Who Dun It?

"Miss Scarlet in the Lounge with the Knife."

My roommate April says this with confidence and I cringe because I'm sure that it's Miss Scarlet and I'm positive that it's the Knife, but how did she narrow it down to the Lounge so quickly?! Agh! She is smug as she opens up the small manila folder marked Confidential. Her lips stretch into a slow, evil grin as she peeks at the cards inside. We know she is correct. Maggie has strep throat, which she was treating with apple martinis, and therefore couldn't care less who dun it, but I was fuming. How could April-Smiley-Face-Bell be a better gumshoe than me? She didn't even know what a gumshoe was until I defined it for her at the beginning of the game!

As they shuffle the cards for the second game, I call for a small break while I make peanut butter cookies; April spills her apple martini into Maggie's freshly made guacamole. I am thrilled by the accident as they have tried to force me into having a martini and trying the guac, so as both things green are ruined, I am left alone to enjoy cookies and milk. As April scurries around to clean things up, Maggie checks her email and I finish polishing my cowboy boots. The kitchen smells of comfort.

As Miss Scarlet, I get to roll the dice first when we resume Clue. For the first time in the evening (since the spaghetti devouring) there is silence. We are comfortable together: three girls thrown together in a cozy apartment in the most confusing stage of our lives in the craziest city in the world. I look at April's furrowed brow as she concentrates on her suspects and at Maggie's closed eyes as she fights off the sickness she's feeling; I almost feel Home.

I ask them, "Do you ever think that this is how life is supposed to be lived? A board game, a dinner, an entire evening without interruption - just shared with people who love you?"

"I think that a lot."

"Yeah."

I wonder, then, if the dream I am chasing that my family and friends call "brave", should instead be labeled "blind". I wonder, then, if I left the dream behind.

When I lose the second game to a semi-drunk and very sick opera singer, I realize that a career change is not in the cards (pardon the pun). I should stick to the things I'm good at, writing and acting, and continue living this dream - wherever it leads. And maybe, fingers crossed, I will perform or create a masterpiece that will leave the world wondering, "Who Dun It?"