RAISING THE STAKES

After a failed marriage, impulse turned me into who I thought I’d never become, sitting around a poker table in the local casino. Opposite me was Grace, a thirty-something woman with scars on her arms and a stolid, unreadable expression, but nice enough company. I had dinner with her earlier; steak fixed me up for the night. To my right was the Chinaman, lathered in jewellery and a pinstripe suit. He ordered his fifth double whisky as the anticipation of the final hand unfolded. The gamble now was that I had been paid by certain members to throw the game in favor of this smarmy, unpopular character.

            A small crowd gathered as the flop went down: king of clubs, seven of diamonds, and a lifesaving ace of clubs, which gave me a pair. Grace, unblinking, raised an eyebrow and then sixty pounds worth of chips, which was the big blind minimum bet. The Chinaman called with a sickening confidence; I called with a squint. My ears itched, a familiar sign of nerves as I stared at my depleted chips.

            The turn was laid. seven of clubs. Promising. Grace raised again. What was she playing at? She still didn’t blink. Both the Chinaman and I called her bet, but then the river was set down by the dealer, jack of clubs.

            Grace blinked twice, my signal to back off. She put down another sixty. Unsurprisingly, the Chinaman called. I wanted to gamble, not be slung a backhander and let them dictate me. His entourage of suited men leered at me from over his shoulder. I took a deep breath and pushed my chips over the line. Fuck it! The Chinaman eyed me intensely as we showed our cards. Grace revealed three of a kind. The Chinaman smiled at his ace-high flush, but I couldn’t gain control with my full house. At least my return home was now less flooded with peril. However, my luck changed as Grace pulled out a serrated knife and impaled the Chinaman’s hand to the table as he reached for his winnings. ‘That was my steak knife,’ I thought.

            Chaos ensued. Some of the crowd started running for the exits and screaming. Security guards were obstructed by them and failed to get to Grace in time before the Chinaman’s henchmen. She was in for it; I couldn’t save her now. I took my chips and darted for the exchange desk before heading to the exit once the commotion died down. As I stepped outside into the breezy night, the police arrived and flooded inside, leaving their car doors open.

            I was curious as to what were to become of Grace at this point, but I also needed to stay incognito. I decided to sit myself upon a public bench across the main road from the casino for a while. The seafront gardens were behind me in the darkness if I needed a quick escape. The police turned up quickly, and my voyeurism caught sight of a fuming Grace with her hands cuffed behind her back. She was led to the back of a police car by several officers. The Chinaman followed, ranting at her from a distance with a badly bandaged hand. He’d obviously had too much alcohol for any extensive hospital treatment. He had also cuffed a metallic silver briefcase to his good hand. It wasn’t long before his rantings were cut short as the latch on the briefcase gave way, letting the case fall open. The strong gusts plucked the packed monetary notes from the case and flung them down the street. The notes swept across the seafront gardens, catching on bushes and trees. The Chinaman and his henchmen stumbled with manic disorder into the road after it. My eyes lit up.

            I knew my presence was about to be noticed, so I turned for home, taking a long, slow walk through the seafront gardens on the way to swipe some winnings, pleased that justice had been played out in some form.