When You’re in the Mood for a Story

- about -

A House of Cards

Six of Clubs knew her place in the deck. She was nowhere near The Face Cards—heavens, no. Yet, she was also not small enough to be considered helpful when playing out a hand of Cribbage ... well, maybe if she was paired up with a Nine, but good luck—Nines were classically work-avoidant and full of shenanigans, always sneaking their way to the bottom of the deck. Six wasn’t flexible like the Aces—they could hobknob with Kings and then play with Twos in the next breath. She wasn’t allowed to play Pinochle— “Too little,” brother Ten would tell her. Sometimes, when playing Gin Rummy, she might get to fraternize with other sixes in the deck or be of use to her sister Seven and brother Eight—but they usually told her to “Go play War.” She wasn’t particularly good at that game either. Mostly, she just heard people sigh as they picked her up…just another Six.

The Hearts were too good-natured to care about being close to the bottom of the heap. They let the Spades walk all over them. Spades—those brown-nosers who kept digging greedily for the attention from the elite suit, The Diamonds. Even King Spade, though he tried not to show it, knew his place when a Two or Three of Diamonds showed up—his face would be on the floor. The Diamonds weren’t necessarily elitist. They were just so naturally above it all that they didn’t pay much attention to the rest of those in the box.

It had already been summer for two weeks, and still nobody living in the house had picked up the deck yet. Summer was always the busy time, outside the week of Winter Break when the temperatures were too severe for sledding or snowman-making or other such tomfoolery. When the May sun started to warm the cabinet the card box lived in, they knew it was time. Time to do their stretching to improve their flexibility. Time to wipe off any leftover grime from hot chocolate fingers. Time to smooth out any kinks or bent corners. Ripped corners, well…you couldn’t do anything for that but hope the other three remained in tack through one more season. And then, all you had to do was wait for the sound of footsteps bounding to the cabinet corner and the creak of the door as it opened. Alas, two weeks into June and no bounding, no creaking.

“Queeny says it’s going to rain,” sister Seven said.

Six perked up. “Really? How can she tell?” she asked.

“Oh, come on, Six. Can’t you feel how humid it is out there? That means rain is on its way! She asked me to tell all the Clubs to get ready,” sister Seven called out over her shoulder haughtily.

Now that she mentioned it, Six had felt a bit sticky all day. Rain! How exciting! Rain meant no baseball games or bike rides. No hopscotch or double-dutch. Rain meant another cup of tea and dunking cookies while playing a game! Six straightened her shoulders as best as she could. Today looked promising.

“I’m bored!” she heard a voice outside the cabinet say—must be Aubrey, part of their host family. She was always bored.

Excellent start, thought Six. Suggest a game.

A deeper, resonant voice (Aubrey’s dad, Arthur) said, “You could clean your room. That’s something you could do.”

“But that’s not fun!” the smaller voice protested.

Six agreed.

“You could start reading the book that’s due for your summer reading list,” Aubrey’s mother, Angela, suggested.

“But that’s not doing something. I want to do something that’s not for homework!”

“Well, let’s see…. You could color, or you could play a game!”

“A game could be fun,” Aubrey said tentatively.

“Why don’t you dig around in the game cupboard and see what you can find. I can join you when I’m done with the dishes,” Arthur stated.

Six could hear King Club yell from elsewhere in the deck, “Look lively, Clubs! Stand at attention!”

Finally! Six straightened her corners.