The Game
The card had an half oval of a woman’s face, only the bottom of her nose to her chin were visible. her slender first finger held in front of her red pursed lips in a quieting motion. Her brown hair fell in a fifties style bob with an single up-curl near her chin. A pale maroon background encircled the picture in an oval shape and faded into the white background of the card. The title Silence was written in a wispy large font at the bottom.
In the bottom of the darkness, far down below us. I could hear an argument taking place, I could see a man an a woman in heated disagreement in a small one bedroom apartment inside a large city somewhere.
You could smell the pollution from inside the room, a window was open nearby. The neighbors could hear the commotion, the woman had opened the window for that express purpose. Let them hear the commotion, let them also be the judge. The woman grew tired of waging this battle alone behind these walls, she was desperate to recruit others and outnumber him to win.
The man walked to the window and closed it. After twisting the lock and lowering the curtain he stood in front of it, crossing his arms in a defiant manner. Whatever their problem was, others need not get involved. Their problems would not be solved by the interference of outside sources.
I glanced at my deck of cards and studied them carefully. A lone card stood out to me, on it sat a figure of man made of ice, his back was facing caddy corned to the card. He sat alone with his hand under his chin, a look of worry and sadness was etched deep into his face. A dark tan oval served as the background that faded into the white card. I placed the card on the table in the far left position. At the bottom of the card between black diamonds the word Isolation was written in crisp eighteen hundred lettering.
The woman turned from the man and walked out of the apartment and down the street. He wanted silence? He could have it, have his entire fill of it. He could feast on it til he could handle no more.
A voice in the darkness chuckled at the wit of the card, “O-o-o-o. She gave you the cold shoulder.”