Chapter Fourteen: In the Cards

To repay Moreau for the perfect painting of her nails, Joy opted to pour out and refresh the off-grid sink's water buckets. The fish-man marveled at the strength and endurance of the little spry being hauling the filled heavy-duty pails to and fro. Afterwards, with several resolute puffs, she returned to the backdoor with the empty water jugs for more snow.

Following a breakfast of many crispy wheat crackers with strawberry preserves, Joy cleaned and dried the dishes, spoons and cups, then quickly headed for the extended part of the cabin. And after pulling and pushing in one of the end drawers of the dresser, she skipped in the kitchen, revealing something that appeared to be a small, artsy block to her observing, sitting friend.

"What're you holding, Joy?"

"I found deese cards when I was looking for some sleepy clothes," explained the young woman as she spread the deck in order for Moreau to inspect them better. "Since da lodge is spic and span and we got no more chores, I thought maybe we could play some card games?"

Moreau slowly blinked at the stiff and white, matte cardstock. He was unsure if he'd ever played 'card games', much less any games, for that matter. However, he had seen people on his video box interacting through such festive activities, and the fish-man knew that it would be wonderful to finally engage in a fun pastime himself.

Just when his smile was ready to match his gleeful reverie, Joy gasped and restacked the deck.

"Oh my goodness, I shoulda asked first before taking da cards outta your dresser! I'm sorry, Mo!"

Moreau beamed from the politeness of his fretting friend. Since he avoided the broad bureau and its daunting mirror like the Spanish flu, he wasn't even aware of the cards' existence. Still, it was endearing of Joy for worrying about his privacy.

"No, no, no! It's, it's alright, Joy!" crooned Moreau with a dismissive wave of a hand. "I'm glad that you've found the cards."

The woman stopped frowning her rosy lips. "Really?"

Moreau bobbed his hooded head. "Really, really! I didn't know we had cards in the big dresser. …And remember, the lodge is Joy's while Joy is unlosteded. So, this means everything inside it, is Joy's, too!"

"Alright, Mo." His friend's emerging smile deepened as she pressed the cards to her chest. "Dat makes me feel a whole lots better. Thank you."

"Joy is most welcome!" The fish-man squirmed his spindly digits. "So… what uh, card games does Joy like?"

"Lots'a games!" she squeaked enthusiastically. "I don't understand or like all'a dem, but dare are games dat are super-duper fun!"

"Oh, oh, oh!" Moreau flapped his arms, overpassing the woman's enthusiasm. "Let's, let's play those games then!"

"Tee-hee-hee! Alright, Mo! And I think I know'a game dat a part-merman would really like!"

"Oh, what game is that?"

Joy grinned from ear to ear. "Wanna play Go Fish?"

With a giddy grunt, Moreau got up from his seat and wriggled his small, bare feet in place.

"Yes, yes! He-hee-hee! Go Fish!"

"Great! Y'know how ta play?"

Looking downwards, the fish-man's grin suddenly upturned, stilling his legs.

"Oh… No-no…"

With a supportive smile, Joy walked up to her discouraged friend.

"Awh, dat's alright, Mo." She patted atop of his askew shoulder. "I can teach'cha. Have ya played any other card games?"

Moreau swayed his head and was startled when the young woman jumped in the air.

"Yay!"

Confused, the fish-man blinked widely with a slant of the head.

"Huh?"

"Dis means dat you're gonna enjoy da games for da first time!"

The corners of Moreau's mouth-line coiled up as Joy regarded the held deck.

"My grandma taught me a bunch'a games when I was wittle… I miss playing with her…" Joy's brief, wistful thoughts faded, and her smile resurfaced while signaling to Moreau's chair. "But before we start, we gotta put our chairs back ta where dey were first."

Moreau was delighted to hear Joy restate the possessive plural pronoun. Nevertheless, his wide, bottom lip scrunched somewhat. He looked to the big pair of pine timber furniture; they were still closely on the same side of the table from the nail polishing session.

"But, but I like eating… together," he mentioned with a weak whimper.

"But Mo, if we sit dat way, we might see each other's cards and da games won't be any fun."

The woman laced her little arm partly over the broad and raised back of the fish-man and squeezed, triggering his eyes and mouth to expand.

I've got another hug! I've got another hug!

"Don't worry, Mo. We can put da chairs together after da card games! …And we can read again on our comfy couch tonight if you'd-?"

"Yes, yes, yes! Let's move our chairs back now!" her friend happily interjected. "I'll, I'll help this time!"

"Okay, Mo!"

Joy retook her arm and carried a chair to her right side of the table as Moreau gradually dragged the other one to his opposing left. Followed by the dual sitting onto their respected seats.

Moreau viewed Joy randomly rearranging the cards facedown.

"Okay, da cards're all mixed," she stated. "We each get seven cards on da table like dis so we can't see which ones dey are. We pick dem up without showing each other ta keep our cards super-secret."

Moreau quizzically watched his friend put the rest of the deck amid the two of them.

"Whose cards are those, Joy?"

"Nobody's yet. Dis pile'a cards is called da fishing pond."

The fish-man bobbed his head, but at the same time, he had absolutely no idea of what the flat earth that meant.

"So, ta play Go Fish, we take turns asking for a special card. …If ya ask me for dat special card and I got it, I give dat card ta you. …Den, ya keep asking for more different cards. …But when ya ask for a card dat I don't got, I say Go Fish, and ya take another card from da fishing pond. …Den, it's my turn ta ask you for a card..."

Moreau blinked once as Joy continued with the rules; her small hands gesticulating to the cardstock as she spoke, bit by bit.

"…Ya have ta collect four, same cards. …Like ummm… four queen cards. Dose're da ones with da pretty lady next ta da 'Q'. …When ya have dose, ya turn dem around and put dem on your side a'da table. …If ya run outta cards, ya take seven more from da fishing pile …And we keep doing dat till da fishing pond is empty …So, whoever has da most cards, wins da game!"

Moreau glimpsed down at the seven, flat rectangles under his bulbous chin, then to his friend as she smiled sweetly.

"Do ya think ya understand how ta ya play now?"

Moreau slowly nodded but then, moderately shook his head, followed by another nod… and puzzled head sway.

"Dat's alright, Mo. I wasn't sure when my grandma had first e'plained Go Fish ta me, too."

The fish-man blinked in surprise. "Really?"

"Uh-huh! Really, really! Ya can learn as we play. Don'tcha worry, you'll be able to do it."

Moreau's withered face crinkled more so along his eyes from his budding beam. It was so amazing to have someone who had so much faith in him!

The woman began collecting her cards and Moreau parroted her actions.

"Alright, Mo. Let's check for four'a da same kinda cards."

The two friends quietly ogled their hand for any similar ones. To both of the pouting pair's dismay, there were no matches.

"'Cause I mixed and gave out da cards," reminded Joy. "I'll go first, alright?"

Feeling more determined than he ever thought he could feel, the fish-man made a firm nod.

"All right, Joy!"

The young woman grinned from the way her friend was stoically holding and staring at each of his concealed cards, and she had to stifle her giggles.

"Alright! Ahem! Doossee Mo got any 1's?"

The first two games of Go Fish had been a learning curve for Moreau. He made a few slipups like pairing the jacks with the kings or accidently showing a card that he fished out of the pond. But Joy never carped. She'd always gently restate for him to just take his time, for rushed games weren't fun, anyway. The fish-man was relieved that Joy never mocked any of his gaffes. And after the next couple of games, Moreau was handling the cards like he had played Go Fish for decades.

Because now, with his precious person, he could patiently focus without the dread of invectives. Moreover, Moreau was figuring out that he could actually learn from his mistakes!

"You're getting super-duper good, Mo!" cheered Joy as she discerned his gathered sets on the table.

Moreau excitedly shuffled in his seat. "That's because Mo has a super-duper teacher."

Both friends beamed from one another's compliments as they played their game; their exultant expressions switching to brow creasing and tongue pokes while trying to decide on which card to ask for.

This was their sixth game of Go Fish. Joy had won the first, three rounds whereas Moreau had secured the last two. Moreau regarded the shrunken fishpond, then the revealed cards on opposite ends of the tabletop. They both had nearly the same number of sets, so this game would be close!

"Does Joy have any… uhhh… 'A's?"

His friend scanned her secret spread of cards. "Uh-huh, here ya go."

She handed Moreau an ace of diamonds and he grinned widely when he was able to lay his four set of aces with the rest of his collected catch of cards.

As the fish-man was choosing on another request, the concentrating woman's tongue zipped through her lips.

"Umm, Mo? …Don't mer-people need lots'a water?"

Moreau raised his view from his cardstock collection.

"Huh..?"

Joy smiled with a shrug. "Sorry… playing Go Fish is making me think about water. …'Cause ya live in a lodge instead'a da ocean."

Moreau could feel the pang of self-loathing slowly snaking around his mutated heart. For he wasn't really a fetching creature of the sea, but rather, a disgusting beast of the lake.

"Uh'hem… remember, Joy… I'm part-merman." The fish-man's ashen lips pulled up lightly. "So, so mer-peoples don't need to be in water all the time."

"Oh, a'course!" peeped the young woman, straightening her double paired kings on the table. "Dat makes a whole lotta sense."

With a pleased nod, Moreau sighed. His chest no longer felt so… constricted.

"Does Joy have any… '7's?"

"Ummm… Uh-uh! Please Go Fish!"

With a gruff drone, Moreau fished out another card from the diminishing pond. But his pucker was replaced with a secretive yet obvious smirk. Because he knew just which fish, he was going to ask for next!

With Joy's curiousness still unquenched, she regarded her friend's excited webbed digits, clinging to his cards.

"Mo… Do part-mermen grow tails when dey swim? I bet yours would be beautiful."

Humiliation fell over the fish-man's features, in which he hid behind elevated cards.

"N-no… I… uh… don't."

To a certain extent, this was true. As himself, Moreau didn't grow a tail. However, his other hated-self grew a hideous mutated aquatic, torn whip.

Joy made a fleeting frown. "Awh..! But I bet'cha dat doesn't matter 'cause ya can still swim really good!"

Moreau descended his hand, revealing a returned smile. But certainly not from ruminating about his previous, forced, icy plunges in the nearby lake. Despite not remembering much about life before his mutation, Moreau retained short but cherished flashes of swimming as a teenager. He was once was, in essence… a fish to water. Although his transfigured form couldn't drown, his movements underwater were far from retaining any fluidity from his human youth.

Now… the fish-man's heavy, globular body couldn't even bathe in the oval basin properly. Thus, he only washed in the damn freezing lake after his hated-self grew tired of using him.

"Does Mo have any '3's?"

Joy's polite query returned Moreau from the pessimistic reflection, and he yielded two of his cards.

"Since we're talking about water, Mo, would'ju wanna have a bath today?"

Moreau jarred his wide head. "What?"

"Don't worry, I'll give ya lots'a space ta stay personal!" The woman adjusted her cards. "I can help ya fill up da tiny tub like ya did for me."

The fish-man's lash-less eyelids flittered in surprise. It wasn't from the anxiety of not feeling personal… But more on the account that it was almost like his precious person had shared his daydream of swimming.

Moreau emitted a long respire. How many times had he yearned to have a normal, warm, soothing soak like a normal human being…

"No… no thank you, Joy," he answered drearily. "I had a bath the other-"

Moreau cut himself off; his face gawking blankly... His hated-self hadn't shown itself in four days!

Four, straight days of freewill from his hated-self coursing through his mind and body! It'd been taking over the fish-man's pitiable existence every other day. And cruelly, even at daily intervals. The last time he expected the beast to show its tendrils was…

…the night that Mother had delivered Joy.

"Ya alright, Mo?" queried the woman softly, regaining his attention. "You looked kinda spacey wacey."

Moreau bowed his head zestfully. "Yes, yes, Joy. I'm, I'm just happy!" With glistening sights, his mouth-line lifted higher. "Just… very happy."

Joy mirrored her friend's beam. "Me too, Mo."

Then, with a small spark in Moreau's left eye, his lips contoured into a lopsided grin.

"I'm happy because I'm going to win Go Fish this time! Huh-ha!"

"Tee-hee-hee…" Joy wiggled in the big chair. "We'll see about dat!"

While considering her hand, Moreau beheld the petite person across from him, truly enjoying his company. His limited foresight could've never imagined that one precious little being would change so much in such a short amount of time.

Thank Mother Miranda that purity has finally arrived for his unfit soul.

The fish-man halted his musings, because currently, he was feeling rather curious, himself.

"Uhhh… Joy?"

"Hmmm?" hummed his debating friend, tapping her bottom jutted lip.

"You don't like animals becoming food, so you don't eat them, right?"

"Uh-huh… dat's right."

"So… does Joy still like… fishing?"

With a quick flutter of lush lashes, the young woman looked up.

"Um, ya mean right now?"

Moreau drooped his cards. "No, no… I mean..," he went on cautiously, "with… uhh… real f-f-fish."

"Oh." Joy shook her head. "Uh-uh! My mom saved Yin and Yang, our two, big goldfishies from a tiny, yucky bowl when dey were da size'a my thumb." She waggled her fifth, shortest digit. "I could never hurt a fishy."

"Oh… …Not even to catch a…" Moreau stalled for a moment. "…really big, old one?"

Again, Joy turned her head from side to side.

"Uh-uh! Not even to catch a really big 'ol cute fishy."

Moreau's sights widened. She used that word again.

"Cute fishy?"

With a free hand, the woman pushed her hair behind her ear.

"Uh-huh."

The two friends demurely refocused on their hands.

"Ahem… Dooeess Mo have any '8's?"

And with an enamored growing grin, Moreau emitted a throaty, chuffed chuckle.

"Hmm-hmm… Go Fish."