When I first set up the game, I never expected it to go for so long.

However, when your minimum life span is eternity and the maximum is forever, you have time to kill. I can't think of a more entertaining way then playing my new found game.

It all started when my best friend acquired a new set of marbles. The seller had ensured years of entertainment because these marbles were special.

"They're each their own little world. Due to the weather and gravity conditions, you never know what can happen!"

Now I love her to death but she really is an easy sell. When she first told me about this new wonderful game I looked at her as if she had a screw loose and asked, "What were you thinking? This guy obviously has taken advantage of your sweet nature. "

"Well I only spent 2 million, they weren't that much. You have to admit they are pretty. Aren't they?"

"You bought them for WHAT? You definitely have been ripped. Well since you have them, I'm sure we can find something to do with them. Two million." Sighing she looked up at me with some hope and we decided to find something to do with them.

"They are marbles you know. Why don't we just play marbles with them?" I had to admit she had a point so play marbles we did. After arguing over who played which of the pretty little balls I decided to up the odds and I made a little bet.

"If I win I get to keep one of these marbles." I said.

"All right, but only until you have a set." She said. So I agreed.

I had taken a shine to one of the prettier marbles. A magnificent green and blue with white clouds swirling around. I decided I really had to have it. After putting up a fairly good fight I beat her. I even took the liberty of naming my new marble Earth after my first dog which alas only had a life span of a couple thousand years before he expired in an unfortunate accident. I threw his fetching tree into a small black hole and to get it out he dug the hole bigger and fell in, lost forever. I miss Earth terribly and in honor of his slobbery memory, I named my new marble after him. After winning nine more times my friend became fed up and told me I couldn't take any more because I had taken the best ones.

I had already taken my throwing marble, a huge yellow affair that I named the Sun, and other than Earth I also acquired Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Seeing that she had a point I agreed to not take any more.

Now Marbles is an excellent game but after playing it for over a year it can become kind of dull. This is when I thought up a new game.

"Why don't we create life on one of these little marbles, I think my Earth can handle it, and see what happens?"

"Oh, I don't know…" She began.

"Oh come on. It'll be fun. We can continue playing until all of your marbles are mine if you wish, then I'll just create life…"

"Okay okay."

So after one heck of a big bang and a few million years of waiting for Evolution to do it's thing, we watched in fascination as little things we called humans began to crawl around my Earth. Here is where the game became interesting. The previous life forms had been a little on the stupid side and were therefore very dull to play with. This new life form seemed a little more intelligent, so I thought of ways to torture them.

"They look bored." My friend said. "We have to give them some reason to live."

"No we don't." I said. "They'll live just to see if there is a point. What we will do is find millions of little ways for them to destroy themselves and each other. We'll bet on how long it will take them to destroy Earth. What a crash it will be! I'll bet the Sun and Pluto they won't last two billion years." My friend laughed.

"With you planting ideas in their heads they won't last one! But with ME they'll last at least three billion." Now this may sound extremely mean but we were young and educated in the ways of the universe. The most exciting things were the ones that caused the biggest disasters. Earth I figured would get into a whopper and I was excited.

"Sounds like a bet." I said. "Are you sure you can handle losing to me again?"

"Oh no! This time I WILL win! I'll bet the rest of my marbles on it!" So we began.

Oh the excitement! The first thought my friend planted in their heads was that of God and heaven.

"They have to have something to look forward to." She insisted.

So I spent most of my time trying to destroy that little bit of good. She made miracles I created nuclear bombs. I told her she was just setting the little things up for mass disappointment since there was no heaven, but she kept it up. Towards the end she had very few believers. I had many, all of which pretty much agreed that life sucked.

I created guns, insanity, money, greed, the government, pollution, war, the military and the death penalty. These suckers were going in less than two billion years! She created love, greenpeace, environmentalists, rainbows, god, heaven, and female logic in a desperate attempt to cancel out my effects on the little maniacs. It became quite the competition.

Towards the end when nuclear war was about to commence between the United States and Asia, my friend started to regret what we had done.

"They have to have something good!" She yelled above the din of missiles landing in various parts of the Earth, which was surprisingly loud.

"Oh their end will be good! What a way to go! Bombs guns! A dumbfounding light show! You're just mad because I'm going to win."

"You're right the crash will be good but still…" she argued.

"Oh be quiet an watch the show." She silenced and we watched as everything I had set into motion continued and less and less of hers was visible. When the U.S. landed a whopper on Asia I did have a slight moment of sadness. Then Asia responded with everything she had in her dying breath and my Earth became a glowing ball of fire, hell, screaming and explosions which lasted about a year. My moment of sadness left as the biggest, most destructive nuclear bomb left in the world designed by Africa, launched and what remained of the oceans boiled over and made the big bang look like a cheap firecracker.

Game Over. My friend was completely disgusted with me and refused to talk to me for quite some time. They of course went in less than 2 billion years, 1.99 billion to be exact. I told her she was close and she just glared at me. When she finally began to talk to me again, she just very simply said… "Double or nothing?"

I think that next we'll go to that pretty red marble and…