“Would you like room for cream?”
“Yes, and can I get a little vanilla?”
“That’ll be extra.” It didn’t used to be extra…
“That’s fine.” Odd how things change. I wonder if someone else bought— is that John? “John? John Schwartz?”
“Yes?” Does he not remember me?
“Xavier.” Did I get too fat? I know I put on some extra weight since we used to play together.
“I’m… you look familiar.”
“Maybe you remember me better as ToeFinger, the Mighty Dwarf of Tinea Pedis.”
“Oh shit! Xavier, how have you been? It’s been… what, sixteen years since you left for… oh what was it. Something sports related.” Man, he still has magic cards. Talk about not changing.
“Lacrosse camp.”
“Sit, sit! I’m just going through my new deck. You still play?” Jesus, is that black-blue fearie?
“No, stopped when I joined the team and got too busy. Ended up on the east coast for school.”
“Ahhh.” Is he judging me? “That’s right. You stopped playing during the Nostradamus campaign.” I forgot about that. We were thirty hours into that when I left for camp. “We never finished.”
“Why not?”
“We needed our dwarf.” Shit, maybe I shouldn’t have sat down here. “It’s all good, based on what Sandra laid out for us, we never would have made it.” Oh man, I forgot about Sandra.
“How is Sandra?”
“Good, we got married a couple years back.” Didn’t see that coming.
“Really! Good for you. What’re you doing now?”
“Just doing some freelancing, traveling to tournaments, you know. Sandra and I just took the Star City Games Players’ Championship. She took first, I got second.” Oh man, I wanted to go to that tournament.
“How much for first?”
“Hundred thousand smackaroos.” That’s more than I made a last year, how? “Yea, she was rocking Merfolk. You used to use Merfolk right?” Do I still have my deck?
“Yea… but those are all phased out by now.” Mom probably threw them out.
“They’re still good in legacy. Your lords are now worth two hundred dollars a pop. Yea, you had the first printing.” Jesus, how does he remember that? “You want to play?”
“Yea!”
“Here. It’s an agro deck, you still know the play order, right?” Of course. I’m not an idiot.
“Yea, but I’m rusty.” This feels… right.
“You’ll do fine.”
“Coffee with vanilla and room for cream.” Finally, coffee.
“I’ll be right back!”
“Xavier, let’s go, the kids are cranky!” When did my wife get in here?
“Just take them home and pick me up in a bit, I’m with an old friend.”
“No! Get in the car now!” Christ, I just want to play one game.
“Sorry, John, I gotta go.”
“Hey, this is my address, come over tonight and we’ll play.”
“Can I swing over tomorrow?”
“Naw, me and the wife are going to the European Open tomorrow, won’t be back for a month.” I want to go.
“Come on Xavier!” I hope she’ll let me go tonight.