Love at the IHOP

I never knew love would find me at the I HOP. Every Wednesday afternoon at one o'clock, the House of Pancakes cordons off a back room for the Huntington Beach Scrabble tournament. It is held off their Beach and Garfield address, just below Albertsons and above the In N' Out Burger.It was so humid at one o'clock a knife could not cut-in. 
    My drenched shirt decided hip-hop inside to stay alive. My car's A/C did not work. Of course my headache didn't say "No".   I felt too hot, just too hot and knew that maybe the I HOP would have the antidote to the humidity   
   Peachy Smile greeted me inside the back room where the  games had begun. He is about my age, ancient and totally bald. 
   "What brings you here?"
     "Just wanted to get out of the heat this afternoon, and viewed the Ad in the Wave. (A flier from Register newspaper.)
     "Well welcome aboard. We have a gal who needs to partner-up. Meet Quick Chick."
     Now I questioned what I was doing here. My head throbbed and with heat flashes, just for a second, immobilized me.  Sweat rolled down my back. Quick Chick was covered with tan and looked elegantly dressed. Her pointed nose told me she would pancake me. But first she needed to explain the game. 
      "Well George, both of us keep score. Here is a sheet and there is the timer. After each play, you must hit the timer. Time is important. When you run out, you lose."
     My chip was blank so I went first.. I was able to get fourteen points for my first word since it was a double score. I pressed the clock to stop, but not so Quick Chick. Just after I pulled out four new chips and set them on my rack, she had placed down her word. She used an X  that gave her forty four points in her first move...The third move she bingo-d me which added up to  seventy seven. Before long, I was pitching the blues. She was up now 298 to 73. I felt faint.
     We handed our score sheets to the Peachy Smile and he arranged pairings  for the next games. I was placed against Betty Bangles. A gold chain covered her neck and she wore golden earrings to match. But it was her fingers, yes her fingers that excited me. They sparkled and sent music into my ears. Each had been painstakingly scrubbed, filed and manicured into the finest finger nails money could buy.
    Now the more I glanced at her fingers the more self conscious of mine I felt.  Mine could have been the fingers of a plumber -- they were that rough. Unlike the first one, Quick Chick, Betty Bangles was friendly -- too friendly. She knew she would be a winner. And she did. My head still throbbed but a lump of one dollar vanilla soothed it. She beat me but not quite as bad as Quick Chick.

And then it happened! Peachy Smile  placed me with another beginner. Mildred Fine owned a  sweet, friendly face. I met my match. It was her second time here. Now there was a face I had been looking for all of my life. It was dam cute and exciting. Of course like the others I soon gave her a nick-name Scratch Sheet.
     We began and soon I found out she forgot to hit the timer. She paid more attention to a hand-out that listed the zaniest words in the alphabet and all with x's or j's on it. Why believe it or not, there were words like "qu" or "ju" that were words. Since  I had been a bookie in a previous life, I named her Scratch Sheet.
      Mildred, her real name, forgot the clock. She kept looking at her lettered chips and studied the scratch sheet. After an eternity of time, she plucked down the craziest words but high scores. Soon she bested me by several points, but no longer did my head ache. i We ignored the time machine, since time stood still. Unpredictable would describe her action and excitement her face. In fact, one might even say that every part of her excited me. My head no longer ached -- now it was my heart. Yes I was falling in love.
     Peachy Smile noticed that we might have been a perfect match.. He had us continue to finish our game when the other pairs had long finished theirs. Why she even took her scratch sheet to the bathroom while I sipped some cold water a friendly member brought to me. They must have been happy I had removed Mildred from the other players. We did not need a timer, since time took a walk. 
      Afterwards, a pizza party was offered on a beach street named Hamilton. I made the mistake of following Mildred's friend and they became lost. There car pulled over and Mildred dragged herself out of the car -- and she had told me that she played tennis and golf.
    "Oh I see that you too like Lindbergh. Sorry my girl friend got lost."
    "No problem, looking forward to seeing you again next week at the I HOP.

Nuts and Bolts: The club meets every Tuesday at one o'clock. But better dress up since you'll be rubbing wits with the brainiest ladies in Huntington Beach.