Expletive Deleted

by Seth Miller
originally published at 10:45AM on Friday, March 28, 2008

“Expletive Deleted!”

“Redacted!”

“Chevy Chase! Wait! No! That was Gerry Ford”

The buzzer sounded, sighs sighed and shoulders slumped. We had lost a round of Verboten. Again.

I couldn’t say:

Tricky Dick
Watergate
I am not a crook
Impeached
President

“Sucks to be you,” Henry added to the silent denunciations my own mind was telling me.

“Sucks to be us,” I corrected.

Henry and I had been losing to his wife and sister-in-law at Verboten every other Saturday night for about 2 months now and it never got old.

You see, Henry’s lovely wife Janet had hired me to kill him and my research period was just about up.

I clapped Henry hard on the back just between the shoulder blades and went to the fridge for a beer while Henry cleared his throat and tried to act like my chop hadn’t bothered him at all. It was a put-on he failed to pull off and the two women snickered at my conquest.

I cracked a smile over the door of the fridge, offering a beer to Hank as well, which he begrudgingly yet happily accepted.

Prequels

Sequels

Comments

  • from Will Hindmarch:

    The reversal is fantastic, especially for such a short piece, but I think you’re flailing too much around it. We don’t need to know that much about the game, I think, when what we really want is just a little more about the relationships between these people. (Not much! I think your instinct is just right to keep us wanting.) The games/secrets theme is terrific, and in so few words!

    There’s a five-star vignette in here, but it needs some more clay pulled away first, I think.

  • from Seth Miller:

    Thanks, Will. I really had to do some pruning of the initial concept I’d written to fit in the 1024 limit, so I agree on the whole editing point.

    I’m a verbose dude by nature and my natural inclination is to over-write, so I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only one.

    I may eventually use this as the jumping-off point for NaNoWriMo this year, but I don’t want to paint myself into a corner.

    Thx as always for the feedback!

  • from Kermitgorf:

    You write in a very intellectual way. highly intelligent, interesting original way. never played Verboten, so I was a bit lost.. intriguing concept.
    Looking forward to reading more of your work.