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Show house/ 466 I watched.. • Once he sluffed a card when he should have played trump./ When my f a t h e r ; l e f t f o r l i s office, Danny said g l e e f u l l y . "Did you see t h a t ? He s l u f f e d . That's cheating." "Anybody can make a m i s t a k e , " I said mildly. But I was upset. Perhaps he had been cheating - he had played the game too long to make such e r r o r s . Why, then7was I defending him? "And what i f he was cheating?" I put in, &i'V L'-z! • "Yeh,"Brian said, s t r e t c h i n g . "He's human, j u s t l i ke everybody at t h i s t a b l e . " , The sense t h a t something far more important than a pinochle game was t r a n s p i r i n g each day at my mother's t a b l e wore on me. I f e l t we were communicating, b a t t l i n g with the cards. And I didn't know what we were saying, or what we were fighting about. Sometimes I r e t r e a t e d to my bedroom before lunch where I pretended to sleep or simply gave in to the fatigue that was always hovering these days. I could feel them waiting for me at the t a b l e , waiting for me to take my place across from my father so that the b a t t l e could begin. Brian came i n to get me. "Come on, honey. Everybody's waiting. Your f a t h e r has to go back to work soon." I shook my head and began to cry. "I c a n ' t . I'm too tired. Everytime he l o s e s , I know t h a t he blames me." "Oh, Jeannie, you're j u s t being emotional. Of course he doesn't blame you. He j u s t gets r e a l l y involved in the game, that's a l l ." I snuffled. "A l o t you know. I can feel him waiting for me to make a mistake. And you and Danny g e t t i n g a huge kick out of i t all.«'^ir7S§5Ps s?n^a i BD^tt of your joke. Tell Mama to |