Let's Play a Game: Magic Word

You need a telephone and a small boutique store

May 30, 2025

THE GAME OF MAGIC WORD WAS INVENTED when I worked at Deck the Walls, the art and frame shop located inside the Southwest Plaza Shopping Mall out on the edge of the Denver/Littleton metropolis, just before you hit the foothills. As with most of our creations, its inception was motivated by boredom.

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There were two of us working one day, me and my friend Dan. We had been friends before we worked there together and made a pretty good team.

There was just one customer in our store and once they finished the transaction and we gave them their change, I took a long look down the mall through our wall of windows. All of our frame orders had been completed. There wasn't a whole hell of a lot to do except to stand behind the counter and answer the phone when it rings. I look down at the Mall Directory we had, a slim booklet on a shelf behind the counter with the contact information for every store in the mall.

I turned to Dan with an idea.

"How about we select a random word, call one of the stores in the mall, and see if we can get them to say that word."

Dan is a creative thinker and together, we worked out some kinks and came up with the game of Magic Word.

Magic Word

Items Needed

:: A small boutique store
:: A telephone

The game of Magic Word falls into the category of a Telephone Game.

The Rules

:: Two players minimum. One is IT. The other is a VERIFIER. There can be multiple verifiers if there are more than 2 players.
:: Select a store. The store should be a small boutique shop with one telephone, not a multi-story anchor store with dozens of phones.
:: Select the Magic Word. It shouldn't be too common; but it shouldn't be recondite either.
:: To verify that the sales associate does say the magic word, the VERIFIER goes into the store.
:: The person who is IT must wait until enough time has passed for the VERIFIER to get into place, and then call the store.
:: IT must get the sales associate to say the Magic Word without saying it themself.
:: If IT is successful, they get 1 point.
:: Another person who hasn't been IT yet, becomes IT.
:: Game goes until you get too busy or until you're off of work.
:: High score wins.

Back then, we would look up other store phone numbers in the mall directory. Today, you just use your phone to find a store's phone number.

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We decided Dan would be IT in our inaugural game of Magic Word. We picked a store nearby that sold little figurines: crystals cut into the shape of animals and geometric designs, statuettes for desktops, stuff like that.

The Magic Word we picked was "Pelican."

After we solidified the rules, a customer walked in and bought a framed print. While Dan ran the cash register, I wrapped it up for them, and they left. Dan walked over, put his hand on the telephone, looked at me and raised an eyebrow. I left the store and headed nonchalantly towards our target figurines store just around the next bend in the mall.

I walk into the figurines store and see a kindly, middle-aged, slightly balding guy just tidying up some things on a shelf.

"Can I help you?" he says to me pleasantly.

I smile, "I'm just taking a look around for now."

"Well, let me know if there’s any questions I can answer for ya."

"Okay. Thanks."

I put my hands in my pockets while I stroll through the aisles pretending to look at all the useless junk in the store. (Okay, it wasn't that bad. Stores like that are just so... consumery.) I start pondering lunch, trying to remember if Dan was going to the food court, or if it was my turn today. I was hoping there would be time to hit the video arcade after we got off. Hey, that crystal fish hanging from an imitation fishing pole is rather beautiful as it refracts the light's colors while it slowly spins. Maybe I should retract my thoughts of "useless junk."

Then the phone rang.

The happy proprietor strutted dutifully to the phone hanging on the wall behind the counter and answered, identifying the store's name and asking, "How can I help ya?"

This is what I hear.

"Uh, huh... hmmmm.... yeah, what is that called..."

The ultra long cord on the landline phone allowed him to continue talking as he walked towards a shelf at the end of the counter. He reached up and grabbed a little marble figurine of a bird.

The sight of that almost made my bust out laughing right there. I wasn't positive it was Dan on the phone until I saw the proprietor pick up that bird. We were just trying to make the time pass until we were done working and could go play video games, followed by a night of barhopping, and this poor guy was completely caught up in our stupid little web. He had no idea one of the spiders was standing ten feet away.

"...uhhhh, you mean like a seagull?....." he continued as he rotated the figurine in his hand.

Oh, so close, I thought. Don't give up, Dan.

"...mmm... yeah, it's like a bird you'd see flying around a harbor... gee, let me see..."

The guy set it back on the shelf and picked up a pewter figurine, this one with its wings spread out. He gazed at it while he was trying to help this poor customer on the phone who could not remember the name of those birds that fly around carrying fish in their mouth, but he really wanted to buy a little statue of one for his mom's birthday. Or whatever Dan was telling him.

AI: Brightly lit photograph, closeup of a pewter figurine in the shape of a pelican sitting on a glass shelf in a gift shop

“Let’s see what the label says on the bottom. ‘Pelican.’ Is that what you’re looking for?”

Bingo.

Dan: 1
 JD: 0

The guy in the store on the phone who just scored a point for the person he was talking to, playing a game that I'm only now explaining in print decades later, continued talking as he looked at other shelves.

"...yeah, we've got a couple that might work..."

I casually walked out of the store and returned to our homebase of Deck the Walls.

Dan had a big smile on his face when I walked in.

"Very good," I said. "Took him a while though."

"For a while, I thought it wasn't going to happen," Dan said as we high-fived in front of our counter.

"Okay, you have one point," I said. "Now it's my turn. Which store are we doing next, and what's the Magic Word?"

THE END_