Post by Joey on Nov 27, 2017 17:06:13 GMT -5
When I was a kid my brother and I used to play Monopoly. Yea that's right the board-game. When we lived in Oregon with my father, we didn't have many friends, well to be exact we had no friends at all. We lived 7-8 miles away from town, we didn't have any neighbors so the only people we had to play with were each other. So everyday after school we found something to do. TV was very hard to watch, we didn't get good reception and we could only watch 1 channel without a lot of issues, that was PBS, so suffice to say we didn't turn on the TV very much.
We had a variety of games, we had checkers and chess. We had Sorry and Clue, and our mutual favorite was Monopoly. When we first got the game it was second hand from a thrift store but all the pieces and cards were there so we didn't care.
And like all kids we both wanted to be the race car. At first we fought over it, most times Id win and be the car. But after a while we started to roll the dice, the higher of the two got to be the car. And that's how it went for some time. After a while we both got tired of being the car. We decided to be other pieces, sometimes the top hat was the popular choice. I started to gravitate towards the cannon. I thought it was cool. My brother sometimes chose the dog which was also a good choice, or the shoe. He was always like that picking tokens that were good and harmless. Me, I like things that caused some chaos. And I guess even back then we could see how far apart we would one day be.
My brother even at a young age would always be the bank. He never dipped his fingers in there to take a few hundred from the bank, unlike me. Hahaha.
I remember the last game we had, we were back in Texas now and it was raining so hard you couldn't make anything out if you looked out a window. I was 14 and he was 12. I was angry because I had wanted to go to my friends house to play Nintendo. I had wanted to spend the night there because his dad always left the liquor cabinet unlocked and we could easily take whiskey and scotch and water it down or put unsweetened ice tea in there. Then we would call some girls and talk to them on the phone, finally when everyone was asleep and no one would want to talk to us we would play Nintendo till dawn or till we passed out, whichever came first. They were perfect nights, and I miss those days. I had nothing to worry about yet, little did I know I would never get those days back. Never.
Back to the game.
My brother was very meticulous. He would take out all the pieces and choose as did I. He sorted the money and put each bill in its rightful place. He would shuffle the cards for chance and community chest, he would hand out the player money and we would begin. Now he and I would always play the game till its end, no matter how late it got. We each wanted to win, we wanted to beat the other player, beat the brother. It was more than pride, it was something a lot more primal. And on days when our father would ask that we help him and put the game away, we would store the game as it was still open and the pieces on the last space, we would agree to continue the game once we were done.
We played that last game for 2 and a half days, it was summer 1988. It was a game we knew would last a while, we both had strong properties, pretty even actually, we both had hotels and it felt like the stalemate would never end.
I had begun to get impatient, the rain had finally stopped after almost 2 days, but my friend had left to summer camp, something which my family would never be able to afford. So I was stuck with my brother for the summer. So I resigned myself to finish the game. One way or another.
And so we played on. My brother and I, such opposites, but his day would come, after our parents passed away he had a hard time. Jude, the patron saint of lost hope. Such an appropriate name he was given. I let him down in many ways. But we are brothers and that would never change.
I won that final game. We never played again, and he never asked to play again. Our time of games as brothers had come to an end. And on rainy days we would look at each other but neither of us spoke.
This brings me to Ghost. When I think of you, when I see you, I think of Shadow. He donned a mask and fought as Ghost back in the late 90’s. And he dominated XCW. And he would of stayed longer has the owner of the federation not gone around telling everyone who Ghost really was. Gruffy couldn't help himself, he had managed to convince Shadow, to moonlight in XCW. At first no one believed him, and Shadow had warned Gruffy not to say a word or it would be the end of Ghost and Shadow in XCW. This was before the merger that made SFT. But Gruffy couldn't stop bragging, he had gotten SFW’s World champion and unbeatable man to come to XCW. This was before SFT and before Shadow became owner. And when people finally realized Gruffy was telling the truth, Shadow kept his word and left. Who knows what might have been. But the Ghost persona was just a whisper in the wind. It didn't last long. Just as you wont last long.
Ghost you speak about things like you know the past. But we all know the past. You speak of pain as if you lived it. And you might have. You might of truly hurt and lost. But you think shrouding yourself in mystery will do anything. It wont. You see no one likes to read a book from the middle. There is nothing to set your foot on. No reason to care. You failed to setup a true foundation for who you are or who you want to be. And so you are no one. And that may be fine. But the problem with ghosts are simple. You cant touch the living. You cant frighten the living. All you are is a memory. And memories are meant to be forgotten. Shadow always used to say, everything is eventual. Which only means everything will come to pass eventually.
Think long and hard Ghost, do you really want to play the game with me? My game is eternal. And the only way I will ever stop playing this game is when I die. My memory will live on longer than yours. Because Ghosts are not real. And neither is you.
Game on.
...Fade….to…..Darkness…...
We had a variety of games, we had checkers and chess. We had Sorry and Clue, and our mutual favorite was Monopoly. When we first got the game it was second hand from a thrift store but all the pieces and cards were there so we didn't care.
And like all kids we both wanted to be the race car. At first we fought over it, most times Id win and be the car. But after a while we started to roll the dice, the higher of the two got to be the car. And that's how it went for some time. After a while we both got tired of being the car. We decided to be other pieces, sometimes the top hat was the popular choice. I started to gravitate towards the cannon. I thought it was cool. My brother sometimes chose the dog which was also a good choice, or the shoe. He was always like that picking tokens that were good and harmless. Me, I like things that caused some chaos. And I guess even back then we could see how far apart we would one day be.
My brother even at a young age would always be the bank. He never dipped his fingers in there to take a few hundred from the bank, unlike me. Hahaha.
I remember the last game we had, we were back in Texas now and it was raining so hard you couldn't make anything out if you looked out a window. I was 14 and he was 12. I was angry because I had wanted to go to my friends house to play Nintendo. I had wanted to spend the night there because his dad always left the liquor cabinet unlocked and we could easily take whiskey and scotch and water it down or put unsweetened ice tea in there. Then we would call some girls and talk to them on the phone, finally when everyone was asleep and no one would want to talk to us we would play Nintendo till dawn or till we passed out, whichever came first. They were perfect nights, and I miss those days. I had nothing to worry about yet, little did I know I would never get those days back. Never.
Back to the game.
My brother was very meticulous. He would take out all the pieces and choose as did I. He sorted the money and put each bill in its rightful place. He would shuffle the cards for chance and community chest, he would hand out the player money and we would begin. Now he and I would always play the game till its end, no matter how late it got. We each wanted to win, we wanted to beat the other player, beat the brother. It was more than pride, it was something a lot more primal. And on days when our father would ask that we help him and put the game away, we would store the game as it was still open and the pieces on the last space, we would agree to continue the game once we were done.
We played that last game for 2 and a half days, it was summer 1988. It was a game we knew would last a while, we both had strong properties, pretty even actually, we both had hotels and it felt like the stalemate would never end.
I had begun to get impatient, the rain had finally stopped after almost 2 days, but my friend had left to summer camp, something which my family would never be able to afford. So I was stuck with my brother for the summer. So I resigned myself to finish the game. One way or another.
And so we played on. My brother and I, such opposites, but his day would come, after our parents passed away he had a hard time. Jude, the patron saint of lost hope. Such an appropriate name he was given. I let him down in many ways. But we are brothers and that would never change.
I won that final game. We never played again, and he never asked to play again. Our time of games as brothers had come to an end. And on rainy days we would look at each other but neither of us spoke.
This brings me to Ghost. When I think of you, when I see you, I think of Shadow. He donned a mask and fought as Ghost back in the late 90’s. And he dominated XCW. And he would of stayed longer has the owner of the federation not gone around telling everyone who Ghost really was. Gruffy couldn't help himself, he had managed to convince Shadow, to moonlight in XCW. At first no one believed him, and Shadow had warned Gruffy not to say a word or it would be the end of Ghost and Shadow in XCW. This was before the merger that made SFT. But Gruffy couldn't stop bragging, he had gotten SFW’s World champion and unbeatable man to come to XCW. This was before SFT and before Shadow became owner. And when people finally realized Gruffy was telling the truth, Shadow kept his word and left. Who knows what might have been. But the Ghost persona was just a whisper in the wind. It didn't last long. Just as you wont last long.
Ghost you speak about things like you know the past. But we all know the past. You speak of pain as if you lived it. And you might have. You might of truly hurt and lost. But you think shrouding yourself in mystery will do anything. It wont. You see no one likes to read a book from the middle. There is nothing to set your foot on. No reason to care. You failed to setup a true foundation for who you are or who you want to be. And so you are no one. And that may be fine. But the problem with ghosts are simple. You cant touch the living. You cant frighten the living. All you are is a memory. And memories are meant to be forgotten. Shadow always used to say, everything is eventual. Which only means everything will come to pass eventually.
Think long and hard Ghost, do you really want to play the game with me? My game is eternal. And the only way I will ever stop playing this game is when I die. My memory will live on longer than yours. Because Ghosts are not real. And neither is you.
Game on.
...Fade….to…..Darkness…...
