The Numbers Game Shorts by Rebecca Rode

Author:Rebecca Rode
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rebecca Rode

October 15, 2026

I have to write in this tonight. I can’t find the right words to say how I’m feeling right now, so maybe I’ll just tell how it happened. But first let me sum up our situation here.

The day after my walk with Biyu a few days ago, Dad insisted we stop watching the news. “Just for a while,” he said. He wouldn’t explain why, although I’m pretty sure it has something to do with Mom’s mental state. Grandma gleefully took the remote back and turned it to her old-person shows and has basically slept with the remote since.

Then, two days ago, our cell phones stopped working. Even Dad’s, which is through an expensive carrier. And I thought Grandma’s house was boring before. At least Grandma’s wall phone and the TV still work, and so does the old alarm clock radio I found in the carport. Mostly I get country and oldies stations on a repeating loop, same songs in the same order every day.

Lastly, Mom had a weird episode this morning. She picked up Grandma’s phone, grumbling about Ally being able to call us. She tried Ally’s phone, but I’m guessing it didn’t work, because she slammed the phone onto the receiver so hard something cracked, and then she stormed off. I don’t think she realizes Dad’s been trying to call Ally several times a day as well. He even called the military base in Tennessee where Jason is stationed, asking for an emergency call. They hung up on him.

But anyway, I wanted you to understand why we weren’t watching the news when it happened. It with a capital I. If I’d known, I never would have gone out to practice shooting. I probably would’ve locked myself in the bathroom and cried.

Anyway, I’d just begun setting up some more of Grandma’s tin cans in the field out back when I heard footsteps behind me. I turned around.

“Do I want to know what you’re doing?” Biyu asked, eyeing the row of cans. Her hair was a little messy, and her eyes looked slightly red, as if she’d been crying, but she covered it well.

I decided not to ask and pointed to the rifle. “Just doing a little shooting. Want me to teach you?”

“No,” she said, as if it were the most ridiculous question ever.

“Why not? Every girl should know how to defend herself.”

She picked up one of the cans and examined it. “There are only three reasons to use a weapon like that, and I can’t justify any of them.”

She and my dad would get along great. I rolled my eyes. “Let me guess. You’re a vegetarian too.”

“Have been for thirteen months, and yes, I do believe in self-defense to a point. There are ways of protecting yourself that don’t mean taking a life. I’m all for that.”

“So getting meat and protection. What’s your third reason?”

“There’s something that happens to people when they wield the power to kill so easily. I’ve seen it. They become monsters. You know, the whole kill or be killed thing.

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