Getting Along & Making Things Right
The Rule He Made Up
The game was Ash’s. He’d invented every bit of it on Tuesday. Bottle caps were runners. The crack in the patio was the river. And you could only cross the river if you’d picked up a leaf first. Nia and Jakub said it sounded good.
By the second afternoon there were more rules. No crossing twice in a row. Leaves from the big tree count double. Land on the drain cover? Back four. Ash added them as he thought of them. Out loud. In the middle of the game.
Jakub crossed the river holding a leaf from the low bush. “That doesn’t count,” said Ash. “It has to come from the ground.” Jakub looked at his leaf. “You didn’t say that one.” “I’m saying it now,” said Ash. “Start again.”
Jakub didn’t start again. He put his bottle cap down on the patio, very carefully, next to the crack. Click. Then he went and sat on the back step, arms on his knees. He didn’t say he wasn’t playing. He just stopped.
Nia was still standing where she’d been, cap squeezed in her fist. She looked at Ash. Then at Jakub. Then back at Ash. Was the game still on? Or had it just ended, without anybody saying so?
Nobody moved anything. Jakub’s cap by the crack. Ash’s by his shoe. Nia’s in her fist. It was a GOOD game. Ash had made all of it. It had been going for two whole afternoons. And now it was sitting completely still on the patio.
Jakub: on the step. Nia: waiting. Ash had announced the ground-leaf rule, and about one breath later the whole game stopped.
What does Ash do?
Every choice costs something. Let’s see what.
Explain all his rules again
Ash went through it all again from the start. Slowly. Ground leaves only. Big tree counts double. Drain cover sends you back four. He didn’t shout. He made every single rule clear.
“Okay,” said Nia, and started again from her side of the crack. Ground leaves now. She checked Ash’s face every time before she moved her cap. Jakub stayed on the step. He watched a bit. Then he looked at the fence instead.
For twenty minutes the game ran exactly the way Ash built it. Every rule worked. Nia crossed the river four times, all properly, and once, quietly, when her cap landed well, she said, “Good one.” For once it was the whole game, every bit, exactly the way he’d seen it in his head on Tuesday.
Jakub was still on the step when Nia’s mom called her in. He hadn’t moved the whole time. Not sulking, exactly. Just done. Ash picked up the two caps that were left. Click, click. Into his pocket. He left Jakub’s cap by the crack, where Jakub had put it. It would be there tomorrow, if Jakub wanted it.
Ask Jakub what rule he would have made instead
“What rule would you make?” Ash asked, from the patio, not moving any closer. Jakub looked up. Was it a trick? “The leaf one?” “Yeah.” Jakub thought about it. And thought. And thought. For ages.
“Any leaf,” said Jakub at last. “But you have to say the rules BEFORE. Not while.” Shrug. “That’s it.” Ash waited for the rest. There wasn’t any rest. That really was it.
They said the rules out loud first. All of them. Before anybody moved. It took a while. And Ash had to give up the double-points tree, because Jakub pointed out it was only on Ash’s side. Then Jakub came back off the step.
The game after that wasn’t quite the game Ash invented on Tuesday. It was slower. The river was easier. The part Ash liked best, the double tree, was gone. He kept looking at where it used to be. Nia said the new one was a bit boring. Ash didn’t argue. All three of them played it till it got dark.
Sweep the bottle caps away
Nia put her cap down by the crack. “Are we still playing?” Ash’s face went hot. “It’s MY game. If nobody follows the rules, nobody gets to play.” He swept his arm across the three caps. Clatter! They skittered all over the patio.
One cap rolled under the step. One went clink against the wall. The third stopped in the grass. Nia pulled her hand back. Jakub didn’t argue. The crack was still a river. But there were no runners beside it now.
Ash stood by the crack. The ground-leaf rule was still his. So was the double tree. He could have told them every rule, in order. Nia sat on the other end of the step. Nobody moved a cap.
A breeze pushed a leaf across the river. Ash watched it go. The cap under the step was close enough to reach. He left it there, for now. Jakub and Nia were talking quietly on the step. At the near end of the step there was still room for one more, right above the cap.