Childhood Games

When my brother was little, things were, as I have written about before, fairly chaotic and tense. We didn't have much money. We lacked consistency. What we did have was our imaginations and I spun for him a whole kingdom of idiots. This kingdom, called Durma, became the backdrop for our games. There were times when it was about all that kept us sane.

Durma was a roleplaying area. It started out with just two characters. My brother's character was a hapless loser prince who was ruled over by a tyrannical, impatient sister who possessed unlimited magic. That was me, of course. Over time, more characters were added, enemies, allies, people who were only there because we thought they were funny. Me being me, Durma also came to have a complex, if idiotic history.

This roleplay was often our way of coping with the annoyances in our life. We would make difficult people in our lives become defeated enemies. Durma was a land of stupid people, but every country around them was worse. They one time defeated another kingdom just by sending them a letter informing them they were conquered.

The highlight of our play involved an old cassette recorder. About once every three months, there would be the Quarterly Singing Contest. We would record ourselves singing in character. We'd often have to stop because we'd be laughing so hard. We would try our best to outdo each other with awful songs. One song would always be the local dogs barking. That song would always be the one that got first place.

I would give anything to find one of those cassettes. I'm sure the contents would be cringe-worthy, but it'd be worth it never-the-less.