Solitaire
"If my story about a similar situation with a happy outcome didn't cheer you up," Virginia began, "Then how about a game. You'd have to ask Gallows about most card games, since he's the only gambler in our team, but I do know a few we could play. Unfortunately, most involve little kid situations. So, I'll teach you to play solitaire. You only need yourself and a card deck for this one; it's really a simple game."
Virginia pulled a deck of cards out of her pocket; they had a large rose on the back, Jet noticed. She began explaining the rules: First, you place seven cards in front of you in seven piles. The first is left face up, meaning the side with the numbers on it is shown, while the others are face down. Then, you skip the first pile, place a card face up on the second pile, and then face down in piles three through seven. If you keep going like that, you should have a pile of one, of two, of three, of four, of five, of six, and of seven at the end. From this, the person playing the game will try to make a descending order of cards going downwards from King. That is, Queen on top of King, Jack on top of Queen, 10 on top of Jack, 9 on top of 10, and so on. But you can't put two red cards on top of one another, or two black cards. It must always be red then black, or black then red. Aces, once found, are put into piles on the right side of the playing field, above piles four through seven. If ever the backside of a card in the seven piles is shown through the removal of other cards, turn that one face up. The remaining cards are put in a pile above the first one. The player turns over the top three cards of that pile, and tries to see if there is anything he or she can do with the first one they can see, the third they turned over. The object of the game is to find all four aces, and then begin stacking cards of the same suit in numerical order from two on up onto them; with Jacks being put on top of tens, Queens on Jacks, and Kings on Queens. You win by managing to put all the cards on top of the aces. But the player can only rotate the deck three times in order to accomplish this task.
"I'll tell you what. Since you're new to this, I'll teach you the cheat way my mother taught me. You can rotate the deck as many times as you want, and only have to turn over a single card each time you go through it. I still play that way, because I get frustrated with the right way. Remember, I was only seven when my mother taught me this game, she didn't live to see me turn eight," Virginia stated, wiping a tear from her eyes. It hurt to think about her mother's death, but she had to do anything to save Jet's soul.
Virginia set up the cards for Jet as he watched, hoping he would understand better if she showed him how. She pointed out the difference between face up and face down, and then sat down next to him so she could coach him. The girl informed him, "Now your face up cards are 10 of Spades, 8 of Clubs, 2 of Clubs, 4 of Spades, Jack of Clubs, 7 of Hearts, and 7 of Spades. Darn it, that's not a good hand. But you can move the 7 of Hearts over the 8 of Clubs, since one is red and one is black. Now you've got the 5 of Clubs. No more moves, so pull a card from the deck. I always knew that the deck was against me."
Pulling the card from the top of the deck, Jet saw he had the 3 of Spades. Nothing he could do with that, so he drew again. Two cards later he'd found the Ace of Diamonds, so he put it above pile four in order to start collecting a suit. Diamonds was his favorite suit, for obvious reasons, while Virginia's was hearts. He'd bet that Grandma Halle's was Clubs, since she did it to Gallows so often when they visited Baskar.
It took three more cards to get something useful, the 10 of Hearts. Placing it over his Jack of Clubs to begin a row of cards, he muttered about how he couldn't have gotten this before that 9 of Clubs he found two cards ago. But a few cards later, he got lucky. Not only was he able to put the 6 of Diamonds over the 7 of Spades, but he could also move his 5 of Clubs. That revealed a 9 of Clubs for his 10 of Hearts, which revealed a 9 of Hearts for his 10 of Spades. Through that, he found the Ace of Clubs, and subsequently the 3 of Clubs. After moving the 4 of Diamonds he uncovered after his next turn of the deck to right over the 5 of Clubs, Jet also realized his 2 and 3 of Clubs could go over the Ace, freeing up one space for a King and discovering the King of Spades in the process. And he still had a few more cards in the deck to go through.
The 8 of Hearts went over the 9 of Clubs, and the whole row containing the 7 of Spades through the 4 of Diamonds was moved onto it, revealing the Queen of Diamonds for his King of Spades, and the 3 of Hearts for his 4 of Spades. That netted him the 10 of Diamonds. Now all he had was red cards in the front.
Before ending the deck, Jet found the Ace of Spades and a 6 of Clubs for his 7 of Hearts. While placing the 6, he saw he could move that row over the 9 of Hearts. Through doing that, he discovered the Ace of Hearts, and now had another space to place a King. The first stage of the game was finished.
Virginia wanted to ask how he was liking it, but decided not to. Jet was just where he wanted to be, alone in his own world. That was the best thing about Solitaire, he could play it by himself in his free time.
Going around again, Jet saw the 3 of Spades now had a use, to be placed over the 4 of Diamonds, and 9 of Spades fit over the 10 of Diamonds. The King of Diamonds was found soon after, and then the King of Hearts. A Queen of Clubs went over the Diamond King, since it was closest, and a 5 of Hearts for a 6 of Clubs. That made room to move the 4 of Spades and 3 of Hearts, revealing both red 2s, as well as the 5 of Diamonds. 3 of Hearts was also moved, just to free up the 4 of Spades in case he could move it later. Not like they needed the red 3s, since all the aces were uncovered already. Upon finding the 3 of Diamonds, it too was moved over the respective 2 to continue collecting the 4 suites on the top right-hand side.
At the end of the deck, Jet was able to move the 8 of Diamonds over the 9 of Spades. Jack of Diamonds and 10 of Clubs placed over the Queen of Hearts not too long into the next rotation. 4 of Clubs went into the Club row on top, with a 7 of Clubs and 6 of Hearts on the 8 of Diamonds. The 5 of Clubs was found at the end of this deck, and placed on that 6. Jet could now exchange that as a placeholder for the 4 of Diamonds in order to place the 5 of Clubs. But Jet ran into trouble after that. With no black Jacks, he had no way to move his red 10s, which blocked the cards underneath. So the game was over.
Virginia looked at him, realized he had no more moves, and decided to ask him her question. "So how did you like it? It's good for when there's nothing for you to do. Helps keep your mind off of unpleasant subjects. I learned how to play after Daddy left home, so I could do something without bothering the other adults when they were busy. Uncle Tesla and Aunt Shalte were always working to keep food on the table and a clean house, while mom's condition was slowly worsening. I couldn't play with her as much as I used to, since she slept most of the day, so she taught me something to entertain myself. About all she had the energy to do anymore was eat, sleep, and tell me stories. Finally, even that went, and she died." Holding back her tears, Virginia looked at Jet. If he was happy, all the pain she found was worth it in the end.
"It was ok," Jet lied, "Just something to pass the time in this dreary world of ours." He looked away, not wanting to see her upset. And not wanting her to read his face. For what he really wanted to say was that it was nice how she thought of him, caused herself pain to keep him from trying something she deemed stupid and risky. He was willing to take the risks involved with the jump, but she didn't want him to. But since this is Jet, and he doesn't like to express himself, he couldn't tell her how much it meant to him.
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Teefa's Last Words…
You know what inspired this? Absolute insanity. Actually, it was my computer and its built in Solitaire game. You see, my desktop is Jet and Virginia themed. I've got the two of them in the background, a screensaver that shows various screenshots and artwork of them, and a silver toolbar. But I had nothing for Virginia. Then, I saw the settings for card backs on my Solitaire game, and chose the rose, since she has them on her holsters. That game is even based off the one I was played while typing. Figured Jet would like Solitaire, since he's a loner to begin with.