LILLIE E. FRANKS / THE BROKEN PARLOR GAMES
Do You Hear Me, General?
For two players
The first player chooses a word. The second player guesses what word they are thinking of. They do not guess correctly.
The Noisy Telephone
For two players
The first player chooses a word and tells the second player. The second player does not think of the same word.
Once in a Lifetime
For two players
The first player chooses a word. The second player guesses what word it is. They guess correctly.
Once in a Lifetime, continuation
For two players
It is not the same word
The Changing Wind
For two players
The first player thinks of a word. The second player guesses what word they are thinking of. The first player tells the second player that they guessed correctly, but lies. The second player knows that the first player is lying, or else they don’t. The first player will always know the first word they thought of, but will never be able to share it.
The Upside-Down Candle
For two players
The first player thinks of a word. The second player guesses a word, but the first player tells them they guessed incorrectly. “What do you mean?” asks the second player. “You just didn’t think of the right word.” The first player tries with all their force to think of the right word.
The Fearful Thing
For two players
The first player thinks of a a word and shares it with the second player. The second player says nothing, but the first player knows it is not the right word.
The Upside-Down Candle, continuation
For two players
My word was not worth guessing, the first player realizes. I am made to be a guesser of words, not a knower. I am made to guess and I do not guess correctly.
Lost
For two players
The first player chooses a word. They do not know if it is the right word. They do not share it with the other player.
Do You Hear Me, General?, variation
For two players
The first player chooses a word. The second player guesses what word it is. The first player does not know if they should be correct or not. They do not answer.
The Upside-Down Candle, continuation
For two players
But the first word haunts them like the ghost of something that never was, something that wishes it could have been but cannot, cannot, cannot.
The Hidden Coal
For one player
The first player chooses a word. The first player does not choose a word. The first player is full of the pain of uncertainty, the straining of a mind stretched rack tight between what is and is not. The first player is possible. The first player is a hypothesis. The first player is a move in a game they cannot avoid. Even saying “I am afraid of the game and I am afraid of you” is a play. The only certainty is right and wrong, is the scoreboard with the name of the first player. The only certainty is being judged. There is only one truth: they must play, and also they cannot. This is all.
Silence
For two players
Any game that a player knows how to lose but not win will become Silence. The first player can hear the silence, but the second player cannot. The first player has no goal; the second player’s goal is not to know the game they’re playing.
Despair
For one player
The first player thinks of a word. The first player thinks of a word.
Misery
For two players
Misery is a game for two players. There is only one player.
Silence
For one player
The first player thinks of a game. The game is Misery.
Misery, optional continuation
For one player
The first player plays Misery, alone. The second player plays Misery, alone. They are playing together.
The Dignified Flowers
For two players
The first player thinks of a word. The second player thinks of a word. The first player thinks of a word. The second player thinks of a word.
The Waiting Flowers
For two players
The first player thinks of the second player. The second player thinks of the first player. Neither is correct.
The Joyful Moment
For two players
And yet, there are games for two players. And yet two people play games together. And yet, for every broken game, there are true games. There are games that stretch their arms over the infinite chasm and lean forward. They are saved from the abyss only by the strength of the impossible capstone between them.
Strange But True
For two players
The first player chooses a word. The second player guesses what word they are thinking of. The first player tells them that they guessed wrong, which is true, but that they were not entirely wrong, which is also true. The second player guesses another word, and the first player tells them that they are wrong again but closer, and it is even true. The first player guesses a word and the second player tells them it is close to what they think the first player’s word word is, and the next guess is closer again. They guess and guess and with every moment they are closer, not to their first word, but to each other, to a word that holds them both. That word is the last game, the impossible game that every broken game yearns for
The Impossible Game
For two players
The first player thinks of a door. The second player opens it.
Lillie Franks is a trans author and teacher who lives in Chicago, Illinois with the best cats. You can read her work at places like Sword and Kettle Press, Poemeleon, and NonBinary Review or follow her on Twitter at @onyxaminedlife. She loves anything that is not the way it should be.