Page 109 of The Little Board Game Café

Malcolm began leafing through the rules book to find out, then handed each of them a few bank notes. Pretend ones, obviously. The fourth chair at the table remained empty, Emily noticed, and Malcolm hadn’t put any notes there ready. Perhaps Ludek wasn’t coming.

She was about to ask where he was when Malcolm told her to choose a city where she’d start building her network. She opted for Paris, not for tactical reasons, but because she still dreamed of visiting there one day. That probably wouldn’t happen any time soon; not with a new business to run.

Next came the auction of power plants. There was a choice of coal, oil or renewable power. She would have liked to go green, but Malcolm outbid her and she ended up with the cheaper coal plant. Even so, she paid far too much money in the auction and forgot to save any to buy fuel. Paris would be in darkness for the time being. She would get more money at the start of the second round. The more cities you supplied power to, the more money you accumulated.

Games like this required calculation and concentration but Emily was too distracted by Ludek’s absence, too busy wondering where he might be. He hadn’t been at running club either. Maybe he didn’t go running anymore, but she’d never known him miss a games evening.

Perhaps now he had a girlfriend, board games group was out and Netflix, take-aways and snogging on the sofa were in. The thought of Ludek snogging made it impossible for her to figure out how much money to bid in the auctions and which cities to buy next, whilst still leaving enough for the fuel she needed and the pipelines to connect the cities. Board games usually absorbed all her attention but her mind kept wandering. Back to Ludek.

‘Come on, Emily, catch us up a bit,’ said Malcolm.

But already, she was too far behind. She managed to connect Paris to Reims and Amiens, but she’d need a whole twenty notes to link Dijon into her network. She couldn’t afford another power plant so, even though she had three cities, she could only supply power to two so earnt less money than Malcolm and Alan, which gave her a disadvantage in the next round.

She was trying to calculate if she should swap her coal plant for oil, when Malcolm said, ‘I wonder if he’s got critical illness cover.’

‘Insurance is probably the last thing on his mind right now,’ said Alan. ‘I’ll bid thirty on that nuclear plant.’

‘I’ll pass,’ Emily said. ‘Think I’ll stick with coal.’

‘I’ll pass too,’ said Malcolm. ‘But it might come in handy if he can’t work for a few weeks.’

‘Who can’t work for a few weeks?’ Emily was curious now.

Alan paid his notes and reached over to take the nuclear power plant card. ‘Ludo.’

‘Why can’t Ludek work for a few weeks?’ said Emily.

‘Well, we don’t know it’s a few weeks,’ said Malcolm. ‘I was hazarding a guess. Maybe he’ll never be able to go back to work…’

Might never go back to work? She was panicking now.

‘What’s happened to Ludek? Why isn’t he here?’

Was no one going to tell her?

Alan put his hand over hers. ‘Oh, Emily, I’m so sorry. I thought you knew. He was in an accident. Hit and run.’

‘When he was out running,’ said Malcolm. ‘So more, run and hit and run.’

‘Not funny, Malcolm.’ Alan shook his head.

‘And how is he?’ Emily was distraught now.

Alan shrugged. ‘He’s in hospital. That’s all we know.’

*

‘It’s all my fault,’ Emily said to Kate. ‘Everyone I love dies. Mum. Gran. Snowy.’

‘Snowy?’

‘My pet rabbit. Died when I was six.’

‘Your gran was ninety-two,’ said Kate. ‘I don’t think her death had anything to do with you. And your mum – well, that was a terrible accident. And how long do rabbits live? Probably not that long. Anyway, Ludek isn’t dead.’

‘No, but he could have been. It could be serious. Hit by a car… I can’t bear to think about it.’

‘I thought Alan said he was recovering,’ said Kate.