth; suddenly it crosses on his mind, a perfect word, powerful, terrible and dangerous. He plays “QUAKE”. But just as the room begins to shake, the wife plays “DEATH”.The letter “B”, which is chewed by the husband lodged in his throat, he fails to cough and dies. He falls to the floor, and the wife just sits there, watching.

1 comment:

Morteza said...

Thank you so much...
I'm Morteza Alizade an English Literature student who study in Khayyam University of Mashhad.

I like your blog
thanks again