Catan and The Guy

But then one day, everything changed. My brother introduced me to a little game called “Settlers of Catan”. It was what Owen and I called in our nerdy board-gaming sub-society a “turn-based strategy city builder”, which was kind of his forte. I was good right off the bat, sneaking in a few rounds with my brother and other friends I trusted to keep my secret practice rounds in confidence, in hopes I could get a couple of extra wins on Owen, drop the mic, and leave in style.

He came over to our apartment, and he, my wife Kathleen and I had what ended up being the first of many, many, many…many Catan sessions. It started out well. We played three games that first night. I won two, my wife won one. The reaction we got from Owen was glorious. Just what I wanted. Everything was going according to plan. I was excited to ride it out, incite his rage a couple more times and make a clean exit. And I wish I could tell you all that’s what happened.

Owen came back the next night. He made it clear that we were playing Catan, that he KNEW I didn’t have any other plans. “What could you possibly be doing?” he said. “Drinking Bud Lites on your couch in your boxers and watching Jeopardy re-runs hardly constitutes ‘ a prior engagement’.” But it wasn’t Owen who showed up… this is the first time I met “The Guy”. Let me explain. Going forward, when the Settlers board came out, Owen wasn’t Owen anymore. He would refer to himself only in the third person and only as his sinister alter ego, “The Guy”. And let me tell you, “The Guy” was ruthless. Seriously, merciless. He wouldn’t play the game anymore, he would play the people and usually against each other. Needless to say, the days of me besting Owen were over, and in his mind, balance had been restored. I’d put away the board to the sound of his justifiable gloating and then, he was just Owen again.

And Owen was everything.

Taylor Hederman