| OCR Text |
Show 92 By seven in the evening, the nine men had arrived, filling the kitchen with the smell of perspiration and cigar smoke. Because it was a hot evening toward the end of September, they'd begun to remove the high, starched collars from their shirts soon after they greeted Maggie Rose. Once they were seated around the kitchen table, they unbuttoned their cuffs, too, and rolled their shirtsleeves to their elbows. Since the kitchen was double the size of any other room in the Kerner house, the card parties always took place there. Karl leaned against the doorframe to watch Tommie Digman shuffle the cards as the other men settled their bulk into the wooden chairs. "Tonight we're not going to play for money," Karl's father announced. "What?" Ambrose Olbein asked, only he pronounced it "Vass?" because his German accent was still thick. "I said we'll not play for money tonight," Hugo repeated. "You're joshing us, eh, Hugo?" Tommie Digman asked. "I mean it, Tommie," Hugo told him. "Didn't you read the newspaper? Last week Burgess Ward announced that all gambling was illegal in Canaan from now on. Al_l gambling. I respect the law. If no gambling is allowed in the borough of Canaan, I will not allow gambling in my house." Maggie Rose returned the ham she'd been slicing to the ice box, looking over at Hugo as if she thought he was behaving foolishly. "Ve only play for pennies...," Ambrose Olbein began, and Jack Kratzer interrupted with, "What fun is it to play cards without an ante?" |
