My Brother Does Nothing but Cheat

By Tom Harley

"Tom, you were so easy to pick on," he says. "You took everything too seriously." I do not take things too seriously. I didn’t then. I don’t now. To prove it I will expose all his underhanded tricks no matter how far back I must go. All this is to a backdrop of zoo animals, each one of which is like my brother in some way. "He cheats like a cheetah" is just for starters.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tom Harley
• Release date: Oct 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9780463619063

Tom Harley

Tom Harley lives with his wife and dog in New York State. He plays bi-weekly games of Scrabble with his brother, who cheats. Lately he has taken up playing Splendor with his wife. She lost badly at first and was getting discouraged, so he gave her some pointers. Now he can’t beat her. Why did he do that?Tom is also a practicing Jehovah’s Witness for many years. He has many an anecdote to share with regard to spiritual life and is author of two special-focus books—one a defense the faith in Russia, and one a defense of it in Western lands.In his lighter moments—and he tries to stay light throughout, even on serious topics—he loves self-deprecating humor. He also likes the kind of humor where you make fun of yourself. He loves hyperbole. He also likes wild exaggeration to make a point.

Book preview

The Woeful Story Begins

When I was just a baby my own father used me for a bookmark.

He would snap the book shut when he was done, toss it on the shelf, and there I was all night with my nose literally pressed into a book. But I read some of those words to later play Scrabble. I would have recovered from my trauma if I could just have had an opponent who would play fair. Instead, I got my brother who doesn’t.

Here is a picture of my father feeding my baby brother.

I knew even then it was a mistake. I knew he would not grow up to play fair. I knew he would do nothing but cheat.

Game 1

On my second turn, I scrabbled to make ‘records.’ But then my brother cheated to also scrabble and make ‘painter’ which tied the score, probably using an ordinary letter flipped over, trying to make me think it was a blank. Never in our playing have two triple word score squares been exposed so soon. I took one to make ‘hair,’ mostly so that he could not use it. But then he cheated to take the second, making ‘pup,’ so that I could not use it.

Soon thereafter I traded in some letters, and he lyingly said I was a wuss for not playing through the ones I already had. Then he traded in some letters, and I astutely observed that if he were really any good at Scrabble he would be able to work with his existing tiles.

Through skillful playing I built up a significant lead. But then he cheated to put his X on a triple letter tile, making a word both ways. It is amazing the damage such an unfair play can do. With that devious move,