I awoke with a start. A cruel, twisted nightmare had run its course through my synapses, triggering primal fears embedded deep within my psyche. Moments ago I had witnessed the murder of my childhood, the stagnation of any creativity that made residence in my bones. The development of my mind was stunted at the very height of its growth, and laughter between friends had been replaced by the dull hum of the machine.

We weren’t children. We were subjects.

And through it all, one horrifying symbol of corruption ripped through the landscape of my beloved past.

Behold: The Tower

Bursting forth through the center of the game, of the world, the perversion of all that was innocent and good spread through the rip in the cardboard and spidered out toward me. Baltic Avenue, The Reading Railroad, even the utilities weren’t safe. The Tower took over the transportation, the parking, the police…it even extended its reach to Boardwalk Blvd…the epitome of the American Dream.

I remember trying to roll the dice. My hands were the hands of a confused and frightened child, freezing cold as though The Tower had sapped the atmosphere from the air. My brain fired messages to my hands to grab the dice and hurl them in a defiant, fiery burst of individuality and anger. My fingers, though, couldn’t comply. They were clumsy and numb, and I suddenly felt as though I were always compelled to stare…to stare at The Tower in awe.

Moments before we had laughed. We could still laugh, I suppose, but we did not know what was funny. We could only wait and stare and hope that The Tower would tell us if something was funny so that we could experience what emotion was allowed. I fought through the fog and remembered why we played this game, this simple game with brightly colored spaces and too many antiquated dollar bills splayed across the floor. Now those bills were useless, waiting to be cleaned up like the blood of so many martyrs. They were not needed, just as the dice and the role of the banker were not needed. Nothing was needed, really…except The Tower. We needed The Tower to play.

With effort I could recall what it was like to decide who was given the responsibility of being the banker. I could still feel the warmth of pride that beat in my chest when my friends deemed me worthy of such a responsibility. So many thoughts and emotions tugged at me. Temptation reared its head when I realized I was in charge of the money and the property, that I could use my god-like powers to manipulate the entire market and the outcome of the game. Of course, doing so would risk my friends refusing to play with me…nobody likes a cheater.

Maybe I became an honest person because when I was very young, my friends threatened not to play Monopoly with me if I cheated. Perhaps I learned to be wary of others, to always watch my bank account and possessions closely, because one too many times I had been cheated out of a yellow $100 note, or I had seen someone take one bill too many when they passed “Go!”

I started to question the need for The Tower. I opened my mouth to ask if such a simple, small, minuscule task in a childhood board game, is worth replacing. Though I did not, and do not, believe that being the banker or rolling my own dice or learning to cheat (or learning not to cheat) would have much of an impact on my growth…I needed to know if they were such egregious offenses that they needed to be snuffed out by The Tower. I dared to rebel the tiniest bit-

…and The Tower saw me do so.

Muted by fear, we dared not think these thoughts any more. After a few moments, I was sure that I was the only one who had ever thought so…if I confided my feelings in my friends–NO! If I dared share my treacherous thoughts with my neighbors, they may identify my rebellion and I would be cast out forever. No longer would I be ostracized for cheating as a banker, now it would be for the crime of speaking against the good of all. In fact, the more I thought the less I wanted to think…maybe I never thought those awful things in the first place. After all, The Tower makes everything easier.

The Tower watches my neighbors, so I do not have to. And The Tower handles the properties and the money, and now I believe I can find comfort in my role. I am no longer simply playing a game…now I am an integral cog in the system. Without me, The Tower would have no purpose…just like without The Tower, I would be lost and cold. Alone.

I awoke and tried to remember a world without The Tower. The chaotic tribes of young hyper-evolved apes threw their dice like spears and quarreled over something as immature and silly as orange and blue money bills. Needless today, that was energy wasted. I have a job to do, and it is not to try to steal or cheat or stop others from doing so…it is to serve The Tower.

I don’t know how they had the audacity to call this Monopoly before. Any Monopoly we tried to have was but a cheap facade. The Tower knows better than we foolish children ever did. The Tower knows better.

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