Whist (Part 2 of 2) The Party

It was around midnight that I made two discoveries. The first was that I was having a wonderful time.

Wally and Ruth had set out five card tables with four players at each table, and as the game was played, the winning couple moved on the next table. By the end of the night we had played with just about everyone in the room.

I had met 18 new people, eighteen new personalities, eighteen new stories to learn. The people tended to break evenly into two groups. Friends of Wally, meaning they were high school teachers. And friends of Ruth, meaning they were musicians.

My second discovery was the shock of realizing I was winning this tournament. Me, the game curmudgeon. The game avoider. I was the only one who made it around all the tables by the end of the night. Linda the gamer was still two tables back.

Because there was no money involved, fortune smiled on me.

I know it wasn't skill. I was just getting the right cards. A hand full of the trump suit and the rest aces and kings.

Every hand dealt me at all five tables was brilliant. The scores on my score card just kept getting higher.

"You just got lucky," said Linda on our way home.

"Did I ever!" I said happily.

"I had nothing in any of my hands," said Linda. "No trump cards. No face cards. Nothing."

"I had it all," I said.

"And how come every table I went too they were talking about salt in their diet. Did you get them talking about that?"

"Me?"

"You."

"It just seemed to keep coming up."

"Do you know how hard it is to eat potato chips with everybody talking about cutting back on salt? Poor Wally and Ruth had bags and bags of snacks left over."

"Well we also were talking about dogs."

"Arrugh! Was that you too. If they weren't talking about salt they were telling tales of taking their dogs for walks. What kind of card table conversation is that?"

"I'm not used to these things."

"No gossip. No catty remarks. No flirting. No couples having fights. That's just not cards."

"Yes but I was winning."

"We need to play more cards."

"Only if you let me keep winning."

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