“Your word is Xeriscape,” the pronouncer said, reading from a card she picked from the stack in front of her. The speller, a boy with a paper tag displaying the number seventeen pinned to his shirt, paused. “May I have a definition please?” “Xeriscape. A garden without water,” the pronouncer read aloud. Looking more confident, contestant seventeen responded.
“Xeriscape. X E R I S C A P E. Xeriscape.”
The audience applauded as contestant seventeen stepped back in line. The head judge, a bony man with a thin combover seated to the left of the pronouncer, shifted his foot behind the drape and nudged the pronouncer’s ankle. She jerked her leg away and tightened her lips.
The next speller, a girl with the number twelve pinned to her blouse, stepped forward. “Your word is Nudiustertian.”
“May I have a definition please?” the speller asked.
“Nudiustertian. Relating to the day before yesterday.” The head judge shifted in his seat.
“Nudiustertian. N U D I U S T E R T I A N. Nudiustertian.”
Louder applause from the audience as the girl gave a wide smile and stepped back in line, making room for the next contestant. The pronouncer looked at the head judge, ignoring the card that she had picked. Your word is “Mendacious,” she said, her hands shaking in anger.
“Mendacious. M E N D A C I O U S. Mendacious.”
The contestant spelled it without hesitation. Uncertain clapping came from the audience as the next contestant took her place. The head judge dropped his pen and fumbled under the table for it.
“Your word is Uxorious,” the pronouncer told the speller. She didn’t wait to be asked for a definition. “Uxorious. Having an excessive attachment to one's wife.” The contestants on the stage looked at each other. Was she still reading from the cards? The speller stuttered as she responded.
“U...Uxorious. U X O R I O U S. Uxorious.”
She ran to the back of the stage as the audience shifted in their seats. The next contestant hesitated, then stumbled to the front with a push from the boy behind him.
“Your word is Limerence,” the pronouncer spat it out like a mistakenly swallowed bug. “Limerence. The state of being obsessively infatuated with someone.” She threw out her arms and the cards flew everywhere. “Someone who pretended to feel the same about you, perhaps.” There was scattered nervous laughter in the room. The head judge stared straight ahead, a slow flush starting up his face.
“Limerence. L I M E R E N C E. Limerence,” the speller whispered.
The next contestant approached and stood, waiting for their turn. “Your word is Dalliance. Dalliance. A casual romantic or sexual relationship.” The pronouncer hunched over the podium and stared at the back wall of the auditorium as if she could burn a hole in it, while the head judge closed his eyes and shrank in his chair.
“Dalliance. D A L L I A N C E. Dalliance,” spelled contestant number three.
The room was quiet as the contestants came to the front of the stage for the next word, and the next. Contestant thirteen stepped forward.
“Your word is Primigravida. Primigravida. A woman who is pregnant for the first time.”
“Primigravida. P R I M I G R A V I D A. Primigravida.”
Contestant seventeen came to the front of the stage again, starting the next round. “Your word is Motel,” the pronouncer hissed between clenched teeth, gripping the podium. The head judge fled the room, his chair clattering to the floor, leaving the pronouncer presiding over an uncomfortable silence.
Ending with the pronouncer left presiding is a very nice touch.