Page 83 of Again, In Autumn

“I’m trapped in a box!” Grayson jokes, cracking himself up.

Maggie muses, “I like this. We did this in couples therapy.”

“We did too!” David and Francesca say in unison.

I venture a glance at Adam and Kate. She’s kept her hands to herself so far, so I’ve lost that bet to myself. He’s smiling. His shoulders shake so he must be laughing at whatever she’s saying. Their hands move mere centimeters from one another, and her long, toned leg stretches and Adam tries to mirror the movement. She throws her head back and laughs.

Alice’s palm smacks me on the forehead while I was looking away.

“Auntie Vee doesn’t win!” she says.

I turn back to her. “You don’t know how to play the game.”

She presses her hands into her hips and sticks her chin out. “I win. I win, I win, I win!” She dances off, her skirt flowing in the air.

Ten minutes later, we’re in the house. David holds out his bike helmet to me.

From it, I take out the last piece of paper and scold, “Why am I last to pick? This isn’t very organized.”

“I had to make one more clue. I miscounted.” He climbs a few stairs. His long fingers spread wide.

With a booming voice, he says, “You all have one item on your paper. This game is both ‘I Spy’ and scavenger hunt. Find something that matches the description on your paper and bring it to me. I will determine if it’s the item I was thinking of when I wrote it down.”

Francesca snorts. “And this is where we all lose.”

“If a door is shut, there are no items in that room,” David says. “If you find Katie’s makeup bag, you get extra points because my father would like to compare its contents with her credit card bill.”

“Ha. Ha,” Kate sneers.

“Okay, go,” he says.

Francesca blows her whistle.

Adam grabs Copper, who jumps up thinking the sound is for him. Whistles weren’t used in a training capacity, that’s for sure.

I unfold my paper. “Findy Findy – ugh, really, Dave?”

He takes a swig of seltzer water. “That’s the name of the game.”

I read, “Findy Findy something that is also a simple machine.”

“That’s what mine says, too,” Adam says, releasing his light hold on Copper’s collar.

David snaps his fingers. “Shoot, I couldn’t remember if I wrote that one down or not.”

I rest on one hip and narrow in on his face. “Which means you thought a lot about it. Which means you think you’re really clever. Which means it’s not what we think it would be.”

David shows Diego a thumbs down and answers me, “Getting warmer.” He and Francesca walk off to get dinner started.

“This day is weird,” Adam muses. “And I was interviewed by a robot once.”

“I warned you.”

He studies the clue, flips it around. “What are you thinking?”

Strangers don’t create alliances, nor do they think about their neighbor’s strong, lithe forearms. He and I shouldn’t move in synchronization anywhere. And yet, that’s all I want to do.

I begin, “We don’t play this game in a team. It’s every man for himself.”

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