by Luke Bamforth

Created on: June 07, 2010   Last Updated: December 08, 2010

Tonight is our family game night. The one Saturday a month when we all put our busy social lives on hold. The one night we all come together as a family, get out the old favourites and pretend that we still know each other.

The trouble is we don’t know each other anymore. As a matter of fact we’ve all drifted apart since my dad died. Oh sure, we all show a united front to the rest of the world. To them we’re still the good old Lamberts, God fearing, wholesome and close knit. But the truth is we don’t see each other anymore.

Ok, so I pop around to see my mum once in a while, but neither of us is really there. I’m too busy worrying about my job and she’s too busy thinking about what Frank, her new husband, will want for his dinner. We just pass the time with pleasantries and by swapping news that we’ve already shared several times. I usually finish my cup of tea as quickly as possible and then make my excuses.

The only time we’re ever all together as a real family is on game night. That’s the only time we feel as though it's how it used to be when dad was around. The silly thing is dad hated family game night. He hated board games full stop. He’d just sit in his arm chair smoking his pipe in silence while my mum, my brother and I would play every game we owned, never finishing a single one.

Maybe that’s the reason that game night is the only thing we have as a family that hasn’t changed. It still feels like dad is sitting silently in the corner while we roll the dice. Maybe that’s why, as lame as it sounds, family game night still feels so comforting.

I guess it can’t last forever. Danny, my brother, has a baby of his own on the way and no doubt that will lead to game night’s demise. I’m pretty sure Frank wants to move to Spain when he retires in a few years as well and even mum doesn’t like board games so much that she’d be willing to cross the English Channel once a month.

So that just leaves me. What am I going to do? I suppose I’ll just wander through life like I usually do. I could concentrate more on the day job, maybe I could take a dance class once a month or something like that. Who would have thought I’d miss it. Perhaps we’re closer than we think; I mean there are no rules that say we have to see each other all the time anyway.

All this time I thought dad’s death was a catalyst driving us apart, when actually it’s just called growing up. We all have other commitments to keep us apart, but that doesn’t mean we love each other less, does it?

Well for now I’m just going to enjoy the time we have together tonight even if Danny still cheats at every single game. Hell, if he didn’t I’d be disappointed because it just wouldn’t be the same.

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