The Drinking Game by Siamak Vossoughi
It wasn’t until I got to college that I realized that all the games my uncle had taught me when I was a kid had been drinking games. A kid can still get a thrill out of flipping a quarter into a cup whether there are any consequences to missing or not. It was a very nice feeling because my uncle had died, and I had to say something at the fraternity party when they started playing Celebrity, even though I only knew a couple of the people there.
“I played this when I was nine years old!” I said, and I thought it was the kind of thing that would make everybody stop and think about time, but it was the serious focus on drinking and on playing the game right and a couple of guys wanted to join the fraternity and a couple of guys were glad they got to decide who joined, and there wasn’t room in there to think about being a kid, and it was true that they didn’t know that my uncle had died, but I thought they ought to tell from my voice that there was something important about it.
So I left the game and went outside and sat down and remembered him. My uncle was the kind of guy who would hear a thing like that in a person’s voice. He would always have time to listen because he didn’t always have a job. He would take care of me sometimes when my mother was working.
I thought of how there was a way to go back inside and say, instead of playing this game, let’s talk about childhood and about death. But I sure didn’t know it. Maybe I should join the fraternity myself, I thought, and then I would have to figure out how to do it.
But that would be giving up on the people who already could do that. I didn’t want to give up on them.
So I sat outside for a while and went inside and watched the game, and then I left with my friend Paul, who wasn’t sure if he wanted to join the fraternity either.
“What do you think?” he said.
I thought about my uncle and about how there must be people who were ready to talk about anything at the drop of a hat.
“I don’t think it’s for me,” I said.
Siamak was born in Tehran and grew up in Seattle and lives in San Francisco. He also works as a tutor. He’s had some stories published in Faultline, Fourteen Hills, Prick of the Spindle, and one is forthcoming in Glimmer Train.