Page 53 of Suncatcher

“You did?” Driz eagerly tugged at the string around the fabric neck, opening it and peering inside.

A handful of spiked metal bits cradled a sphere. Puzzled but delighted, Driz tipped them out onto the browning grass, and a spotted bone cube tumbled after them.

“Thank you,” she said, meaning it, picking up one of the metal pieces made of two rods welded together.

“You ever played it?”

“Played?”

“It’s a game.” Pearl scooted over to the edge of the grass nest and patted the flat slab of sandstone. “Bring the pieces over here.”

Driz did, carefully transporting all seven metal pieces, the cube, and the ball, laying them in front of Pearl.

“We’re missing a few jacks, but that’s fine. And we don’t have two dice anyway. It plays the same.”

Pearl tossed the ball in the air a few times before she threw it at the ground. It bounced back up and she caught it with ease.

“We roll to figure out how many jacks to pick up. The point is to bounce the ball and pick up before it can bounce again. Yeah?”

Driz nodded, having no idea what to do, too entranced by how Pearl’s talented hands played with the ball.

“Wanna go first?” Pearl asked.

Driz shook her head. “Show me.”

Pearl tossed the cube, and two dots came up. She leaned closer, probably to see better, and then bounced the ball and grabbed two spikes. “Your turn.”

Driz took the ball. When she dropped it, it barely bounced at all.

“It takes a bit of force,” Pearl instructed.

Driz threw it lightly at the ground and it came back up to her chin. She caught it and grinned. She would have fun with this.

“Roll the dice,” Pearl told her.

Driz reluctantly paused her bouncing and took the cube, rolling it from her hand as Pearl had.

Driz bounced, swiped up all of the remaining spikes with ease, and caught the ball.

“No, you’re only supposed to pick up four,” Pearl said as Driz started bouncing again. “And it’s gotta be with the same hand you catch with.”

Driz hurriedly returned her spikes to the ground, fumbling as the ball tried to escape. “Sorry. Do I try again?”

“This time. But I would’ve won that round.”

Driz threw, grabbed only four spikes, and caught the fall.

“There, that was it.” Pearl smiled at her and Driz’s heart stuttered.

Driz really liked this game.

She resisted the urge to keep playing with the ball and rested it in front of Pearl. “Your turn.”

Pearl rolled one dot and succeeded. Then Driz rolled five dots.

After two more rounds, Pearl missed a three dot, not quite guessing where the ball was going to be, batting it with her knuckles.

“Shit,” she laughed as it went rolling toward the cliff.