Re: [BP] say it in spades

[MSGuild]

Read n weep   The bright Gulf sun splashes light through palm leafs which slash the light with a pulsating laser like effect into the pale green pall of the crypt.  If the tomb were not eerie enough on its own we now have a skull and bones gleaming up at us.  Molecules of moist dust captured in the light drift skyward.  The interior air remains fetid with smells of rotting wood and wet plaster . To see who crawls in we will play a hand of poker.  Each antes a dollar. The winner gets the dollars but has to make coffee and the mortar with two others ; the loser-gets to works the bones. We gather around the far end of crypt cover and bring out an old battered deck of playing cards . We hear they are freezing up north.  Here the day is clear and very mild for mid January; 68 degrees and sunny, a regular beach day.  Dazzling white sand is underfoot and the work radio scratches out some Delta blues. Song birds of yellow Finch and Blue bird serenade and dart merrily from cedar and live oak. They hide and mate in the hanging moss as pink sea clouds drift lazily overhead. . The cards get dealt; and the radio crackles  with a tinny piano "Trouble  Trouble  round mah doe"  "Trouble  Trouble  round mah doe "  Each man gets two cards down as his own and then four cards dealt one at a time face up go into the common pot: the flop. (radio) "been so long since mah man wuz heah;" The last card up (called the river) goes to  position of the head of the dead man.  After all, we are his guests and, well, it would be bad ju-ju not to include him. (radio) "so come-on an puts some sugar in mah bowl" "Its your go, Paco."  Half Mexican with piercing good looks and jet black hair decorated with a whale bone, Paco flashes a smile wherein a gold tooth glints.  It's his good luck piece. He is a Romeo;  a young and spirited foreman cocksure of himself  and his work .  "3 deuces " he calls  and lays three dog eared cards across the white of the marble crypt cover.  His  lead is slim  for  7 cards and he knows it . Suddenly something within  the crypt moves. A fat black roach scurries  from an eye socket only to dig and claw his way under a brackish mass just  under the clavicle .  His, fat, greasy black  body animates the debris and the  green sticky dust that covers it. The men   fearing such sights as omens  step back-all except Paco Realizing that they have been made fools of by a roach they return to play of their cards,suffering the abuse of  Paco, who ridicules their manhood. But holding good cards gives them new blood; it makes weaklings into kings.  Like sharks they smell blood  , they close in for the kill, leering at Paco and me as they drop their cards .  First is  Ben.  He lays down a straight  and sits back,  resting on his laurels. Next is  Tiny, who  follows with a full house, grinning. Now the tension is on me as to whether-or not-I can beat out  Paco I look at my hidden cards and with downcast eyes feign sadness. Ben and Tiny nudge themselves, my demise brings them pleasure. Paco's eyes brighten, he wets his lips;  then, turning my down cards over, I announce, "Read 'em and weep." There, atop the other cards, lays a crude flush in black dog eared spades . A little  breeze from nowhere  rustles the bills and pushes them like sails over top  the upturn of cards.  The men  stare in silence.  What they thought was a win . . . is now a bust.. Paco shrugs, lights a  short cigar stub he had parked on the stone, then walks over and lowers himself into the crypt on the chain fall disappearing below  the ground.   (cont) Michael