I don’t have time. Nancy hit send on the text, hoping Dustin would take the hint and let it drop. Instead, his ringtone started to play on her phone: “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush.
Sighing, she answered. “No.”
“Come on, Nancy, you know you want to. It’s only a few hours.”
Nancy weakened at the pleading tone in her brother’s voice. They hadn’t played since they were teenagers. But, no, she really didn’t have the time. “It’s four or five hours every week, Dustin.”
“You love D&D. Come on. You can’t work all the time. All the health gurus say you need to take time out for play.”
“I don’t work all the time. I have a family too.”
“But that’s not time for you. Come on, Sis. You’re the only holdout. The entire gang is on board and Will has an awesome story for us.”
Nancy cracked. She looked over at her collection of Dungeons and Dragons books. “Okay, but only if I get to play a blood hunter.”
She could hear the grin in Dustin’s voice. “You can be whatever character you want. Just be at Will’s place on Saturday at two.”
So, I did write a second story based on the Reedsy prompts for Stranger Things. This time the prompt was about trying to convince someone to play a game.
Dungeons and Dragons figures prominently in the show, so what better game to feature in the story? I gave a few other hat tips to Stranger Things. The character names I used all belong to characters from the show. As well, Kate Bush’s song “Running Up That Hill” (A favorite since it was first released in 1985) is used extensively in this season’s episodes. I love that it’s experiencing a resurgence, climbing the charts since episode one aired.
I wish I was a fantasy kind of person! My taste runs more to word games, bingo, or solitaire! I like matching games too.
Making time. Still learning time spent alone doing as I choose, whether downtime on a computer game or humming along to a song in my garden or crocheting gifts or meeting with friends... all time spent wisely and well! Good reminder!