Even now, when I think about it, I can't help chuckling. At the time it happened though, those of us who were present laughed till our sides hurt and tears fill our eyes... 

I'm a teenager in a special senior secondary school where the students have got more freedom than they can handle. On this day, the heat is oozing off the walls, and in the shade the scant breeze is steamy. Trudging back from the canteen after lunch, I flop out on my upper bunk bed bored to madness. 

"Hey, do you want to play?" It's Agim, my sometimes Scrabble partner. That's about the only game he plays, so I know that's what he means.

 "Okay." I bounce off the bunk and trudge after Agim. 

This guy's 'bookish' ways always leaves me in awe. Besides being buried in books virtually the whole day, the library eats up all his spare time. I've always wondered how I manage to beat him at Scrabble when his nose is always stuck in some dictionary or thesaurus. 

We set up the board and get on with the game. Two or three onlookers play audience. But they're not permanent. They're just drifting through, you know, in the way of students trying to kill time on a boring afternoon. 

Agim's strategy is usually to 'hedge in' the flow of the game. It's aimed at making his opponent 'open up' the game so he can make a juicy kill over choice spots on the board. I know this technique well, and I can usually ride with it while making sure I keep up my scores. In fact, I love 'blocking'-- that's placing two or more tiles right next to other tiles already on board so that they form a solid phalanx of words. The end result of this procedure is often a game so tight that there's little opening for a seven-letter or more play that shoots up your score with 50 extra points. Locked in as the game is, the only out is to release tiles one (maybe two or three) at a time--'blocking' mostly. And this usually entails using many words that are not proper words in the sense of everyday usage, but quite acceptable as Scrabble words. 

Though it's Agim's strategy that often pushes the game this way, I have a definite advantage over him where two-letter and three-letter Scrabble words are concerned. For this, I have to thank my elder brother, Enoh, who introduced me to Scrabble at age seven or eight. He and his friends had fun thrashing me (at Scrabble!) in those early days. However, I learned a whole lot from that. So, despite his 'bookishness,' Agim still can't catch up. Totally frustrated at not getting his way, he takes to challenging every two or three-letter word I put down that he is unfamiliar with. Though he loses a number of the challenges, missing turns in the process, Agim rarely lets up. 

I set down a "J" on a triple-letter spot next to an "O". "What's J.O.?" Agim queries. 

"I don't know. But I know it's accepted." That is not good enough for Agim. He checks the Chambers dictionary that's at hand and, finding the word there, closes the book with an angry bump! 

Three moves later I set down a "W" next to another "O". 

"What's that?" 

"It's accepted." 

Another challenge and another angry bump! Next move: Y. O. 

"What are you playing?" 

"Agim, it's in the book!" 

Agim swallows hard. He sets a "B" over the "Y" and records his score. 

I set an "O" in front of the "B" and place a "G" over the "O". 

"Enough is enough!" Agim roars. "What's G. O.?" I am too taken aback to speak. 

"You've been playing a whole lot of nonsense: J.O. W.O. and Y. O., and I've allowed it to stand but I won't allow this G.O.!" 

Our drifting audience begin to increase. As if there's a conspiracy going on, nobody says anything while Agim rages on. "Everyday you play a lot of nonsense, and I don't say anything! Today you must remove that G.O.!" 

"But Agim," an onlooker finally speaks up, "if you're not sure about the word, just check the dictionary."

Agim reaches for the book and suddenly the ice breaks. 

"Go ahead Agim! Go ahead and tell us what G.O. means!" 

"Yes, don't just stop there, tell us what's its synonym!"

"Professor Agim!" a precocious fellow mocks. "So it is 'go' that is the small stream that will drown a great river swimmer like you!" 

The short of it is that neither the taunts nor the laughter that followed could be abated by Agim's protest that the position of the board (upside down to him) had caused his failure to recognise 'go.'

Author's Biography

Crispin Oduobuk, born, 12th January, 1972, is a  Nigerian from Akwa Ibom State. 

In 1995, he took his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature at the University of Abuja where he also won the "Air Vice-Marshall Hamza Abdullahi Prize" for the best graduating student in English Literature for the 1994/1995 academic session.

Crispin is the magazine editor and acting production editor of "Weekly Trust" magazine in Kanduna, Nigeria.

His interests are travel and photography, heavy reading and deep writing, music (all dimensions), research and self-enhancement programmes; he's an Internet and Computer nut. 

His publications:  several pieces in many Nigerian newspapers and magazines; BBC Focus on Africa magazine ("Slash!" in the October-December
2001 edition); online publications: http://www.eastoftheweb.com and http://www.toowrite.com.   

Email Crispin at crispinoduobuk@hotmail.com  

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