(Photo by Patrick Fore on Unsplash)
I swear some of the games that come out these days are interesting. What happened to Monopoly, Sorry, and Chutes and Ladders? You know what I’m playing with my three granddaughters now? BeanBoozled. Essentially, in my opinion, it’s a game that lets you fool your family members by pretending the “jelly bean” you’re eating is actually good.
It’s Russian Roulette, really. Either you’ll get a good bean or a bad one. Some of the flavors were grass, dog food, and cotton candy, but the worst of all was the rotten egg.
My granddaughters begged me to try it, but they didn’t know I have a good poker face. We were a couple of rounds in before I somehow got the rotten egg. I bit it in half and was instantly overcome with the overwhelmingly disgusting spoiled-egg taste. How they got that much flavor in a small bean is beyond me, but I ate the half without making a face and looked at my granddaughters’ faces light up in confusion as they waited for me to say what flavor I got.
Julia, the youngest, asked, “Did you get a good one?”
I refrained from laughing, and I responded, “I think it’s popcorn. Have you had that one yet?”
She shook her head. “Well, try it. I think you’ll like it.”
She grabbed it from my hand and popped it in her mouth; her eyes watered immediately, and she gagged. She ran to the trashcan, eager to get the taste out of her mouth while I, my other two granddaughters, and my daughter-in-law burst into a fit of laughter, tears rolling down our faces.
I smirked as she sat back down in her seat. They wanted me to play the game, so I played it.
(This is the second part of a retelling (somewhat fictionalized) of some of my grandparent’s memories)