Class+responses+-+Death+be+scrabble

Why does the couple hate each other so much? Why hasn’t the narrator spoken to anybody except his wife since Thursday? Why is the couple playing Scrabble? What does the word ‘DEATH’ mean? So does the narrator die in the end? I think that the narrator and his wife are fighting to spell a word that can kill the other party first and his wife won (by chance…I think). Also, the game became ‘real’ maybe because of the word ‘JINXED’.

Wei Ting

I personally think that the wife knew that this scrabble was jinxed. Or at least, she found out before her husband. On the other hand, maybe she just got the chance to attack first. Anyway, this story is rather unreal. I mean... it can't really relate to facts... Anyway, why did they even marry when they hate each other to the core? What caused this conflict? Did the wife specially buy this scrabble set to kill her husband? (May not be so because all the letters were already bitten by the author.) Why hadn't this happened earlier, and not when the author is 42 years old. Anyway, what part has the age of the author got to do with the story? To prove that he didn't die because of old age? And what's the point of the kettle? What genre is this story under? Fantasy? Science

Gah... So many questions. Haha. Attempt to answer me... :D Gloria

Yes, I agree with you Gloria. I think that the wife knew that this scrabble was jinxed too. Is this story an..urban legend? Doesn't really seem like to me as most urban legends I have read before are gruesome and revolting at parts, but this one seems peculiar. Are urban legends supposed to be peculiar too? I think the point of the kettle..was just to add something to make the narrator more frustrated. Ok..some questions I have:

1. Why did the husband hate his wife so much? 2. Did the wife know that the scrabble set was jinxed or did she play the word "jinxed" by chance? 3. Was the scrabble set really jinxed or were there other unseen forces? (Makes me nervous...) 4. And..the narrator here is a ghost, right?

I guess that's all! Zera

I wonder if the wife had put death on purpose because she was angry with him for being angry with her and wanting to kill her so she wanted to kill him. (Figure that out yourself.) Is the genre... science fiction? Or fantasy? There is certainly some sort of... unseen force, so is that science or magic fantasy? An Yan

If the narrator did not have the habit of chewing on his tiles, he might have survived! I was laughing throughout the story mainly because he ws chewing on his tiles, hope no one thinks I'm mad... Gloria, the kettle was to symbolize how fuming the narrator was. how he was mad like a boiling kettle(I guess)and Zera, The narrator hates his wife as she stops him from doing other stuff and "she bitched at me for being moody the next day from lack of sleep."(stated in passage) the wife knew that the game was jinxed, as she was suspicious when the narrator played "cheating" the wife played fan to may be fan the "fire"(the narrators maddness)

Mr. Grosse, if the narrator died, how could he say that his wife just sat there, so, Like what Gloria said, he was a ghost.

Isaac_Yong (sorry about the long wait for my reply I have a cut on my finger which hinders my typing and the com I usually use has block the signin page so I cannot post... I know It is useless giving excuses but just in case you are wondering)

Mr Grosse, there is a mistake in the title (for this page). Jek Kee says so. This story was supposed to have the elements of humour and crime, and was rated PG! (Again Jek Kee said this.)

True...I wonder how they became husband and wife? It seems kind of weird that they would actually marry when they hate each other so much. Throughout the story, the narrator keeps saying he hates his wife and wants to kill her and on and on...I think that the wife would have known about the scrabble board, because she put death, which was meant to be her husband's death... The narrator has a very bad habit chewing tiles, though...I don't like either of them. Melissa

Maybe the wife wants to wait for the oppurtune moment like when she gets the tile she wants eg: death. Thats why they play so much scrabble. If the scrabble was jinxed, why didn't the husband find out about this before. He has played scrabbles so many times. Samuel

WELL, SAMUEL, the wife played the word JINXED

It's not really that scary. The story might be adapted from 'Jumanji' or 'Zathura', games that come to life. If it were a movie, no doubt it would be a lot scarier, especially if there were special sound effects. This story is very interesting, but I don't agree that the author is a ghost. Ghosts are not living things, how can they die? Maybe his wife was some kind of immortal. Maybe before they got married, his wife-to-be put him into some kind of daze, and made him think that he loved her, so she can complete her task: killing him. After they got married, then she showed her true self, unleashing the monster within! Maybe his wife and the other immortals (if there even are other immortals) have one purpose to their existance: to kill everyone on Earth, and then dominate Earth. =) After she kills him, she brings that Scrabble game and goes to seduce another man, ultimately killing him too.

Rachelle

I don't think that the wife was an immortal, but I believe that the narrator is a ghost (at present) because he was killed, and killed people become ghosts or undeads or zombies or what ever afterlife forms they posess. Maybe why the author was not killed by the scrabble board until this day was because they never played JINX until this day and it was only on this day that the game was jinxed. Why did the narrator liked chewing tiles so much? Makes no sense except conteminating the tiles with acid (his saliva). Weird! I made a discovery taht if either had played WIN, then they win the game! Simple!
 * Jek Kee**

er...Rachelle, I don't exactly think your evaluation of the story is practical. I think that the couple may have been young,naive and immature when they married, and only realised that their marriage would not survive after a long time,then started to hate each other, and decided killing was the best way to resolve the hate between them. I think the husband hates the wife for everything that she does(like hating him),loathes everything that is in her possession, which might be caused by an unresolved situation between them(eg.family feud??). So I kind of agree with An Yan. I think there is no particular genre for this story, in my opinion, it's just a recount of the person's death. I think that the husband mentions that he is 42 years old as he wants to evoke the readers' pity. He wants to send the message that he was the one who was suffering in the marriage, being stuck with someone he hated. He also wanted to get the readers to side with him, and agree that it would be best to kill his wife, so that he could be "free" and start climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or star in a hollywood blockbuster. The thing that continues to intrigue me is how the husband even managed to recount the story when he supposedly died(unless he didnt).

Desiree

Why did the couple marry they hated each other so much? Why does the man play Scrabble of all things? Why doesn't the man just go out and leave his wife at home? Was the wife forcing him to play Scrabble with her? If so, how? Was the Scrabble board jinxed ever since the couple got it, or was it jinxed only after the wife placed the word 'jinxed'? What was the point of the wife turning on the kettle? Was this story retold from the point of view of the ghost of the man? Is the genre of the story science fiction or magic fantasy? Joshua

did the author's wife know the board was jinxed? if so, how? if the author hated his wife so much, why didn't he just divorce her? how did the board get jinxed? where did they get the board from? how come some of the words played in their game of scrabble don't "come true"? [like when the wife played the word 'ready' and 'ignore' and 'sign'] who is the author? how does the author die? a heart attack or something? jodie

Why hasn’t the author talked to his wife? Why are they playing Scrabble? Why did the game become real? If the wife knew about the ‘reality’ of the game, why did she curse her husband? Besides, her husband also used ‘Zaps’, ‘Quake’, was he trying to kill her? This is impossible?! How could a Scrabble game turn real? Is it true that maybe, just maybe, that the wife was trying to build his anger to a climax until he could not stand it anymore and had a… heart attack? Would that be possible? After all, if his face turns blue, then maybe he is suffocating- maybe a heart problem…

Hazel

I think that the scrabble board was magic, and the couple didn't know until the started playing with it. maybe the wife didn't know that the scrabble board was enchanted, and just played the word "death" by chance, in which case the husband would be a very unlucky man. Only some of the words come true,mainly the destructive ones. Why? By the way, Rachelle, your evaluation has a flaw, if the wife was an immortal, then why didn't she just use her immortal powers to kill the husband?

Zachary_Acha

What is so important about the kettle? Kettles are used for heating up liquids but why would the wife want to drink hot stuff when it's already blazing hot outside? If the board only became Jinxed after the wife put the word "jinxed", then why did the word jinxed activate and make the board jinxed if the board wasn't jinxed before that? Btw, Rachelle's suggestion is a bit far-fetched. And maybe as Hazel suggested, he died from a heart-attack.

Gary Lim