The UNO Game

December 21, 2007 at 5:51 AM

My mom's meals satisfy in ways only a gifted cook's food could fulfill, and my family was under its spell the night of December 21st.

I finished practicing and brought down a recording of myself to my mom. I played it for her and at the end she laughed when the recorder whispered, "Well, that sucked." My brother sat down on our new couch, playing his new PSP. "Get off of that thing and let's play UNO," I said.
"Alright, alright," he sighed, pleasure and euphoric addiction leaving his face and reintroducing the familiar scowl that we are all used to as is normal for a teenage boy, I guess.
I ran upstairs to fetch the UNO cards. I knocked on Megumi's door (My best friend and International student from Japan, staying in my house for the break) to invite her to play. She hastily excepted and we tripped down the stairs in a bundle of laughter.

But here is where the intensity starts. Everything was fine until Megumi said, "If I win you do the dishes tonight."
"I'm out," my brother yelled. "You guys just made this fun game boring."
Well, I lost and I have to wash dishes for the next couple of days. However, and I do not know where it came from, I yelled out, "Let's play one more time! If I win.... I get the living room for a ten hour practice session--NO Complaints, no interruptions."
Have you ever watched a movie where the main character says something really serious and everyone looks at him or her as if the world just stopped? Well, let's just say, my family ceased and so did time. The only motion was my mom's faint trembling, my brothers blinking eyes of sad astonishment, and Megumi's twisting mouth inwardly asking,"What did she just say?"

"No way. First of all, you could not practice that long, and secondly you'd kill us," my brother chimed in.

"First of all, I could practice that long, and secondly what the heck do you mean I would kill everybody?" I stared my brother in his eyes, daring him to give the wrong answer.

"I'm in. Mom, don't worry, I'll save us," he said. Not the right answer, but I did not feel the need to slap him, so he did good.

To my chagrin, my best friend, the one who I share my secrets with, the one who I can cry on in times of violin failure, said, " I will play too. I am sorry Jasmine, but ten hours, my goodness."

"Megumi, how could you?" I asked, a tear trickling down my cheek and on to the heart strings of--the floor. "Well, mom, you in too?"

"No, I'll watch," she said, licking her lips and glancing at my brother for assurance and--hope.

I took the deck of cards into my hand and shuffled them several times. Megumi yelled, "Hurry up," and I placed three piles of seven cards on the table. My brother picked his stack first. Megumi and I selected the remaining two simultaneously. My brother spread the cards, rainbow-shaped, in his hands and then smile once after his eyes slowly moved across each thin sheet of square paper in his hand. Megumi just smiled as she usually does and said, "Okay let's go." Well, I was pretty happy since I had a draw 4 WILD, draw two, reverse, skip, skip, and WILD card in my hand. I turned over the first card in the "pull" deck, a yellow 8. "Megumi, you go first." She put down a draw two. My brother muttered under his breath as he snatched two cards from the "pull" deck. I looked at my opponents to see if I could decipher form their faces what would be best to place down. I did not want to use the draw 4 because--well it has it uses. So, I put down my draw two to get vengence for my little brother. Megumi picked up two cards and my brother smiled deviously. "Jasmine, draw 2 please," he smiled demonically.
"I will never help you again, my dear brother," I glared at him.

From that moment on, it was every WO-MAN for himsheself. My mother went into the kitchen for an occasional cup of water when the bickering became too much for her already damaged ears (compliments to my violin). She'd come around and give my brother an encouraging pat on the back. I felt a tickle of jealousy on the part of my spine which stiffened against the cushion of the couch. Why did she not want me to play my violin for ten hours? Come one...that never hurt anyone...

The situation, I was down to 3 cards, Megumi 15, my brother 8. A couple of times earlier in the game Megumi had called Uno so I used my draw 4 card to shove her back on track (hehehe).

I had a red 8, blue 9 and a blue skip card left. My brother watched my every move, yelling, "She doesn't have red," to Megumi whenever I had to pull from the "pull deck."
But I knew what I was doing, sometimes I would pull on purpose just to make him believe I did not have a certain card. Before they knew it, I yelled, "Uno." Megumi, My brother, and my mom looked my mom, sweat dripping down their eyebrows. "Concentrate, son," my mom chanted. He looked at me as Megumi placed down a blue 7. I had a blue 9. I muttered, "Oh, shoot," with as much sincerity as possible, and my brother thinking he had me, placed down a blue and said, "Pull, Jasmine." Well, to humor him and intensify his impending disappointment, I slowly moved my hand towards the pull deck, "Oh, Jezzy. You got me--NOT!!!" I laughed as I slapped down my blue 9 sendng the UNO cards flying all over the living room. My brother rested his face in his hands, Megumi cried out in indignation, and my mother quietly announced, "Welp, I am off to bed. Goodnight."

And so, sometime next week, I will living room practice access for ten hours...

Sounds good to me.

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The UNO Game

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