The Spy

I love this story.

I used to work at a fabulous place called The Hivery. It was a fantastic, light-filled and modern space adorned with inspirational quotes, huge photographs of powerful women and yellow collectibles resting on shelves next to happy plants and crystals. I loved it there.

In addition to providing an exceptional space to create, the owner, Grace Kraaijvanger, would host launch parties for members who had big announcements, products, books, and more. I went to as many as I could, and on one particular evening, I went to participate in a game; a new offering from a prolific creator.

I knew nothing about the game, but I figured it would be easy to learn. It was called “Sparked,” and it was developed as an ‘opposite’ to Cards Against Humanity. It was meant to ‘bring people together rather than leave them feeling excluded and embarrassed.’ A stack of cards played with your close friends, the intention of the game was simply to draw one and either a) answer the question yourself, b) have everyone answer the question and write it on a piece of paper for the player to read, or c)…you get the idea.

We were separated into groups of 8. I only knew a few people at the party, so I wasn’t surprised when I was seated at a table with only 1 person I’d been getting to know, Betsy. What I found intriguing about my group was a particular woman I’d noticed earlier for her interesting ‘spy flair.’ She was tall, and had long blonde hair that she’d braided and positioned into two circles on either side of her head, like Princess Leia. Her glasses were big, with thick black frames similar to those you’d see on an eccentric filmmaker, or on an older woman wearing a gaudy Chanel suit. Interestingly, she had a very thick Russian accent. Inside my head, I chuckled to myself thinking she reminded me of a Russian spy, and she will henceforth be known as THE WOMAN.

The first player drew a card, but it is completely inconsequential in my mind because I was captivated by THE WOMAN, who was the next one to draw. Her question was: What is something that no one knows about you? It just so happened that her card required all of us to write our answer on a piece of paper, fold it up and put it in the middle. THE WOMAN was meant to read them and guess who they belonged to.

But I misunderstood.

Seeing the game as one you’d typically play with your close friends, I thought the object was to write down something no one else at the table would know about the player (or, THE WOMAN, in this case). Since I didn’t know THE WOMAN, I was immediately perplexed, and slightly annoyed, as to how to proceed in this unusual playing of the game. So, I thought I’d have some fun, and as I was placing my paper in the middle of the pile, THE WOMAN read her first answer (please, for the sake of this story, read this in a Russian accent): “You are deathly afraid of spiders.”

Then, THE WOMAN slowly looked around the table, and stopped at the woman sitting next to me, and said, “It’s you.” My sweet neighbor hunched her shoulders and gave a shy, ‘you got me’ look down at her lap (which, can I just say…this is NOT EMBARRASSING, and your pretend-shy game isn’t working). Anyway, it was in this moment that I realized the rules. As I went to grab my answer, THE WOMAN picked it up (now THIS, fake-shy neighbor, is something to stare at your lap for…). I cringed, waiting for the truth, and THE WOMAN read (again, Russian accent, please).

“You are a secret agent.”

Everyone sat silent…waiting, as she scanned the oblivious women. I waited for her to guess, but of course, she couldn’t, because who is the secret agent…?…and how exciting it would be to find out, she must have thought in her scanning.

“WHO is the secret agent?”

I couldn’t hide any longer…clearing my throat, I said, “YOU are.”

Photo Credit: Charles Deluvio