"Shane Tourtellotte - String of Pearls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tourtellotte Shane)

had played his only one between vowels on his first turn.

Bunwadde put down five tiles, stringing up and right to the end of Marcus's first play, incorporating its
last two tiles in the sentence. "Nineteen," said the board.

It continued this way for a couple turns: Marcus playing cautiously, but Bunwadde not pulling very far
ahead. Bunwadde's third play gave Marcus an opening. Crossing it, he could get two high-value tiles on
their colors. He laid it down, confident he was about to retake the lead, and hit "Lustep."

And heard the rejection tune he had learned to hate all the way back on Naha Uchusen.

"Invalid sentence," the board said. "You lose your turn."

"What? I thought ... What did I do wrong?"

"Sorry, not in the middle of a game." Bunwadde pointed at the board, and Marcus picked up his
misplayed tiles. Bunwadde promptly laid down all of his.

"Forty-one," the board announced, "and a free turn."

Marcus could only sigh. Bunwadde drew fresh tiles, and played five of them in a prepositional phrase
extending from the end of his previous play, for another big score.

That was a strategy Marcus hadn't thought of before. He tried it on a lateral play back up the board. It
got rejected. Bunwadde then played his own prepositional phrase in front of that same sentence. It was
good, naturally.

Marcus was never in the game after that. Nearly half his plays got razzed off the board. Much of that was
self-inflicted, as he made desperation plays trying to catch up. One of those did work, drawing a
compliment from Bunwadde that stung as badly as a taunt.
Bunwadde finished with a flourish, playing his last six tiles so a high-point adverb hit one of the four white
spaces along the base of the board, tripling its value. "Thirty-one. Second player wins, 360 to 187."

At least it was over. "Congratulations," Marcus said.

"Thank you. I'm glad you could play."

Bunwadde started putting away the tiles, saying no more. No false or consoling compliments. No "Not
bad for a beginner." Or "for a human."

Marcus resented not hearing something like that. He would have resented hearing it, too, but then he
could have focused his resentment on Bunwadde, rather than himself.

A few minutes later, he was down in his room. Making sure the door was shut, Marcus unpacked the
game again. He dialed the volume low, and turned on the board. He needed practice.
****
His ego healed, with the help of work. He finished off the inventory backlog at the office, and went
downstairs to give Bunwadde the final report. Bunwadde promptly tasked him with drawing up a detailed
sales strategy for the items the company would ship to Earth.