Tales of Tyler-Arther

The Unbackfirable Game

    "What's happening?" Matt asked as he ambled back to his place on the floor next to Dennise.
    "We're still figuring out what game to play next," Dennise said.
    "So far we have Hide-n-Seek, Telephone, Shoots n' Ladders, and Guess-the-Picture. Which none of us can remember the actual name of." Kyle counted off each game on his hand as he spoke.
    "And Tyler-Arther was just about to share his idea,"  Silvia added.
Matt nodded along to the information. And smiled to Tyler-Arther as an invitation to continue.
    Tyler-Arther took a deep breath and thought about how he would phrase his idea. "You all know Truth or Dare, right?"
    Various sounds of agreement chorused around the room.
    "No dares in this household!" Dennise's dad, Dean, called from around the room.
Tyler-Arther smiled.
"Not a problem." He said. "The game I'm talking about is called Truth or Secrets. I made it up last year when Truth or Dare got banned at school. Some kid was dared to lick the flagpole and got sick or something."

He had everyone's attention now. Wanting to know more about this game he invented. Tyler-Arther continued on with his explanation.
  "Truth or Secrets works similarly to Truth or Dare. The truth part works the same, but instead of dares you have secrets. If you pick secret, you share something about yourself that the majority of the people playing don't know. If you don't want to answer a truth, share a secret instead." Tyler-Arther gestured vaguely with his hands as he spoke. Clearly excited to share his game with new people.

Dennise and the rest of her party guests were pleasently stunned. They had all figured that Tyler-Arther already had a lot of inner-strength built up. But they never imagined that he could contain such passion within him. They were unprepared for the light that shone in his eyes as he spoke.
The group was silent as they processed the joy and excitement that was radiating off of Tyler-Arther
As Tyler-Arther returned to reality and processed his surroundings, his face fell. He mistook their momentary silence as a confused disinterest. He looked down towards his now fidgeting hands, "We- we don't have to play it." He stumbled over his words as he spoke.

Dennise was the first of the children to shake herself from the stun. "What? No no no!" Tyler-Arther looked back up from his hands. "It's just that. We've just never seen you so.." Dennise waved her hand around, searching for the right word.
"What's a word that's a mix between excited and passionate?"
"Zealous, earnest, enthused, fervent..."
"Kyle, how do you know all these words?"
Kyle was just about to respond when John answered for him; cutting Kyle off before he even began. "He has a photographyic memory."
"It's pronounced photographic. And I don't. I have hyperthymesia. Eidetic memory is different."
"Yeah, but hyper-thigh-whatever sounds like a disease."
Kyle was about to say something again when Silvia said "That still doesn't answer our question."
Kyle sighed and, having officially given up on speaking for himself at this point, gestured for John to explain.
"I wanted to see just how precise his memory is, so he ended up memorizing the entire freaking dictionary."
    Appearently this was not only news for Tyler-Arther, but for everyone else as well. Except for John of course, who had already known.
    "Wait," Mia spoke up for the first time all day. "If your memory is that good, then how did you forget how to play Go-Fish twenty minutes ago?" The kids turn back to Kyle, who just shrugs.

    "Hey, are we going to play Tyler-Arther's game?" Matt wondered aloud.
Tyler-Arther perked up at the mention of playing his game.
"Pizza's ready!" Mr.Greg called.
These words brought everyone's attention to where he was. All three of Dennise's parents were in the kitchen, but they were positioned very oddly. Honestly, it was quite a sight to behold. Mr.Greg was being held in a loose headlock by Mrs.Kathey. Who was being held back from the oven with one oven-mitted hand and a warm laugh by Mr.Dean.
"What's going on?" John asked with a voice of baffled humor.
The three adults looked over at the gaggle of, now-standing, 2nd graders. Collectively blinked, and started earnestly laughing as they released each other from the odd pose they were in. Just laughing and smiling. The love they shared was obvious for all to see.

Such affection was a foreign sight for John. His parents were cold and distant, both with him and each other. They paid attention to him, sure. But that attention was always very stiff and formal, obligitory. It was all about what they expected of him. Expectations that he, as their first and only child, would grow into the ideal man. Their ideal man, anyway. He would be the perfect son. Do as they wish and be what they want. Never straying from the stern path they have laid out for him and his future. Nothing different or strange or off-beat. Only normalcy and perfection. Because perfection is what they deserve for bringing him into this world. Expectations met is what he owes them. To disappoint is to fail. And as his father always reminds him, Winston's never fail. Even when John was at Kyle's house, Kyle's mom wasn't married. So he didn't really see much of it there either.

John was broken out of his reflective daze by the smell of the gooey cheese on the freshly baked pizza.

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Word count: 939

I did it. It's done. I gave my entire choir class my account name. Hi choir peeps!👋
Anyway, I'm trying. And I'm working on the next chapter already. No idea when it will be out.

See you next chapter!