EVERYTHING’S NOT LOST
Chapter Thirteen

Lightoller began to shuffle the cards as I threw my purse that I had been carrying (out of habit, I suppose) to the ground beside my feet. I glanced around the table. Harry’s at my left, Will on my right. How did this happen? Moody cleared his throat, gesturing to Harry.

"Harry, what happened to the no women rule?" Harry laughed as all eyes in the room went to me.

"Well, rules change," he replied.

"I can leave, if this rule is such a big—" I pointed to the door behind me.

"No, no, Antoinette," Harry reassured me. "We made up that rule when we were…"

"Really drunk," Will answered.

"Oh, that’s reassuring!" I laughed. "Besides, I have no idea how to play poker. I’ll slow everyone down."

"Aw, no you won’t," Harry reassured me.

"Well, what’s the game about?" I questioned, resting my hand in my palm.

"It’s…" Lightoller’s voice trailed off as he turned his attention back on the task of shuffling.

"You see…" Moody stopped himself.

"Well…" Will also had no idea what to say.

"There must be some purpose to this card game," I said aloud. Harry glanced about the table, almost ashamed.

"Dear Lord," he quipped, "We’ve been playing poker for how long now?" He laughed. "Ann, it’s really very simple. Everyone at the table gets five cards a piece—and the cards are ranked."

"Ranked?" He nodded.

"Mm-hmm. The Aces are the highest and twos are the lowest." He gestured to the cards still in Lightoller’s hands. "Whoever has the cards with the highest rank wins." He paused. "There are straight flushes, four of a kind, full house, flush—" Is my mind spinning or what?

"You want to write this down?" I asked him. "You lost me at the four of a kind." Harry managed a smile and grabbing some paper from the table with the usual White Star Line monogram on it, he took out a pencil from his pocket and wrote in capital letters on the top of the page: WHITE STAR LINE POKER HANDS OF VALUE. "Oh, you can’t be serious!" I exclaimed, howling with laughter.

"I’m serious!" he reassured me. "Okay, you see, the straight flush is the highest." He made a quick list, numbered one through five and wrote down straight flush in the number one spot.

"Now, what’s that?"

"This could take all night," Will murmured, rubbing his forehead.

"Well, you four go on ahead and Harry can explain this to me as quickly as possible."

"Sounds fine to me," Lightoller contended, passing out the cards to the non-participating people to the teaching lesson.

"Now, the straight flush is the best you can get with poker," Harry began. "It’s usually five cards in order, like five, six, seven, eight, nine…and they have to be all of the same suit." He’s writing down everything as he speaks.

"Suit?" I asked, confused. I’m thinking of a business suit.

"Haven’t you ever played cards?" I wish!

"I’m a society girl—Women don’t play cards. At least not poker." I have played with cards before—Go Fish, anyone, or solitaire, but I never realized the cards were categorized into suits. I always just matched them up with solitaire, I never knew there was a name for them.

"Suit is the color coordination of all of the cards. I’m not sure how to explain it. There are four suits: diamonds, hearts, spades and clubs." Will tapped on my shoulder, holding out the five cards in his hand.

"See? These are the hearts and the diamonds." He pointed to the matching red cards. "The clubs look like clovers." He gestured to a three-leafed clover that was tinted black. "…And spades, I’m not sure where they got that name from." He pointed to another card in his hand before turning back to his game.

"Thank you, Will," I tried to say sincerely. He smiled.

"Okay, now…" Harry took my wrist to get my attention. "Now, with a straight flush, if you ever get all royalty and they have the same suit—an ace, a king, a queen, a jack and a ten, that’s called a royal flush or an ace-high flush." He scribbled it down as a footnote on the stationary sheet.

"Which you can never get!" Moody chimed in with a laugh.

"That’s true," Harry concluded, with a smile. "Either way, they must be in numbered order and have the same suit. Got it?"

"I think so." Thank goodness he’s writing this down!

"Now, the four of a kind." He wrote that down in the number two slot. "It basically is just four cards with the same number, such as nine. You could have four cards with ten on them and then a random card that doesn’t really matter. Either way, there are four cards altogether."

"Okay…" I think this is making sense. I hope it’s sinking in.

"Now, a full house." He smiled at me as he wrote that down as number three on our list of poker must-knows. "Am I going too fast?" he asked suddenly, nervous. I shook my head.

"That’s why you’re writing it down," I concluded, gesturing to the paper.

"It’s for future reference," he reassured me. "The women at tea will just be in shock!" He burst into a smile.

"Sure they will." I pointed to the paper. "Now, I would like to lose tonight, you know."

"Oh, right. The…the…" He snapped his fingers, trying to think of the word, his train of thought out the window or in this case, the porthole.

"A full house."

"Right. Full house is a three of a kind and a pair. You could have three cards that have five on them and then two other cards that are both queens. Three cards must match and two other cards have to match." He began to draw out card diagrams on the paper. I giggled at that. How thoughtful. "Now, a flush—"

"Didn’t we just talk about that?"

"That was a straight flush, Love. Completely different."

"Alright."

"A flush is just five cards of the same suit—such as diamonds, in no particular order. See, that’s different from the straight flush…"

"Which had to have five cards of the same suit and had to be in a sequence."

"Hey, you’re quick, aren’t you?" Lightoller noticed aloud, barely looking up from his cards.

"I should say so," I replied.

"Alright, now a straight. That’s just five cards in sequence of various suits. It doesn’t matter if they are all different, as long as they have an order…two, three, four, five." I just stared at him as he shut his mouth. "You get the general point, don’t you?" I chuckled as he wrote something else down on the paper.

"Yes."

"Three of a kind—simple, Ann."

"Three cards that all have the same number on them?" I suggested.

"Exactly. Two other cards in that hand are unmatched." He wrote that down.

"Two pair…Now, that’s two sets of cards that are the same. For example, you could have a pair of three’s and a pair of five’s, and then one unmatched card. Make sense?"

"Somewhat." I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.

"Now, one pair. That’s just one pair of cards of the same value and three unmatched cards." Well, it’s nice to know poker terms actually make sense—sometimes.

"Lastly…" He added number nine to the list, writing down the word nothing.

"Nothing?" I asked, confused.

"Nothing. You have nothing that matches up to these." He pointed to the terms listed one through eight. "You have nothing, in plain English. You have nothing of any value. Basically, whoever’s sitting beside you is beating you."

"I’ll end up with that," I concluded.

"I’m sure it won’t be that bad." He turned the paper over, writing down WHITE STAR LINE POKER TERMS.

"We’re not done yet?" I asked, sighing. "I can just watch, you know."

"Oh, it’s fun," Moody reassured me.

"…Once you get the hang of it." Will just had to say that, didn’t he? This is going to be awful, a train wreck, I can already feel it in my bones.

"This is for betting," Harry began.

"You actually use money?"

"Oh, we use anything!" Lightoller laughed. "Money, paperclips, it doesn’t really matter. Whatever’s in the room at the time." That’s real reassuring, my friend.

"Okay, Harry, my head’s spinning."

"Well, we’re using paperclips tonight," Will tried to reassure me. "Once the paperclips run out, we use coins." He shrugged.

"I guess we ought to start playing before the night is over," I told Harry as he put the pencil pack into his pocket.

"Yes, I suppose we ought to," he agreed.

"Welcome, Miss Andrews," Lightoller laughed as he collected the cards, "To the underground world of poker!"

Chapter Fourteen
Stories