Rook

Rook

“No help. No help.”
Grandpa’s voice rings clearly through the air
as he repeats this phrase with each card he picks up. 
He’s taken another bid for far more than what Granny thinks they can afford:
“We’re in trouble now” she says with a devastated voice. 

Granny and Grandpa were always a funny pair in Rook.
Granny always bid as if we were playing for keeps and the house was on the line
and Grandpa always bid as if he were invincible.
As you can imagine, this created a hysterical tension.
Thank God we played in Kentucky and not Vegas.

“No help,” he says yet again.
“Oh boy. We’re gonna get set.”
And then,
“Ooo, that’ll help.”
Granny’s expression lightens a little with this more promising change.
She may no longer have to worry about finding a new place to live.

Rook really is a magnificent game.
There’s so much anticipation before each hand.
The curiosity of what’s in the kitty;
the hope of getting a perfect hand with your partner;
and if the other team gets the kitty, could they possibly call
a color you happen to have a lot of?
There’s nothing better than outlasting the bidding team with trump,
watching their shocked and demoralized faces as you just keep dishing it out.

When playing with Grandpa, the latter hope is the most common. 
Whenever the bidding started, we’d all begin low.
“85”
“Pass”
“90”
And then it’d get to Grandpa: 
“135”
At which point Granny would nearly faint.
He did it every time. Granny never saw it coming.

Somehow they never did lose the house,
although they certainly lost on occasion,
and when they did lose, and Granny’s poor memory was to blame,
Grandpa would always let her know: 
“Gosh darn it, Judy,” his voice would bellow.

But when it came to cards, Grandpa’s memory was as short as hers,
and they always kissed and made up afterwards.

That’s the thing about cards: it’s not good to dwell on a bad hand.
And the reality is, it’s not about the game your playing, 
but the people you’re playing with,
and Grandpa knew that he had one hell of a partner,
no matter what hand they were dealt.

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“Partners”

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