Monte

               You do it a hundred times. You watch their eyes follow the Joker as he lands face down in the middle of the two red queens. You smile ever so slightly as they go to point him out. They hesitate. You pressure. They miss. You make money. People are their own worst enemies.

                I play with the heart and diamond bitches, my money card is the clown. “Find the clown and make a buck, he’s never in the same place twice,”… oh but he is. He’s in the middle. He’s in the middle every. Damned. Time.   “Care to try your luck?”

                The street was hot with people begging to give me their dollars, the winners walked away proud. I paid them to bring me more losers. It’s always a pleasure to do business.

I had a lurker today. She was a hot young thing who watched eight people out of ten pay me. Then sixteen out of twenty. I never let people just watch for that long, pay to play or hit the road. I’m no corner guitar man. But I let her watch. She saw my clown pay 17 people. He paid them from the same cozy spot between my ladies every time.

As the sun went down, the crowds started to dwindle. Nobody trusts a Three Card dealer in the dark. But before I packed up, I called her over. She’d already had a nice little quip worked out. Of course she did, she knew I saw her there. She’d said the same simple thing again and again in her head for at least the last hour.

“You and me, let’s play,” she smacked a moist hundred dollar bill on my platform and smiled at me.

I said, “Dollface,” she liked that, “magic man don’t play checkers. I play chess. And I only use three pieces.”

“Lay ‘em out,” she picked up my speech patterns. Good. Mirroring. She’s trying to build rapport, but I’m always one step ahead. I scratched my nostril and her nose itched.

“One, two, three,” face up diamond, Joker, heart, “Find the one in the middle.” I pointed at my clown and told her exactly where to find it. “One, two, three,” my cards were face down. Enigmas.

“Before we get started,” let’s make this game interesting. I pulled out my hundred in tens and laid it on top of her bill. “As always, it’s winner take all.”

“But?”

“But if you win … I’ll give you my cards.”

“And if I lose?” Flirt.

“I take you back to my place and we play a different game.” I looked her right in the eye, and smiled.

“Deal.”