Page 49 of The Little Board Game Café

Dying?

‘I said Snowy had gone to live in the fields with the wild rabbits,’ Emily heard her mum saying. ‘She seemed fine about it.’

She let out a sob, giving herself away. The living room door was flung open and Mum rushed to her side, gathering her up.

That was the first time. The first time Emily loved someone only to lose them. The first time her life was shattered by grief.

‘What happened to the rabbit?’ said Ludek.

‘She died. Durr. That’s exactly my point. When I was six. My parents offered to buy me another one but I said no.’

She stroked Catan again. For a moment, her eyes met Ludek’s, then her stomach gave the most enormous rumble.

‘The curry,’ he said, standing up. ‘I’ll get the plates. You set the table. There are mats in the drawer of the sideboard.’

Emily opened the drawer. There were indeed mats. Along with six dice, a handful of the little plastic bags that he used to store his board games pieces, three tiny silver cubes and a green meeple. She cleared the table of two games boxes, and was laying out the mats as Ludek returned with the plates and cutlery.

He unpacked the bag, putting a dish onto each mat.

‘What’s your favourite food?’ Ludek asked a short while later, between mouthfuls of korma.

‘Too hard to say,’ Emily said. ‘I love most food. That’s like asking you what your favourite game is.’

‘Fair point,’ he said.

‘How about you?’

‘Well, I do love a decent curry, but it would have to be Polish food. The sort of thing my mother cooks, but I don’t get to eat that so much since she and Dad went back to live in Poland.’

‘I don’t think I’ve ever had Polish food.’

‘Pierogi – they’re a bit like dumplings. Usually savoury, but they can be sweet. Or pączki. Like doughnuts only better. Bigos. Barszcz. That’s beetroot soup. Like Russian borsch, only never say that to my mother.’

After they’d eaten and Ludek had taken the plates and the leftovers – not that there were many leftovers – he said, ‘I don’t suppose you fancy a game, do you? Only I’ve bought one with you in mind.’

Emily had imagined they might sit on the sofa together and chat some more, get a little closer perhaps, but playing another game was rather tempting. Especially if he’d bought it with her in mind.

With her in mind. So he’d been thinking of her then?

‘Why not?’ she said.

Ludek wiped the table, then pulled out a box.

‘Ta-da,’ he said. ‘Wasabi!’

He peeled off the Cellophane wrapper and opened the box, pulling out cards, tokens and a square board with a grid. Like A La Carte, the game had recipe cards requiring different combinations of ingredients, only this time the aim was to make sushi and the ingredients were all shown on cards. There were no little cooking stoves or jars, but there were two tiny dishes shaped like the dip bowls in a sushi restaurant.

Emily picked them up. ‘They’re so cute. Is this another complicated one?’

‘No, it’s easy. Think of it like Scrabble, only the recipes are the words and the ingredients are the letters. You place the ingredients on the game board vertically or horizontally to make up each recipe. The longer the recipe, the more points you score.’

The game wasn’t nearly as easy as Ludek had suggested because only one ingredient could be placed at a time. The skill lay in using ingredients that had already been placed on the board and Emily relished the challenge. Often, Ludek would use the rice that she wanted, thwarting her plans and, judging by his face, she foiled his a few times too. She finished her recipes first so was declared the winner.

‘It’s being in a kitchen all day,’ he said good-naturedly. ‘You’re bound to be faster at making up dishes. Shall we play again?’

‘Definitely. You know what we need?’

‘What?’