Monopoly (still in progress)

There are many ways to cheat at Monopoly: stealing some of your sibling’s money when they go to the bathroom, slipping yourself some extra money here and there, or moving your game piece one square short of your roll to steer clear of going to jail.

When you think about it, it’s funny why people cheat at things like board games, what are we worried about? Everyone will think I’m so stupid if I lose and will finally see how incompetent I am! Or is it more than that? Each time around the board gives you a chance to a build a better version of yourself and show your friends and family the inner capitalist that you were always meant to be! And who will know if you take some unsanctioned help along the way.

If there is one person—or rather piece—who knows about cheating, it is the Armstrong family’s wheelbarrow in their Monopoly game. Always claimed by the family’s oldest child, Jesse, the wheelbarrow has seen its fair share of cheating.

Jesse liked the wheelbarrow because it reminds her of spending time with her dad in the garden. When she was young, she used to help her dad plants the garden in the springtime and she was always put on wheelbarrow duty. Together they would fill the wheelbarrow with dirt and her dad would let her bring it over to the flowerbeds. Even though she couldn’t carry much, she was able to be helpful and carry lots of things as long as she was willing to deal with the finicky front wheel.

Alas each time the family decided to play Monopoly, Jesse would grab the wheelbarrow out of the box and place it on the ‘Go’ square. Luckily the Monopoly wheelbarrow did not have an annoying wheel but also it wasn’t a real wheelbarrow, so obviously it wouldn’t be endowed with any unwanted features of the real thing.

“You go first, Annie,” Jesse said to her youngest sibling. Picking up the dice, Annie rolled a six and moved her steamboat up to Oriental Avenue and forked over one hundred Monopoly dollars. Much like the steamboat, Annie ploughed through life with a belief that she was indestructible. Although she was the younger of the two sisters, she was always stronger willed and overpowered Jesse. While Jesse was a wheelbarrow with a clunky wheel, Annie was a steamboat charging through the ocean like nothing could touch her.

Jesse went next and rolled a five, landing right on the railroad. Annie let out a frustrated sigh because her strategy was always to get all the railroads. The tension increased significantly as Jesse went on to purchase the second and third railroads later in the game. To Annie’s delight, after a few rounds, she finally managed to secure the Short Line railroad, keeping Jesse from having full control of the railroads.

“I’ll trade you the last railroad for States Avenue,” proposed Jesse.

“Nope,” Annie said curtly.

She is absolutely insufferable, thinks Jesse. Railroads don’t even make that much money, just give me the stupid card.

Unlike all of her other friends who got closer with their siblings as they got older, Jesse never really became friends with Annie. “Maybe things will get better when you guys get older,” her friends tell her. “Yeah,” she would reply even though she wonders if they will ever arrive at any sort of common ground that would allow them to build a friendship.

Annie has always been everything Jesse was not. Jesse woke up early; Annie went to bed late. Jesse was quiet and studious at school; Annie was the social butterfly always Snapchatting her friends at the back of the class. Jesse wished she had more friends; Annie wished she could accomplish the kinds of things that Jesse did.

While her parents always appreciated her being the least dramatic child, sometimes she wished she’d lived a little more. Been a normal teenager.

***

“Have you seen your sister yet today?” her dad asked as she grabbed a bag of dirt from the garage.

“No, I think she’s still sleeping,” she replied. A product of Annie being out until 2am with her friends last night.

“Well, I’m happy I’ve got you to help me out.”

“Yep.”

Glad I went to bed at 10:30pm on a Friday night so I could spend Saturday morning gardening with my dad, thinks Jesse. Great.

“So what’s new with you these days?” he asks hauling the last bag of mulch into the wheelbarrow.

“Not much. I got my first goal of the season the other day at soccer, I’m working on a new writing project.”

“Talking to any boys?”

“What?” God dad. “Not really.”

“Anyone you like?”

Jesus Christ. “I don’t know dad.” I say pushing the stupid clunky wheelbarrow to get past his gaze. “Stop asking me so many questions.”

“This is the first question I’ve asked you!” he says looking amused.

“Fine,” says Jesse easing her pace with the wheelbarrow but refusing to avert her eyes from the bags of mulch. “I am not actively seeing anyone if that’s what you are wondering.”

She hasn’t been in a relationship since she broke up with her ex-boyfriend two years ago. He was her favourite person and best friend, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have any dealbreakers. Realizing she couldn’t tolerate the bad things enough to make the good times worth it, she let him go.

Like Annie, Nathan was everything that Jesse was not. He was outgoing; she was shy. He went out to parties on Friday nights; she stayed home. She was worried he would leave; he knew he wanted to stay. But over time, he helped her open up, she realized going out on Friday nights could be fun, and over time she began to trust that he wouldn’t leave. Until she decided she needed to leave.

You need to get help, she would tell him. My parents don’t understand, he would reply. I can’t be the only one who knows, she would plead. Maybe it’s not depression, he said. Maybe it’s that I can’t find a good job, I’ve never felt good about myself, and I’m so in love with you Jesse but I know that you don’t love me.

I do love you, I promise I love you, she thought as she hugged him and cried into his shoulder. But she never said that because even though she loved him, she knew she had to let him go. You’re an amazing person Jesse, I’ll always love you, he said and then he turned around and walked out the door for the last time.

“You’re a great girl Jesse, any guy would be lucky to have you,” said her dad hefting the bag of mulch off the wheelbarrow.

“What?” she said coming back to reality. “Oh, yeah. Thanks dad.”

***

At this point in the sister’s game of Monopoly, Annie was starting to pull ahead. She still refused to swap Jesse for the godforsaken railroad (more out of spite than necessity at this point), and Jesse ended up landing on Marvin Gardens which Annie had built a hotel on and Jesse had to pay for it by mortgaging her treasured Park Place.

This game ruins families, thought Jesse. We need to stop playing this. Nevertheless, sibling jealousies and pride got the best of her, and she resorted to the childish tendency of looking for unlawful ways to get back in the game.

On her next turn, Jesse rolled an 11 which would bring her one space short of passing go. But, she thought to herself, if I can manage to move 12 spaces, I can pass go, collect 200 Monopoly dollars and lift the mortgage on Park Place. Annie is so close to passing park place and I have 3 houses!

Low and behold, she pulled it off. Annie didn’t notice, landed on Park Place, and set Jesse down the path to victory.

“You win,” said Annie defeatedly after mortgaging the notorious Short Line railroad.