But for all the hell we went through to ascend, we were eventually closely matched.
And with a lucky 6 roll, I finally ascended to the 100th square, which meant that I won the match!
"Congratulations, Fred! You deserve this victory as much as I do!"
"Yeah, you've also won, right? Because you had to go through this brutally hard version of this game, basically."
We then shook hands in a simple yet opulent display of sportsmanship.
In the next few weekends, Conchita and I would play various kinds of board games and fantasy tabletop role-playing games, our skill levels getting better and better the more we played more of them.
But one Sunday afternoon, I visited her house…
...and it was locked down.
There was a notice posted on the front door.
"The Primavera family is currently in an emergency. Absolutely no solicitation!"
Wait! Could it be…
No! If I think that something bad was happening to Conchita, then something bad was definitely happening to her.
Dejected, I went home and tried to pick up the pieces of what I remembered playing board games with her so far.
And on my way home, I encountered something distressing.
I was within the vicinity of Emmanuel Slacie Memorial Medical Center.
And an ambulance is carrying off…
C-Conchita herself?
In a stretcher?
What was happening to her?!
Distressed, I saw her family, obviously weeping.
I asked her parents, direct to the point, "What happened to Conchita?"
The father could only lament, "I'm sorry, Fred – but our only daughter got into an accident. She was running an errand for us… when a car blindsided her, and the car's driver just ignored her as he sped away. She's about to be placed in the ICU, I'm afraid."
"Is there any chance she could make it?"
Her mother echoed the same dire statement…
"I'm afraid the chances are slim. It could take a miracle to get her out of this. But for the meantime…"
She then handed me a red 12-sided die.
"She carried it with her while she was on her errand. Maybe… you could carry a part of her wherever you will go."
I solemnly accepted the die and placed it in my shirt pocket.
"And for now, stay strong. We're staying strong for her, too."
Following her parents' wishes, I tried to stay strong, always clutching the die whenever I was sad or lonely.
Then came the grimmest news.
Four days later…
Conchita Primavera, age 13…
...passed away due to multiple internal organ injuries she sustained as a result of that hit-and-run.
The young board game enthusiast I've come to know and appreciate… was gone for good.
And the bad news came from her parents herself.
Naturally, I wept.
I let my tears fall onto the 12-sided die, my only keepsake of her.
Days later, I attended her funeral.
And as a gesture of my last respects to her…
I rolled the die on top of the glass surface of the coffin that contained her remains.
It was a 12, huh.
That meant… she wanted nothing but the best in me, as her final parting gift.
I could only say to her… as my words of farewell…
"Thank you."
***
Alright, no more mourning.
If a fragment of her soul resides in this little die, and it gives me good luck, then so be it.
And thus, I declare to the girls…
"Alright, we'll use this die I have."
Aurora can only drop her jaw as she asks, "Whoa! Where did you get it?"
"From an old friend."
"That's great."
"Alright then, we shall not delay ourselves!"
While we're all gathered in a circle, I roll the die.
The first turn belongs to me… and it rolls an 11. Not bad.
Leigh is next, and I hand over the die to her.
She does a little juggling… and the result is a 10. Not bad either.
Aurora's the last, so she's really getting vigorous on her juggling.
And it's a 9 she's coming up with!
That means, in the upcoming game of darts, I'll definitely go first, followed by Leigh and Aurora.
Barring some mishaps and overdoing the stances and grips, we all manage to rack up pretty good scores.
At the end of the bout, I rack up 711 points.
Leigh accumulates 482 points.
And Aurora? She has 534 points under her belt.
All in all, not bad.
But the results may, and will, vary once the recreational rooms will open come July 10; since there's the crowd and the noise factors.
After darts, we try out billiards.
Long story short: I am the one who sucks the most, always getting misses during my turns.
Come the fated date...
We employees are being given first dibs on the newly-furnished recreational rooms, at 5 pm.
"Wow! So beautiful!"
The rooms' walls are painted in the same ocher color the rest of the establishment is colored in.
But to make the rooms look more "totally radical", while staying true to the establishment's roots, there are high-quality printouts of photos of famous country artists performing live, all laminated and attached to the wall via industrial-grade adhesives.
These printouts make the rooms much more stunning.
And the dartboards, darts, dart scoreboards, billiards tables, cue sticks, balls, et cetera…
The chosen color schemes really fit the mood, the items are all of high quality, and the items are all proudly made in the good old US of A.
Thanks for the suggestion, Leigh. Your old classmate is awesome in his own way.
Now all we have to do is to wait for the formal opening time.
And opening time finally comes.
Zach happily declares, with a simple ribbon-cutting ceremony even, that the recreational rooms are open for business.
And we, as Brave Ad 65, decide on a set list that best fits the prevailing mood.
All of the songs on the set list are a healthy 50-50 mix of originals and covers, and they all have something to do with new beginnings and other related themes.
After Leigh and I wrapped up our performance, it's time for me to avenge my humiliating loss in billiards last time, and thus we use an unoccupied billiards room for that express purpose.
"Avenge? Isn't that a little too brutal for a nice guy like you?" reacts Aurora with an obvious snark.
"Look, girls, even nice guys have this burning fighting spirit inside them. When push comes to shove, they are sure to bring all of it out!"
"Well, you'd better live up to your word, then," Leigh weighs in.
The turn order is the same as before.
And this time, what I wished for to happen gradually comes true, as the tables are turned.
Both Leigh and Aurora now have their fair share of misses… and they even unknowingly sink the cue ball at least once!
As for me… I sink more balls than one can say "corner pocket", and thus I get more consecutive turns to dominate the battlefield that is this very table.
Seems I live up to the reputation of a famous Filipino billiards player whose moniker is "The Magician", simply due to the uncanny tricks he employs to turn things around when he seemed to be at his worst.
And in the end, I won all three rounds.
Even with the humiliating defeat the girls got, they still have their sense of sportsmanship, and thus they readily hug me.
I can truly feel their collective body warmth, which really rouses something within me, and it's not those desires.
With that hug, they want to say something to me.
"Please stick with us forever."
And of course, I'm more than happy to comply to their non-verbal directive.
The rest of the opening night goes without a hitch, and all patrons got their fair share of recreational action.
This will bode well for this establishment we three call our second home.