Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Therapy puppet theatre

Let's just say I'm very glad I didn't jump the gun and post any bursts of good news a couple weeks ago. For those who weren't privy to this as it played out, (a big thank you to those who were. Your support is very much appreciated) I present my last couple weeks through therapy puppet theatre!

Player One sits down and opens up her board game, Lifopoly (the board game I seem to have mashed together in my previous post). She sets up all the game pieces with care, making sure to follow all the instructions and sits back to see if anyone wants to play the game with her.

Player Two happens by. "Say, is that Lifopoly? I love this! Can I play?"

Player one says, "I'd love to play with you! Have a seat."

"Thank you!" Player two sits down. "I really like what you have here, why don't you go directly to Go and collect $200?"

"Really? That's awesome! Thanks!" Player one picks up her thimble game piece and starts to move toward the Go space.

Player Two's brows furrow. "Oh. Hmm. I couldn't help but notice that you're using a thimble. Would you be opposed to using the iron game piece instead?"

"Sure. No problem."

"Oh. And how about instead of car game pieces, you call them hover ships?"

"I can work with that."

"Would you mind changing all the people pegs from pink and blue to yellow and purple?"

"Uhhh. I guess not."

"Great. Let's play."

Player one wipes her brow and moves her iron closer to Go.

Player two rubs her chin. "I just thought of something else. How about we skip the number three when we roll or spin."

"Umm. Okay." Player one gets out a sharpie and turns the number three on the spinner into a snowman and makes an X on the three side of the dice. "Can I move to Go now?"

"Do you have a full house?"

Player one blinks and looks from Lifopoly to Player two. "Uhh, what?"

"A full house. Do you have one? Maybe royal flush?"

"This is Lifopoly, not poker."

"Looks a lot like poker."

Player one surveys the game again and then notices the cards in Player two's hands. She cocks an eyebrow. "Well, I suppose they are both games."

"Lifopoly also reminds me of Cribbage."

"I don't even like Cribbage."

"Nevertheless, it reminds me of Cribbage. And Go Fish."

"Huh? Really?" Player one picks up the hover craft with it's family of purple and yellow pegs inside and examines it. "Well, they are all games so I suppose you could call them connected."

"I don't like card games. Unless you change Lifopoly into croquet, I don't want to play."

Player one picks up the iron game piece and pictures whacking it around the lawn with a mallet. "I guess I'll see what I can do."

Player two gets up, jarring the game board and sending all the game pieces flying. "You know where to find me if you want to play croquet."

"Yeah. Thanks." Player one watches Player two leave. She lovingly picks up her game pieces and packs them away in the box, one by one. She takes one last look at the Go space and then folds the game board up. "Well now, that was interesting," she says to the empty chair. "Guess I'll put this game away for a little bit while I decide whether croquet is my thing or not."

She picks up the box and gets ready to leave. The corner of the box rattles and lifts up ever so slightly. Player one notices a high-pitched hum and waves her hand in the air, thinking to shoo away a mosquito. A tiny, bright red hover craft wizzes in front of her face. It's purple and yellow occupants have grins on their little bulbous heads. She briefly wonders how they are driving since they have pegs for bodies, but shrugs the thought off in light of everything else on her mind.

"We're free!" They cry. The hover craft does one more lap around player one's head and speeds off.

The therapist snaps his fingers. "Hello, cazy writer lady, time to put the puppets away now."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

4 comments:

  1. OMG!! I can't believe it was that terrible!! The thought of someone just toying with everything you've spent years on, kills me to the core. I know that things need to be changed sometimes, but when the changes make no sense, it hurts more than just the ego. I'm so sorry, Jean. But don't give up, girl. Keep querying, lightning will strike. It will! : D Trust kicks @$$!!

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  2. Blogger seems to be eating comments today.

    Thank you, Stella. :D I did get some feedback to work with so I'll do a little revising and move onward from there.

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  3. Lifopoly can be a hard game to fathom sometimes. Shame nobody's quite agreed what the rules are yet.

    So sorry to hear this, Jean, but look on the bright side, you actually got to sit down with another player and talk to them, rather than just a couple of rolls of the dice hidden behind a screen. That's a lot further than I've ever got. This player was probably not for you, so chalk it down to experience and keep on truckin'.

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  4. They're not right for this novel--unless I go the croquet route--but I do have several others so I'm not ruling them out in the future.

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