“Gram, I don’t think you put on the right game!”
Esther set down her scone and got up from her used-to-be-more-comfortable-than-it-is-now chair and walked into Little Byrd’s room.
“Byrd, I told you. That Atari was your grandfather’s. I don’t know all the games.”
Byrd had pulled the cartridge out of the system without shutting it off. Multi-hued lines argued with the old tube tv’s screen in an headache-inducing pattern.
The cartridge, on a slightly faded sticker, said “ADVENTURE” in bold orange text. There was a dragon in a picture in the foreground, and a knight come down from a castle behind it.
“I’m supposed to be a knight,” Byrd said with both pride and frustration. “But I’m a dot.”
Esther frowned. “Everything was dots when these games came out. You had big dots, little dots, yellow dots that ate white dots. It was all dots.”
Byrd held up her mom’s old phone that had been passed down to her when Apple came out with the new ones last year. “I can play a knight in my game on this, and he actually looks like a knight.”
“Yes, yes. I know. The knights look like knights, the birds look like angry little birds,” she mussed Byrd’s hair at that. “But I told you this system was old when you asked me to hook it up for you. I said you probably weren’t going to have much fun with it.”
Byrd was going through some of the other games in the box. “This one has a guy swinging over an alligator. Are there really alligators in the game?”
“I think so, yes. But they don’t do a whole lot. There’s a scorpion that chases you though.”
She continued in the box. “What’s an E.T.?”
“From what I remember, a terrible mistake.” Esther sat down next to her granddaughter on the small loveseat. “Let me show you how to get to the dragon. He looks like a dragon. Sort of.”
Byrd sat back and half-watched, half-searched the other games in case this one really was as boring as it seemed. “Martians, asserodes…” She froze hearing the word come out of her mouth.
Esther laughed. “It’s asteroids.” She looked at Byrd, the little girl’s eyes wide like she was expecting to be chastised. “They’re floating space rocks. Say it with me… Ast-Er-Roids.”
“Ast-er-oids.” It still didn’t sound right, but at least she wasn’t getting her mouth washed out with soap, something her dad used to tell her would happen to him when he said bad words as a boy. He’d never done it to her, but just the possibility was enough that Byrd didn’t like to say bad words anyway. Except for that one time to Amanda. But Amanda had started it and said something way worse.
“Right. Now look, here’s the bridge. We have to take that so we can get over the wall.”
Byrd watched some more. “Did you play a lot of games when you were my age, Gram?”
Esther thought about it. “Some. Mostly at the arcade.”
“The what?”
“We used to have to go to a place that was all video games. That, or the bowling alley. And sometimes the roller-skating rink.”
“Why?”
“Because not everyone could afford an Atari. And we’d hang out with our friends. We’d eat hot dogs and ice cream and play games and listen to music.”
Byrd tilted her head a little. “Why don’t we ever go to the arcade?”
Esther put the controller in her lap. “Well, I don’t know if they still have them any more. Not like they used to.”
“Why not?”
“Because everyone has phones. Or Playstations or Nintendos. And you,” she looked at Byrd. “How often do you go and spend time at your friends’ houses? I’ve been trying to get you out of the house all summer,” she joked, partly, “but you only ever want to hang out with me, or go through your papa’s old stuff.”
Byrd shrugged. “I dunno.”
Esther pressed her. “Don’t you want to see your friends? You can have them come over here too.”
Byrd looked down at the box. “You and papa are my friends. And now papa’s gone. So I want to spend time with you. Because you’ll be gone one day too. Right?”
Esther felt her heart sink. But she reached out, took Byrd’s hand in hers. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, that’s true.” She squeezed Byrd’s hand. “But not today. And not soon. Okay?”
Byrd didn’t look up. But she squeezed back. “Okay.”
Esther looked back at the screen. “All right, this game is kind of boring. Let me see if papa has Centipede. I always liked Centipede.”
“Why? What do you do in that one?”
“You shoot bugs!”
“Oh yeah,” Byrd laughed. “I hate bugs! Let’s shoot ’em up!”
