The Game

The bar was as busy as ever, the Sunday evening crowd light hearted and noisy, the atmosphere warm after the chill of the evening outside. Every table occupied, save one in the corner away from the bar with a reserved sign on it.

The doors banged open against their stops, and as though a blanket had been drawn from the front, muffling the hubbub, the room quietened as three figures made their way forwards past the counter and down into the subdued lighting of the sunken area, their progress followed by the silent watchers.

"Who are they" I asked, quite loudly.
"Shhh" my companion growled "Dont you know them? The Queens of Diamonds?"

No wiser but warned I shusshed

The three ladies made their way to the solitary unoccupied table and arranged themselves, as the noise in the bar began to rise again my companion leaned in:
" Them's the famous lady poker players, they come to gamble, and boy do they gamble."

The one in the middle with the yellow helmet, she's the widow Fazackerly, see them rings, her husband was the accountant at the town hall, she's made of steel. They call her Fingers.

The one on the right is Doris (the Don) Golightly. She was married to the mayor before the one before last, he died bent over a pool table, when she caught him teaching the meter maids the finer points of potting balls, hands on.

And the third? I asked

At this the third lady swung her nylon padded jacket from her shoulders as if it were a Balanciaga mink and slid onto her chair, her crimpilene slacks making a muted sqeak against the plastic seat. She was a small woman, her feet not touching the floor and her legs swinging away like a carefree five year old at a swing park.

"She's called Margaret Fyfe, also known as Moonstone, get a look at her right hand, that rock there she won in a game of Blind Mans Monte on a honeymoon cruise with her fourth husband."

A new deck of cards had been placed by Fingers Fazackerly's side, she cut, shuffled and dealt. Silently play began, I couldn't follow the game but my companion explained.
"They play something called thirteen card draw" he said "Fours wild, aces high, and mercy on the black Jacks, double or nothing and winner takes all". No money changes hands but watch Doris, she switches her bracelets around like a Greek banker playing an abacus, thats how they keep count.

The game continued silently, the tension building but only revealed by the subtle shifting of an upper dental plate here, an adjustment of a hearing aid there. The cards were played relentlessly, without emotion until Moonstone slapped down a final king and made a pumping motion with her right arm.

Doris raised a well plucked eyebrow "Calm down, dear " she advised " We don't do triumphalism"

"It's not triumphalism" replied Moonstone indignantly "Its my blessed arthritis"

Felicity dealt another hand, she picked up her own cards and fanned them. An expression spread over her face, like that of our own dear Queen when the the naughty corgis have done a woopsie on the throne room floor just before an investiture.

Doris also seemed disappointed, her face impassive, cheeks distended by a plug of chewing tobacco, she struggled to maintain her composure.

The cards were now being slapped down, all pretense of calm put aside, Doris's naked ambition writ large on her brow, card after card the game was played out in frenzied silence until once more Margaret emphatically laid down the final winning card.

Silently Fingers slipped her rings from her hands, removed the diamond drops from her ears and with a dismissive nod pushed them into the centre of the table. The Don removed a large emerald set with sapphires, her string of pearls, and all of her bracelets, added them to the pile and pushed the hoard across to Margaret, who scooped the jackpot into the pocket of her nylon jacket.

"Thank you, my dears" she trilled, slipping from the chair "I must just dash and spend a penny, such good fun isn't it"

"Such good fun" repeated Doris and Felicity through gritted dentures, as she walked away "Such good fun,....... Bitch!"