Page 24 of Rough

I took a step toward the bathroom, and met Tegan’s gaze.

She grinned.

And, I puked.

NINE

Tegan

I stared down at the battered board, blinked, and then looked at Bradley. “Are you serious?”

He rested his arm on the side of his wheelchair and nodded toward his achievement. “Challenge it, you little shit.”

I stared at the five letters that he’d placed on the tattered board alongside an existing M.

M-U-Z-J-I-K.

“It doesn’t look like a word.”

“Challenge it, or close your gob,” he said.

“I said it doesn’t look like a word. It doesn’t.”

“I don’t have to tell you shit, but I will. Word of the day, muzjik. A muzjik is a Russian peasant. Mark me down for forty-eight. Your turn.”

Following a lengthy discussion, Bradley and I agreed to alter his schedule. After lunch, we added a game of Scrabble to our daily routine. His lifetime of reading left him with a tremendous vocabulary, and competing with him was equal parts frustrating and rewarding.

“Thank you,” I said. “I’ll remember that.”

After marking down his score, I looked at my options. I had a P, R, a blank tile, D, T, I, and an A. After a few seconds, I placed my letters on the board, using the Z in muzjik, which was spelled vertically.

“P-I-Z-Z-A. I get twenty-five for that. Ha!”

“You kids and pizza. That shit’s not fit to eat.”

“I don’t eat it. But it doesn’t mean I can’t spell it.”

He looked bewildered. “You don’t eat pizza?”

“Not unless I have to.”

“What would make you have to?”

“If someone served it to me,” I said. “I’d be polite and eat it. But, I’d never eat it by choice.”

“What’s your favorite food?”

I thought of my mother’s Swedish meatballs. I hadn’t eaten them in ages, and absolutely loved them as a kid. It was one of the things I truly missed since her passing.

“Swedish meatballs,” I said.

“Good solid choice.” He nodded a few times. “So, you like caring for others, you’re almost bearable to be around, and you’ve got manners. Must have been raised somewhere other than in this state.”

“Nope. California born and raised.”

“By good parents, obviously.”

“Parent. Singular. Yes. She was a saint.”