Baku-Gone

Our playground was sparse, mulchy. We gathered every lunch to sit crisscross, ignore the smelly pokey wood, and play. The game involved these smooth plastic balls which, when rolled, would unwind themselves and reveal spiky plastic monsters. I don’t remember the particulars, except that you would compare each monster’s strength, speed, armor, magic, and luck stats with their opponent’s and then you would roll a set of standard six-sided die to augment your attacks or defenses for each stat. However, if their luck stat was higher you rolled a twenty-sided die and subtracted their luck stat and that would be the chance of your attack – I mean your monster’s attack – landing. Monster type modifiers played a large role too, aqua monsters having an advantage over magma types, etc. etc.. There were, of course, special cases and abilities and instances, but we tended to ignore those in favor of the raw combat.

We were testing out this new boy. He was not new to the school, but new to our notice. In making some disparaging remark towards Sarah, a remark so enraging she dumped her applesauce onto his moppy, black hair, he had earned our notice. George and Bryce went right up to him and asked him to join us for lunch the next Monday. During the weekend, he must go to the store and get some monsters so that he could play. Leon and I watched them talk, watched the new boy glance at us over George’s shoulder as they explained the game to him.

Monday came and the boy walked over to us, five minutes into lunch. Bryce made him turn around and sit at a bench until we were done eating. Thirty minutes into lunch, the boy came back. I stared hard at George and Bryce until they scooched over to make room. He placed himself directly opposite of me. Leon asked for his name, which he gave as he lowered himself onto his ass and right thigh, his feet splaying out to the left.

“Raoul,” he said in a soft voice.

“Raoul, we sit crisscross. Not that girly way,” George told him, artificially deepening his voice.

Leon asked, “Raoul, that’s French right?”

He nodded.

“Great. Raoul did you pick up any monsters?” Leon asked.

He shook his head.

George sputtered, but Leon just continued calmly, “That’s alright. Let’s at least show you how to play.”

We smoothed the ground, pulling the mulch into a ring which piled up just beneath our knees and Raoul’s feet. Leon and I waited for Bryce and George to pick up any remaining twigs or splinters before pulling out our monsters. Mine were purple and black, Leon’s were red and blue. We began the game, pointing out how to roll a monster properly, so that it would fully unwind itself. Again, the specifics elude me, but at some point we explained item modifiers, player spells, the attack and defense augments, the whole rigamarole.

Bryce or George interrupted with some insipid comment on magma types and I explained to Raoul how they were wrong and he looked up at me and smiled. It was the first time I really looked at him. His blue eyes held some real interest, but the corners of his lips were drawn tightly upwards so that his smile held a force of condescension.

Leon did not recognize this, his eyes were mostly focused on the die and the monsters and Raoul’s face, but not the specifics of his face, just the general impression it gave. To be sure, this impression was one of amusement and Leon should not be faulted for not recognizing the exact kind of amusement Raoul’s lips were intoning. But, maybe if he had paid more attention, Leon could have saved me.

We finished the game – I won – and Leon waved Raoul from between Bryce and George to sit in between Leon and myself. He stepped gingerly over the flat playing area and sat down in the same way as before, his feet pointed towards me while his body leaned towards Leon. Bryce and George started up a game, and Leon began to ask Raoul questions. Before lunch ended, Raoul said he would grab some monsters and come back the next day.

Raoul did not bring any monsters the whole week. On Tuesday, he came and sat with us right at the start of lunch, ignoring Bryce’s protestation. Leon asked where his monsters were and Raoul shrugged in response, casually telling us he’d get them that night. The same thing happened on Wednesday. During Thursday’s lunch, Leon told him he could keep sitting and watching us play, but until he grabbed some monsters of his own he couldn’t come to any of our sleepovers. Raoul laughed and said it was alright, he’d get some soon. He kept sitting between Leon and I, making us lean forward if we wanted to talk directly to each other. Even while playing our game, we had to lean.

Pizza Friday there was no Raoul and we played the game, rolling and rolling our monsters while the smell of government cheese filled our nostrils. Bryce mentioned it felt good to play without someone watching. George and I nodded in agreement, but Leon frowned and told us he liked Raoul and anyone who disagreed would be kicked out. Bryce pointed out it we were at school, we couldn’t get kicked out by anyone but the principal. Leon called him a dumbass, he was clearly talking about the group. Bryce leapt up. Leon slapped him and they fell to the floor and fought. The next week Leon came and said the game was stupid and Bryce and George agreed and they began to see Raoul everyday and I finished middle school pretty much alone.