52 Card Pickup

During one of my extended stays with Great Aunt Harriet, she asked me if I wanted to play 52 card pickup.

I looked down at her wrinkled hands and saw her thickened, yellow nails gripping the worn, soft-blue deck of cards that had taught me how to play such staples as WAR, Go Fish, Rummy, Gin Rummy, and Slap Jack.

"Yes."

She smiled and patted the so-blonde-it-looked-invisible hair on my oversized head and we walked into the kitchen her mobile home.

"Alright, pay attention. I don't wanna explain this twice."

The deck of cards began flying madly into the air as she laughed so violently in my face that her chin hairs shook.

As the cards began to settle, her laugh trailed off into tiny hiccups. After a moment of my stunned silence, she pointed at the ground...

"There. 52 cards. Pick em up."

and walked out of the room.