Fractious

Word of the Day Monday, February 22, 2010

fractious

\FRAK-shuhs\ , adjective;

1. Tending to cause trouble; unruly.
2. Irritable; snappish; cranky.

Joe and Martin quietly worked together in the sand box building a Match Box car sized city. Joe's dad had drenched the sand with a hose and they had pulled all of their summer time sand castle building molds out of the basement to construct a real city.

They hadn't put together a cogent plan, however, both of them being eleven, or both of them being boys, or both having the same idea about city planning and engineering, whatever it was, the city grew around them quickly and without the usual committee caused building delays.

Their towers dried in the warm spring sunshine and metamorphosed into glittering, golden towers looming erect and proud over the clean streets free of Match Box sized traffic jams. One half expected King Arthur to appear and smile down upon this Golden Age of child's play.

Joe had just finished carving windows into the Tower for Peaceful Activities when Martin addressed him, "I think it is time," he said. Joe nodded, and pulled out his cell phone. "Hi, Becky? Martin and I were just wondering if you would like to come over and play City Council with us? Great, we'll see you in a little bit," and hung up the phone.

They continued quietly to smooth out the paved streets of their golden city until they heard the back gate open and slam shut. They both looked up, caught each others eye, and smiled.

"Hey Becky!" Joe called out, discreetly starting a stop watch in his pocket.

"Hey guys! Wow, great city!" she exclaimed making her way over to the sand box.

Both boys smiled broadly, still tickled with their own cleverness. See, Becky was the most fractious person in their class. It didn't matter what game they played, it almost always ended up with one of their toys being smashed against the wall or underfoot in one of Becky's angry outbursts at Martin and Joe not following along with how she wanted to play the game.

What was how Martin and Joe came up with the game of "How Fast Can the World Reach Utter and Complete Destruction?"

"I get to be mayor!" Martin exclaimed.

"No you don't! It has to be put up to a democratic vote," Becky immediately interjected.

"All in favor of me being Mayor say aye," Martin said promptly raising his hand and saying aye. Joe quickly followed suite.

"That isn't fair! You are just voting that way because I'm a girl," Becky whined.

"Ooh," Martin said turning to Joe, "We've never had an EEO complaint before." Joe wiggled his eyebrows. "Fine, you can be mayor," Becky said pouting, "But you only won because of an unfair smear campaign against me," she added.

"I don't know," Martin said, "I heard it was true about you farting in math class yesterday."

Becky's eyes flashed in anger and it one fluid motion she kicked over the three tallest sand buildings and had turned on her hell on her way out of the yard.

Martin pulled the stop watch out of his pocket. "I think that is an all tie world record. One minute 36 seconds. I don't know if we'll ever beat that one!" he said gleefully.

They happily proceeded to play Godzilla with the rest of their golden city.