Cheat Card

© Joshua Scribner

Tara's dainty hand touched his face, and she said, “I'm sorry.”

“It's fine,” Gabe responded.  “Just forget it.”

“No.  I can never forgive myself for the things I said.  I must make it up to you.  I have a gift.”  She placed in his hand a card.  “It's a cheat card.  You may use it whenever you want, and the only consequences will be mine.”

“No!  I won't even consider it.  It would hurt you.”

“That is why you must use it, and you must use it near here, so it will hurt me the most.”

“Please, don't make me.”

She touched his face again.  “I must, or I will not be able to like myself again.  Benefit from it, my love, and the consequences will be the pain I deserve.”

###

“Are you sure you want to do this, sir?” asked the extravagant woman.  “I'm giving you a chance to change your mind?”

“My money is already in it,” Gabe responded.  “I have made my decision.”

“Yes, but I'm giving you an out.  I don't want you to do something so rash and regret it later.”

“I told you.  I've made up my mind.”

The extravagant woman nodded.  All the other players in this hand of Texas hold ‘em had folded when she shoved in the biggest pile of chips on the table.  He had not.  In a slight breach of etiquette, the dealer had allowed the other player a chance to talk him into folding. 

Because all the chips were in, they showed their cards before any community cards were laid in the center of the table.  The extravagant woman had two aces.  He had a two and a nine, unsuited.  The extravagant woman smirked, and other players around the table moaned. 

He placed the cheat card, face down, on the table.  Because it was not near the size of the other cards, it was ignored by the other players and the dealer.  The flop contained three nines, at which everyone gasped.  The turn and the river were not aces, which would have been all that could have beaten him.

“Four of a kind.  The gentleman wins.”

After the chips were properly distributed, he raked his in and got up from the table.  As he walked away, he heard the extravagant woman shouting. 

“No!  He used magic to win!  His wife is a witch!”

He turned to see she was holding up the cheat card, which his wife had instructed him to leave on the table.

He met the witch at the front entrance.

“Most will believe the woman is mad and that the card never contained magic,” Gabe said.

“Enough will know its true power.  The word will get around that I gave my husband an unfair advantage in a game of chance, and the elder's will reprimand me with nightmares.”  She smiled and touched his face.  “Then I will have paid my penance for hurting the one I love.”