“I really hope you find your Master soon. What if Kingston isn’t my Master, though? What if I’m just a temporary entertainment for him and Raleigh. Neither of them has said anything about me staying here.”
Nevis gave her a firm look. “Likely they’re waiting for you to decide. If you want to stay, if you want a job, ask for it.”
Andorra nodded but she wasn’t convinced. She rather thought Kingston was the one who’d make all the decisions. Possibly in alliance with Raleigh, but either way it wouldn’t be her doing it.
“What about you, Nevis? What do you plan to do next? You said you came up here for a rest from being a speech therapist?”
“First I hoped to find a new Master, but that hasn’t happened. I think in a few weeks—as you were saying, before it starts snowing—I’ll go somewhere new and different and join a practice that only deals with kids. Or, at any rate, I’ll only deal with kids. That means coping with their parents, but I think I’m ready to face them again.”
They ate salad for dinner along with another slice of the cake they’d made and talked for another hour. Then Nevis said, “Okay, it’s time to go to the Scumbags and Warlords game.”
Obediently Andorra stood up but she was confused. “The Scumbags are playing the Warlords? In what sport? Football? Baseball? I don’t know either of those teams.”
“No, silly, it’s a card game. Haven’t you ever played it before?”
Andorra shook her head.
“Have you heard of President and Asshole? Or Rich Man, Poor Man?”
Andorra kept shaking her head as she followed Nevis down the hallway, down the stairs, and into the communal living room.
“Don’t worry. It’s really easy to learn. I’ll help you.”
Andorra watched bemused as six other people jostled for position around a table. The chairs they sat on were very mismatched. There was a luxurious armchair, an executive office chair, a couple of regular office chairs and a wooden box.
“Hey, Nevis. I’m so glad you brought a friend. Katie couldn’t come tonight and an even number of players is way better than an odd number,” said a man smiling at her.
“This is Andorra. She’s never played before but I’ll be watching out for her to make sure you don’t lie to her,” said Nevis, before telling Andorra each person’s name.
York, the man who’d first smiled at her, dealt each person a card face up. “Lowest deals this first round. That’s you, Carson.”
A blond man, presumably Carson, dealt all the cards out. It seemed to be a double pack as there were a lot of cards. Beside her Nevis said, “Suits don’t matter. Just pairs, triples, and so on. Two is the highest card, then ace, then court cards. Three is the lowest card.”
Andorra sorted her hands into pairs and triples and reminded herself that two was high. So far so good.
“We play that if you pass you can’t go in the next round, so if you have a better card you either have to play it now or wait for another hand,” said York.
That made sense. She’d played games with that rule before, besides, a good card would only ever take one trick so why wait? Nevis had already told her the aim was to get rid of all her cards, so the more times she could put her cards down the better.
Soon Andorra was involved in the game enjoying the hand very much. The first person had started out with a single five, so the game went around the table several times before someone took the trick with a two. The next person led with two cards and she had to decide whether or not to split up her three jacks and play, but decided to hold onto them. She didn’t know whether she had beginner’s luck or not, but when Savannah announced herself the winner after playing the last card in her hand, Andorra only had one card left, which made her fourth out of the eight people playing.
“I’m the president. Get out of my chair, you scumbag,” Savannah yelled, jumping up and poking York, who was sitting in the armchair.
“And I’m vice president,” said Nevis, moving to the executive office chair on the left of the armchair.
When Carson sighed and groaned, “Asshole,” and sat on the wooden box on the president’s right, suddenly all the odd chairs began to make sense to Andorra. She moved to the fourth chair and rested her hand on the back of it hesitantly, but the others all nodded at her so she settled into her new seat. Carson, as asshole, had to give his two best cards to the president and the second lowest player had to give his best card to the vice president. These two powerful people could give back any card they chose, typically one that was no use to them.