No Tomorrow, Part 62

8:00 pm

“Ace,” he said, placing the ace of spades down on the table between them, resignation in his voice.

Anna grinned and turned her card to face him. “Two,” she said, scooping up the ace and sliding her two of clubs to the bottom of her half of the deck.

Jacob sighed and shuffled his cards as his wife placed the four of diamonds down on the table. The smallest card he had was the seven of diamonds. Sighing heavily, he simply handed the card off to her and listened to her squeal with delight.

“I love this game,” Anna gushed as she shuffled her own cards.

Their daughters had invented the game when they had been kids. Sylvie and Callie had tired of the traditional card game war and had decided to flip everything around. They called it Two’s Revenge where the two cards were just as powerful as the aces and the aces took the twos’ place as the lowest cards.

Jacob gave her a playful harrumph as a light breeze ruffled his thinning gray hair. They sat at their patio table, the streamers still hanging around them and balloons scattered around their feet. The table cloth was wrinkled and food stained, but at least it was keeping the splinters away since it was an unfinished wooden table. The patio light was already on, casting a bright golden glow over them.

 “I bet you do. You’re winning.”

She grinned. “Sure am. Want to go back to war?”

“Nah,” he said, sticking out his lower lip. “This is fine. I can deal with it. Besides, I’m sure I’ll get a two eventually.”

She laughed and placed another card down on the table. For the past few hours, after their family had departed, they had been sitting out in their backyard. A stack of all of their board games was sitting on the table next to them. They had gone through most of them before Anna had found their deck of cards with their chess pieces. For the past half hour, they had been switching between playing war and their daughters’ made up game.

“I can’t believe we haven’t played any of these games in years,” Anna said as she placed another card down, her head moving slightly to the beat of the music that had been playing for the past hour and a half from Perkins Stadium.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go ahead and go to the stadium?” Jacob asked as he sacrificed his eight of hearts to her three of clubs.

She hesitated as she tucked the two cards at the bottom of her stack of cards. “Why? Have you changed your mind?”

He shook his head. “No. It’s just that I can see you nodding your head to the music. I just thought that maybe you would enjoy the party more.”

Ann put down her cards and reached across the table for her husband’s hand. A tender look of love spread across her face as she gazed at the man who had been a constant companion to her for the past fifty years.

“I’m sure I don’t want to go to the stadium, Jacob,” she assured him. “This is where I want to be. I want to be in our home with you. I want to play games with you just like we used to when we were younger. I want to go inside when it gets dark and dance in your arms until our legs can’t hold us up anymore. I want to be here. Besides, it’s bound to be a zoo at the stadium by now.”

He gave her a soft smile and squeezed her hand. He had the same sentiments.