Heads I win, tails you lose.-the coin flip trick
[This is a work of poker fiction set ten thousand hands in the future. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental.]
The pipe bomb rolled into the poker room and under Ben Parsons' chair.
All-in for all his chips, Parsons turned over quack quack, 2c-2h.
His opponent flipped over Oil Slick, Ac-Ks.
"Over cards versus pocket pair, a coin flip," said the dealer as the fuse burned down to the explosives.
The flop was As Ad Kh. Parson stood up, "One day I'll get even," he said, kicking his chair backwards and sending the pipe bomb rolling back out of the poker room, where Winston Smith was thrown onto it.
The emergency room was filled with victims of the fire on the Mississippi riverboat casino Calamity Jane. One of those victims was Peggy Smith, whose husband Winston sat in the waiting room worrying himself to death. Anyone seeing Smith would have thought he was in fear of his wife losing her life. They would have been wrong. He was in fear of losing his own life.
"Damn that meddling fool Ben Parsons!" thought Smith.
"Winston?
Smith looked up. Ben Parsons, his arm in a sling, asked, "Were you hurt too?"
Winston Smith wanted to scream, "Go away!" but instead mumbled, "Peggy was burned in the fire."
"No wonder you look so worried," said Parsons, sitting down. "The least I can do is wait with you. After all, you saved all our lives."
Smith cringed as Parsons continued, "Winston, falling on that pipe bomb was the bravest thing I've ever seen. When the police hear about it, you'll be hailed as a hero!"
Only Smith had not thrown himself on the pipe bomb to save anyone. The Queen Sister, in a desperate attempt to save herself, had thrown Smith upon it. That it had not gone off, blowing Smith to smithereens, was a miracle.
"No!" said Smith. "You can't tell the police about this. I don't want anyone to know."
If the Anti-Poker Patrol learned he had foiled their bombing, they would kill him. "If you say you owe me your life, then swear to me, right now, that you'll never ever tell another living soul about my being anywhere near the poker room."
"But you're a hero."
"I don't want to be a hero. I want to be left alone."
"Winston," said Parsons, "you saved all those lives and want no praise for it. You're even more of a hero then I thought. I owe you and if that's what you want, then I promise, absolutely, to never tell anyone you were ever there."
Smith felt minimally better. "Thank you, Parsons."
"Parsons?" asked a man walking by ... "Benjamin Parsons?"
"Yes."
"Mr. Parsons, FBI, Patrick, I have some questions for you concerning your participation in the bombing."
"Participation?"
"We have witnesses that say you ran out of the poker room just before the explosions."
"The only thing I ran out of was chips."
"Which made you so angry you threatened the other players, saying, "One day I'll get even."
"I wasn't threatening to 'get even' with anyone. You've misunderstood a simple poker expression.
"No," said the Agent. "It's you that has misunderstood. Unless you can produce a witness who provides you with an airtight alibi to prove otherwise, I'm placing you under arrest for bombing the poker room of the Riverboat Casino Calamity Jane."
Parsons turned to look at Winston Smith who would not meet his eyes.
The FBI hauled Parsons away.
(To be continued in the next issue of Poker Player)
