The day after my thirteenth birthday, father told me that Tom would be coming to stay with us for the summer.
Tom was my step-brother, and I hated his guts. I’d not seen him in nearly three years, not since the cupboard debacle.
The incident had surprised and upset my father at the time. What he didn’t know was that, for as long as I could remember, Tom had made a sport of tormenting me.
No, he certainly failed to display any brotherly feelings whatsoever.
Had I known then what I’ve since found out, his despotism would’ve surprised me even less…
http://dailypost.wordpress.com/2013/11/10/daily-prompt-game/
vic briggs 
Pingback: The perfect game | Life as a country bumpkin...not a city girl
Sorry, vic. You lost me on this one. Went to the link and couldn’t make the connection as to how it related.
haha – It is not unusual for me to use the sidestep strategy when it comes to daily prompts. I liked the idea of writing a short piece about games, but chose to (mis)interpret the term. Hope this helps? If you are still lost, I’ll go search the cupboard 😉
I’ve written a more extensive explanation of this below, as Sean was similarly lost. I hope it helps? Do let me know, and thank you for bringing this to my attention 🙂
As above, I’m a little lost, sorry.
No worries, Sean, the surest way of getting a writer to think through what they are writing about is to tell them when you do get lost. So I don’t mind explaining myself as it were 🙂
The daily prompt today said “Show us Competition,” and the set up went like this: “You’re set to play poker (or Scrabble or something else . . .) with a group of four. Write a story set during this game. Or, describe the ideal match: the players, the relationships — and the hidden rivalries.”
Rather than going for the obvious, that is: for an actual game, I chose to return to a moment in time when games were a daily part of our lives, that is our childhood, and then I went one step further and subverted a game (between the narrator and Tom) into something else altogether.
This piece would serve as the first paragraph to a story about a rivalry between two siblings that turns sour.
You have the girl (now thirteen, but back when the ‘cupboard’ incident happened she would’ve been ten years old) and her step-brother Tom.
The girl is in a state of apprehension because of the imminent arrival to the house of a man who has always been cruel to her. All her memories of Tom are of him making her life a living hell, and now he is coming to stay.
Enter: Danger – Cabin fever – Conflict – Tension.
I am glad that both you and navigator had questions about this, because this was in fact what this short snippet was meant to do.
Although… perhaps I ought to have made it a little longer, as my intention was not to lose the reader altogether.
Will try to do better second time around.
Thank you for your comment and do let me know if my explanation cleared things up a little 🙂
Cleared it up? I’m now more confused than ever!
No, no I kid. That’s bloody brilliant. Though I’d be surprised if many others got that straight away.
I knew I should’ve just stuck to reading other blogs about trying to get laid and being an idiot…
Ha! For one moment there you had me. Thank you for letting me know, and I’m happy I managed to clarify what I was trying to do there.
As to “reading other blogs about trying to get laid and being an idiot” – what can I say? I’m glad you’re here, and I have a feeling you are doing yourself a disservice there. You’re one clued up cookie. That much is clear to me 🙂
Pingback: Daily Prompt: The Perfect Game | BulgingButtons
Pingback: How To Win At Scrabble | Edward Hotspur
Pingback: Daily Prompt: The Perfect Game | Chronicles of an Anglo Swiss
Pingback: Checkers | A mom's blog