House of Cards

Racetrack sat on his bed, counting his cards to make sure he still had all 52 in the worn deck. He sighed as he placed the final card on top. 52. By some miracle, he still had them all. He frowned as he looked at the deck, thinking they were so worn, he would need to splurge on a new one soon. For now he would just have to shuffle the deck backwards, to try to keep the cards from getting too bent in one direction.

"Are those yours?"

Racetrack looked up, startled out of his reverie, and met a pair of astonishingly ice blue eyes. "Yeah, kid," He said, nodding to the young boy standing in front of his bunk. "Dey's mine."

The boy nodded solemnly, still looking into his eyes. He was small, didn't look to be any older then eight. "Whatcha doin' with 'em?"

"I'm shufflin' em." Racetrack looked back up at the boy again and felt of pang of pity for the young boy who was away from his parents at such a young age. He sighed, grieving silently over the trip to Tibby's he was giving up with his next words, "Then I'm gonna play some poker, you wanna join me?"

The boy's eyes lit up slightly in his grimy face. Then fell, as he studied his equally dirty hands, "I dunno how to play."

"Well, I'll teach ya. Aint nobody better then me at poker, I'll teach ya all I know."

"Really!"

"Yeah, sure kid," Racetrack said, getting up off his bunk and sitting on the floor leaning back against the foot of the bed, "Sit down here. We'll play an open hand first." Racetrack dealt them both of them 5 cards, face up, "This is your original hand, now what you want to do is have the highest combination of cards possible." Racetrack continued his monolougue, naming off the possible hands, in order. "Got that?"

"Yeah. Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a kind, Full House, Flush, Straight, Three of a kind, Two pairs, and a pair."

Racetrack raised his eyebrows in shock, "How'd you remember that?"

The boy shrugged, "I dunno, I got a good memory."

Racetrack snorted, "Yeah, I guess so…. Ok, so anyways, you can put up to three of your cards down, and get three new cards from the deck. Unless you have an ace, then you can put four cards down, as long as you keep the ace in your hand. Got it?"

"Yeah, I got it."

"Ok so…" Racetrack looked over the boy's cards, and reached over, pointing, "If I was you, I'd put down that one, and that one... By the way, kid, what's your name?"

"William." He said, not taking his eyes off his cards, and pushing the two racetrack had pointed at to the side.

Racetrack nodded, and moved one of his cards to the side, before dealing more, first to William, then to himself. "Ok, now, you've got a pair of nines. That's not a horrible hand, because it beats every pair below a nine, and also, if the other person only has a high card, so don't be afraid to bet a little bit on a hand like that. Ok, I have three of a kind, in fours. Now, here's where the game of poker is really played. It has very little to do with the hands your dealt, and everything to do with how you bet. If you know how to bet, you know how to win." He continued, explaining the artistry of the bluff, then explaining when to raise, when to fold, and when to check. "Don't worry, it takes a bit of getting used to, and everybody has their own distinct betting style. Which is also something that's good to pay attention to. If you can learn how the people you're playing with bet, it's a lot easier to figure out what their hands are."

William nodded, trying to follow Racetrack throughout his entire speech. "Ok, I think I get it."

"Ok, you ready to play a real hand?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, it's your deal, so you start by giving me a card, then you, then me, till we both have a total of five cards."

William nodded, dealing the cards, not with as much speed and ease as Racetrack had done, but without misdealing.

The two boys sat up, playing poker for 3 hours straight, talking the whole time. Racetrack won most of the hands, and if they had been playing for money, he would have been ahead, by a lot, but he had to admit, he was impressed at the quick way William picked up on the game.

They stopped playing, as feet were heard pounding up the stairs.

"Heya, Race, how were the tracks today?" Jack asked, as he breezed into the bunkroom, and hopped up onto his bunk with ease.

"Eh, won some, lost some… Have you met William yet?"

"Nah, hey kid. I'm Jack."

William regarded him with his icy blue eyes, "Hi," he said, smiling with the shy air of a young boy, looking up at an older someone who appeared to be at least 10 feet high. "My sistah told me about you. She say's you're the best thing that's ever happened to the street kids of New Yawk."

"Yeah? What's your sistah's name?"

"Maddie. You don't know her, sir. She works at a factory, a few blocks away. But she heard about you during the strike."

"Hear that boys? I'm famous!" Jack grinned at the boys that were in earshot.

Receiving several comments in return, "Atta boy, Jack"

"See, he has a way with the ladies."

William flushed slightly, at the attention, before standing on legs that were cramped from sitting in the same position for so long. "Thanks for teaching me Race. Maybe we can play for money next time."

"Yeah, sure kid. I'll go easy on you, I'd hate for you to go broke on my account." Racetrack grinned at the boy, as he made his way through the pack of boys that were getting ready for bed, and found an empty bunk in the corner of the room.

William laid in the bunk, thinking over the last few hours. Maddie had been worried about him coming to the lodging house by himself, but he couldn't stay at the girls lodging house, so she had finally given into the 8 year old's begging, with the promise that she would be able to see him every day. He smiled as he thought about telling her all about Racetrack. Turning over on his side, he drifted off to sleep with images of aces running through his dreams.

William woke early the next morning, before the rest of the newsboys had stirred. He threw off the thin sheet that was covering him, and swung his feet over the side of the bunk, sliding down to the floor as quietly as possible. Pulling his shirt on he tiptoed to the door, grabbing his shoes on the way. He silently climbed down the stairs, and made his way out to the street, stopping briefly to put his shoes on, before running off towards his sister's lodging house.

"William!" A girl, about 15 years old, stepped out from an old brownstone, just as William ran up. "Are you ok? How did everything go last night?"

William smiled, "I met this kid named Racetrack! He plays poker, and he taught me how! He even said I was good! And guess what else, Maddie, Jack Kelly was there!!! And he was really nice!"

Maddie laughed, tousling her little brother's brown hair. She hadn't seen him so excited in a long time. It was good to see him smile. "Maybe this lodging house thing will work out after all."

"I want to sell with the guys. Can I?" William had calmed down again, and the question came in his usual serious way.

Maddie bit her lip, "I don't know Will… I'd rather you came to the factory with me."

"I'll be careful. You know I will, I'll stay with Racetrack, I know he won't mind. And I can meet you at the factory before the last bell rings. I promise."

She sighed, hedging at an answer "I want to meet Racetrack first." She winced at her own words, hearing how old they sounded. It was something she would expect her mother to say, had she still been alive.

William nodded his agreement, smiling, and walked with his sister to the distribution office, slipping his small hand into hers.

They reached the distribution office twenty minutes before it would be open, and Maddie leaned against the iron gate, her arm around William's thin shoulders. "Listen, Will, you know I trust you, but I promised Mother I'd take care of you, no matter what. You have to swear to me that you'll be careful."

"I will."

They stood in silence, each contemplating the past, until the first group of newsboys could be seen coming down the street. William looked up at Maddie, a sparkle in his eyes that hadn't been there before. "Look, there's Racetrack."

Racetrack noticed them at the same time, "Hey William, where'd ya go this morning?"

"I had to meet my sister, this is Maddie."

Racetrack looked up right into a pair of beautiful blue eyes. The girl herself was pretty enough, not in a way that the girls at Irving Hall we beautiful, but in a simple way. Racetrack smiled at her, and reached for her hand, kissing it, "It's always nice to meet a lovely lady."

Maddie fought a smile, and raised her eyebrows at him. "Nice to meet you." She said, pulling her hand away, and placing it on William's shoulder.

William looked up at Racetrack, "Could I sell with you today?"

Racetrack ran his hand through his hair. He didn't really want to be babysitting today. He had a tip on a horse at the track, and he was dying to get down there. He looked down at William, who was studying him those piercing blue eyes, he sighed, and looked up at Maddie waiting patiently for his answer. "Alright, kid," he said, "Go get you're papes, and I'll meet you back out here. Here, buy me twenty will you?" He asked, digging a dime from his pocket and handing it to William.

William turned towards the gate, and took his place behind the last boy in line. Maddie watched him disappear through the gate, before turning back to Racetrack. She offered a small smile, "Thanks for taking him, he won't be a burden, I promise. But you should know. William's… special."

Racetrack regarded her curiously, "What do you mean?"

"I mean he's different from the rest of us. He's smart. And I don't mean in a normal school way. I don't know how to explain it… He's always been like that."

"Yeah, I kinda noticed last night. I told the kid a list of poker hands, and he repeated em right back to me. I don't know any other newsboys that can do that, and he's, what, seven, eight maybe?"

"Eight. Yeah, he used to come home after school and recite whole poems… ones that he'd just read for the first time. I always thought he would be something special."

Racetrack cracked his knuckles absent mindedly, thinking about what Maddie had just said. A kid with a memory like that could really come in handy. Maybe having him tag along could be a good thing.

William was coming back out to them, struggling to hold a stack of newspapers that were almost as big as he was. "Hey, Maddie," He said as he approached, "You better hurry, you're going to be late. Mr. Hannon won't be happy."

Maddie gasped, "I've got to go, I'll see you later William, 5 o'clock sharp! Don't be late!" She took off running down the street, glancing back at them before disappearing into the early morning crowd.

Racetrack looked down at William, "You ready kid?"