The Cardturner by Louis Sachar

Author:Louis Sachar
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Blind, Bridge, Social Issues, Bridge (Game), Family, Uncles, Special Needs, Juvenile Fiction, Sports & Recreation, Multigenerational, Card Games, Interpersonal relations, General, Games, Dead, People with disabilities, Fiction, Friendship, Contract bridge
ISBN: 9780385736626
Publisher: Random House, Inc.
Published: 2010-05-11T10:00:00+00:00

43

IMPs

We drove the rest of the way without any more discussion about Annabel. She didn't sound crazy to me, no crazier than any other bridge player. No crazier than I was when I asked if Annabel would ever redouble.

I believed Trapp when he said that she was just his bridge partner, "nothing more, nothing less." And I was glad. It meant Toni and I weren't related.

We were met at the hotel by Arnold and Lucy, friends from Trapp's bridge-bum days.

"We would have flown halfway around the world to be on a team with Trapp," said Arnold.

Lucy hugged my uncle as she gushed about how wonderful it was to see him playing bridge again. Then she got all flustered and apologetic because she had used the word see.

"It's all right, Lucy," Trapp assured her. "I'm aware you have the ability to see me, even if I can't see you."

"Well, it's probably just as well you can't see me," Lucy said. "I don't look like myself anymore."

"Have you ever looked like yourself?" he asked her.

Lucy laughed and said, "No," but then changed her mind and said, "Once."

Arnold and Lucy were married, but not to each other. Their spouses were also at the tournament, playing with other partners.

"You should never play bridge with your wife," Arnold told me. "It'll ruin your marriage."

"Even worse, it will ruin your bridge game," said Lucy.

We checked into our rooms. I had my own room, as did Gloria. Trapp and Teodora were sharing a two-room suite, which made sense, I thought, despite what my mother would have thought. We had lunch at the café in the hotel. Hamburgers were thirteen dollars.

Trapp, Gloria, Arnold, and Lucy went over old times, old friends, and old bridge hands too, some from more than forty years ago.

"And then you bid one spade, despite having only three points and only two spades!"

"It kept the opponents out of slam."

Just like Trapp, Arnold and Lucy seemed to be able to remember every hand they'd ever played.

I had thought of bridge as an old person's game, but I realized that hadn't always been true. Fifty years ago they hadn't been much older than Toni and me.

"We're probably boring poor Alton to death," Lucy suddenly said.

"What do you like to do, Alton?" Arnold asked. "When you're not hanging out with an old fart like Trapp?"

Everyone was staring at me. "Um, I don't know," I said. I knew better than to mention video games.

"Is there a girlfriend?" asked Lucy.

"I'm keeping my options open," I said, not wanting to come across as a total loser.

"Well, if I was forty years younger," said Lucy, "and if I lost forty pounds . . ."

For the record, I never described Lucy as overweight. I simply reported what she said. I have been very careful not to refer to any woman as old and fat.

The tournament was held in an area of the hotel called the Grand Ballroom. There must have been at least three hundred tables. Interspersed between the rows were tall poles with letters at the top, A through Q, indicating the location of the different sections.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.