{"id":6490,"date":"2015-10-25T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-25T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/?p=6490"},"modified":"2025-01-31T22:53:02","modified_gmt":"2025-02-01T06:53:02","slug":"a-girl-named-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/a-girl-named-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"A Girl Named Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I was playing the arcade video game classic Galaga in a nondescript convenience store focused on the task at hand\u2013kill the bad alien\/insects. I became aware that someone was staring at me to my right. When I had an opportunity to look away form the game, I saw what I thought, with that split second look, was a homeless woman in a wheelchair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She wasn\u2019t saying a word but was clearly looking at me and possibly trying to engage. When the game\u2019s current stage was complete I was able to look again. A few jarring details came into focus. Her lower right leg was amputated but instead of simply being gone, she had her limb tied on a string and held it close to where it once was. Her hair was dirty blond and was pretty clearly cut (not styled) by her own hand. She was younger than my initial impression and my new guess was that she was in her forties. I said, \u201chi\u201d with my usual awkwardness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My attention went back to my game as the enemies descended from the top of the screen in organized waves. I heard her voice, \u201cHello. Do you have the double fighters?\u201d she asked. I did in fact have the double fighters. What do I look like, some kind of rookie? I nodded in response and I could sense her acknowledgement of my answer. When that level ended, I looked over again and noticed that she had come a little closer and had angled herself in position to watch the game\u2019s screen.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Was I on her turf? Were \u201cLLL\u201d her initials that currently occupied the high score on this machine? Why is she bugging me? \u201cHow am I doing,\u201d I asked? There was no response, just silent observation. I passed another level without losing a ship and turned again to engage. This time I saw that she wasn\u2019t in her forties, she was much younger, maybe early twenties. She could be half my age. Her beat up white t-shirt was her disheveled style, not homelessness. She gave me a half smile, for about one tenth of a second. As my view returned to the game, she gave me a \u201clet\u2019s see how you handle this next level,\u201d with a skeptical tone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To my disappointment, she was right to be skeptical. I lost one of my double ships and quickly thereafter I lost my original ship. I was on the ropes. I wasn\u2019t happy with my situation and re-focused my attention on my game. I made it through that level and was rewarded with the challenge stage, where you can\u2019t die\u2013you just get bonus points. It was a much needed break. When I turned again to look, instead of the \u2018I told you so\u2019 look I expected I found a very sympathetic grin. My mood shifted quickly as I returned my gaze to the screen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou might try disarming them,\u201d she suggested. I\u2019d heard rumors of this, but two things quickly crossed my mind: How did she know about this? and is that a real thing? \u201cIsn\u2019t that just a myth,\u201d I half asked. Her silence made it clear\u2013disarming the bad guys was no myth and I became more convinced that \u201cLLL\u201d was the woman behind me. \u201cYou have to kill all of them except one or two and avoid dying for about 20 minutes,\u201d she said giving me the secret to the trick.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll be almost invincible then, because they won\u2019t shoot back anymore,\u201d I heard from over my shoulder. I was playing the traditional way. Just because I knew the trick didn\u2019t mean I had to use it. Not right now, at least. I mumbled, \u201cThanks,\u201d just to let her know I understood the technique and my lower place in the gaming hierarchy. Then, abruptly, I was dead, \u201cGame Over,\u201d across the screen. I wasn\u2019t anywhere near that high score but I did get fifth place and entered my initials, \u201cJFX.\u201d \u201cNot horrible,\u201d she said with a very encouraging air. \u201cAre you up next,\u201d I asked?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNah, I\u2019ve played that game to death and I already have the high score,\u201d as she confirmed my suspicions. \u201cI just like to see how other people play,\u201d she revealed. \u201cNot everyone likes an audience though,\u201d she said as I turned away from the game to face her all the way for the first time. I noticed a slew of stickers on her wheelchair: gaming companies, skateboard brands, bands and random markings in paint marker. It didn\u2019t have much original paint showing anymore. \u201cDid I look non-threatening,\u201d I asked, \u201cis that why you watched me play?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo,\u201d she replied, \u201cmost people who play this game are awful. They don\u2019t have any patience and just fire away willy nilly.\u201d Not horrible and now she\u2019s complimenting me on my play even though her kung-fu is clearly superior. She moved closer and leaned in like she was going to whisper something in my opposite ear. I bent over slightly and I heard, \u201cMy name is Legend.\u201d \u201cLegend,\u201d I asked with confusion. \u201cNo. Letter. My name is Letter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was playing the arcade video game classic Galaga in a nondescript convenience store focused on the task at hand\u2013kill the bad alien\/insects. I became aware that someone was staring at me to my right. When I had an opportunity to look away form the game, I saw what I thought, with that split second […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[22],"tags":[128,129,29],"class_list":["post-6490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-fiction","tag-short-story","tag-video-games"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6491,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6490\/revisions\/6491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnfreeborn.com\/words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}