-WPOV-

“Hey Jamie” I said, hugging him tightly.

He hugged me back, “Hey, Wanda. So what did you try to help out with this time?”

I stepped out of the hug and gave him a playful punch in the arm.

“Ha ha, you’re hilarious. I only tried to do what I’ve been doing since I came here.” I said anger slipping into my voice.

“I’m sorry. Don’t be angry, I completely understand how you feel. I used to be treated like that when I first came here too because I was young.” He sighed apologetically.

His concerned baby face, made the anger raging inside of me melt away. Ian was right. If there was anyone other than him that could cheer me up, it was Jamie.

“It’s okay, Jamie I know you didn’t mean it.” I replied sincerely.

Instantly his eyes brightened up and his face filled with joy.

“So, do you want to play Life?” Jamie asked. “It’ll keep your mind of things.”

The last raid we had been on, I had decided to buy the game.

Flashback

I was roaming the Costco Department store searching for Frosted Flakes cereal, when I turned into the wrong aisle. I figured I’d wandered too far into the store because the shelves of this aisle were filled with colorful cardboard boxes. I’d never seen anything like it, what were these boxes that read Scrabble, Monopoly, Cranium, and all sorts of weird names. I kept walking entranced by the foreign items, when one name caught my eye. This one was called The Game of Life; well I knew what life was and what a game was. That’s when I put the pieces together; these boxes were all some type of game for pastime purposes. I figured it would be a good present for the kids in the cave, so I picked up The Game of Life and added it to the contents of my cart.

End

And since then I had played it so many times, that I felt like I finally understood the meaning of the human response, “Same old, same old”, to the question “how’s life?” But now looking at Jamie’s pleading eyes, I caved.

“Okay, but only if I get to be the blue car.” I said. After playing so many times, I realized that whenever I played with the blue car I won.