forbidden (illicitus) wrote in the_colony, @ 2010-12-19 10:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | ^ week 23, louisa may smith, thomas galloway, | louisa may and tom |
Week 23: Friday
Characters: Louisa May and Tom
Location: Tom’s room, then the kitchen
Summary: Louisa May comes knocking with a deck of cards...
Rating: PG for language
Louisa May was more than ready to take a break from fixing up her trailer. Her back hurt, there was paint in her hair, and she never wanted to see another cleaning product as long as she lived. But due to her hard work for the past week or so the trailer was spotless, and she’d been able to find places for most of her must-have medical equipment in the cramped space. She had yet to get her bedroom in the shape it needed to be in, but it was late and her body protested at the thought of more work, so instead of sitting around and thinking about what had to be done, she hiked over to the house with a pack of cards in one jacket pocket and two cigars in the other.
She knocked on the door to Tom’s room. “You in there?” She called out, hoping he wasn’t too busy for a game of cards and some friendly conversation.
Tom looked up from his book at the knock on the door. Hearing Louisa May’s voice on the other side he put a placemark between the pages and put it on the nightstand before swinging his legs off the bed to stand up and answer the door. With Searle off somewhere else in the house he had the room to himself at the moment, which frankly was the way he liked it. The young man wasn’t a bad roommate, but Tom liked having his space.
“Hey Doc,” Tom smiled at the woman as he opened the door. “Looks like you’ve had a long day. What’s up?”
Louisa May drew the pack of cards out of her left pocket, and the two wrapped cigars out of the other and held them up for Tom’s perusal, grinning. “I could use a break. You up for some poker?” She paused. “If you’re busy, I can see if I can twist someone else’s arm...”
“I’m game.” Tom nodded with a smile and opened the door wide. “We can play here since Searle is off someplace else in the house, or we can go use the kitchen table if you want.”
“Well, that depends. You want to light up a cigar, kitchen’s got a window we could open. But I’m fine either way,” she replied.
“I think we’re safe stinking up the kitchen without opening a window,” the veteran got out a bottle of whiskey he had stashed in his closet and then stepped out of his bedroom, headed toward the kitchen.
“Getting everything squared away in your trailer?”
“Almost. The front part is looking good -- I think I could see patients there right now if I had to -- and I’ve almost got it just the way I wanted. The bedroom...” she made a face. “I’ve been putting that off. Less of a priority.”
She sat at the kitchen table with an ‘oof,’ her sore muscles complaining. “I’m gettin’ too old for this shit,” she said, doing her best Danny Glover impression, causing Tom to snort in response. “If you are then I definitely am.”
“You want to play twenty-one, or Texas hold ‘em?”
“I think twenty-one works tonight,” Tom grabbed two glasses from the cupboard and put them on the table, setting the bottle between them. “I’m going to hate when we drink up the last of the booze. Not sure I wanna try Mike’s white lightning once he gets the still working down the road.”
“Might as well enjoy it while the getting’s good,” Louisa May agreed. She expertly shuffled the cards, the flip of paper against paper making a familiar ruffling sound in the otherwise quiet kitchen. Setting the deck down in front of Tom to cut, she poured herself a fingerful and took a small sip.
“Mmmm. Moonshine’s never gonna taste this good.”
“Probably not in our lifetimes anyway,” Tom agreed, cutting the cards and pushing them back toward Louisa May. “Not unless Mike is descended from moonshiners.”
“Heh, I wouldn’t put it past him.” She dealt them each two cards, and took a glance at hers. Two fives. She paused. “What’re we betting with? Not like cash matters much anymore...”
Tom glanced at his own cards. A six and a five. “I dunno. I think we’ve got a box of matches around here somewhere that we can use.”
“Works for me,” she replied with a shrug. “You mind getting ‘em? I don’t wanna move from this table til I gotta.”
“I think I can do that,” Tom shrugged as well and rose from his seat to find the matches. He rummaged through the cabinets in search of the box, then made his way back to the table with them in hand. “So how are you settlin’ in Louisa May? I know it’s been a busy couple weeks.”
“You can say that again. I’m just waiting to get a nice routine goin’.” Louisa May watched Tom count off the pack of matches into two neat piles, and took a sip of her drink. “So when do I get added to the chore rotation?” she asked. “People aren’t gonna need doctorin’ every day, you know, and I’m not about to sit around on my fat ass while everyone else is workin.”
Tom took a sip of his drink and looked over at Louisa May. “I was giving you time to get the trailer fixed up, and you’ve been busy taking care of Molly too. You know the sort of things we’ve got going on around here: cooking, cleaning, wood chopping, animal detail and the like. We also need to keep you from getting in a situation where you’re the one needing medical attention, and available to help people out when they need it.” He drummed his fingers against the table, thinking it over.
“Yeah. I’d also want whatever I’m doing to be flexible enough so I could leave if I had to in a hurry, and people wouldn’t be left hangin’. Also, it’d be nice if it was the sort of thing where people will know where I am so they could get to me quickly if they had to. Barring that, I could just keep a walkie talkie on me...” She looked over to him, raising an eyebrow. “Your bet.”
Tom eyed the woman for a moment, then pinched a group of about ten matches together with thumb and forefinger and put them out in the middle. “What do you think of goats?” Maybe someone who could actually see what the hell they were doing would have better luck than Meghan.
Louisa May made a bit of a face, as she wasn’t an animal person, and she’d seen what the little bastards had done to Meg, but she could see the logic behind it. “Well, it won’t kill ‘em if I have to leave ‘em alone for a couple of hours... and the barn is close enough to my trailer in cases of emergency.” She looked at the matches. “See your ten, raise you five.”
Tom immediately matched the five and raised it another five. There wasn’t any incentive for him to be cautious, it wasn’t as if they were playing for anything but bragging rights. “There’s also guard duty, you could take a shift on that.”
“I’d be happy to pick up a shotgun, sure, but that increases the odds of me needing medical attention, doesn’t it?” She threw five more matchsticks onto the pile. “Call.” She passed him a card, and gave one to herself. A nine of hearts. “Twenty,” she said, smiling.
“Twenty-one,” Tom smirked back, laying his three cards on the table. In addition to the five of hearts and six of spades, his new card was the ten of clubs. “If you take a day shift it’s more a lookout than actual guard duty. People are out and about, it’s just keeping a watchful eye on the terrain around here.”
“Aww, shit. Who’s dealin’ these damn cards anyways?” Louisa May said with a grin. “Yeah, I could see that -- I wouldn’t mind doing a guard shift long as I had a walkie talkie. Maybe I split my time between guards and goats fifty-fifty?” She paused, and patted her pocket. “Oh! Almost forgot. Want to round out our vices for the evening?” She brought out the pair of cigars. Something about cigars and poker just went together for her -- her daddy would always light up a cigar when he had poker night, and she’d kept up the tradition with her friends in Portland. She got some teasing for it -- a doctor smoking? But it was only every now and again, and it made her feel more relaxed.
Tom accepted the stogie gladly, then made a show of taking out his pocket knife and cutting off the end before taking a match from his winnings to light it with. “I’m already pulling four hours a day on guard duty, broken into late night and early morning,” he said, in between a few puffs on the cigar. “How about you take the mid-morning shift from ten to about lunchtime? Anything that’s gonna happen is more likely to happen right before dawn anyway, if bad guys have half a brain that is.” That’s how he’d do it, when people were still asleep or just waking, and the guards were tired from long shifts of nothing.
The veteran shuffled the cards and offered them to Louisa May to cut.
“Sounds fair,” Louisa May replied, cutting the cards, and then holding out a hand for Tom’s knife and lighter. “And when should goat duty be?”
Tom handed over both and took back the cards. “As long as they get checked on twice a day, if not actually taken care of twice, I’m happy. Check with Abby on what their needs are, animal husbandry isn’t a strong suit of mine.”
Four cards were quickly dealt out, and Tom managed to keep his own face impassive as he looked at what he’d dealt himself: five and four of diamonds. He’d have to do a better job of shuffling next time it was his turn.
She had a nine and a king. Nice. “I’ll hold,” she said, putting ten matchsticks on the table. The smoke filled her mouth in a satisfying way, and she exhaled with a hum of pleasure.
Tom drew another card for himself and avoided making a face at the card, five of clubs. At this rate he was either going to go over or not get enough to beat Louisa May, who clearly was happy with her cards. He took a few puffs on his cigar and contemplated the situation.
“Come on, grandpa, any day now,” Louisa May teased. “Need me to count it up for ya?” She got up from the table to fetch a saucer for the ash, opening a few cupboards before she found what she wanted and set it on the table.
“Grandpa is it?” Tom growled in mock irritation, eying her. “You’re probably the oldest person here aside from me, Grandma. I wouldn’t go around making age related jokes if I were you.” He tossed a dozen matches into the center of the table. “There.”
Louisa May added two, and then two more for good measure. “Heh. Yeah, well, this isn’t how I planned to spend my retirement, that’s for damn sure. Not that I’m doggin’ on the company, but in an ideal world, we’d be playin’ this poker game in Hawaii.” She paused. “I don’t think I could have afforded to retire to Hawaii, mind, but while we’re dreaming, might as well dream big.”
“Hawaii’s overrated.” Tom met the raise and then tossed another dozen in after it without blinking. He picked up his drink and had another sip before continuing. “The natives don’t like tourists or military much, and everything’s overpriced and crowded.”
“I guess you’re right. I’ve never been there myself. I just like the idea of eating all that fresh fruit and soakin’ up the sun.” She called him with another ten matchsticks of her own. “Your move, gramps.”
“Keep that up and I’ll make you take over the chickens from Bridget too.” Tom groused without real heat. If his son had survived his tour of Iraq Tom would surely be a grandfather by now. Of course, any grandchildren would likely have died in the plague. He laid his cards down on the table, fully expecting her to have a better hand but it was time to put up or shut up.
Louisa May sucked on her teeth. “Rats,” she replied, laying down her nineteen. “I guess house wins.” She shook her head.
“Wanna try again?” Tom raked in the matches.
“Well, seein’ as how this time I’m the house, I think I could go for another round, yeah,” Louisa May replied, sticking her cigar in the corner of her mouth as she shuffled again and watched Tom reach out to cut the deck. There was something so inherently comforting about the ritual of poker that centered her and made her forget just for a little about her sore muscles and mess of a bedroom. She dealt the cards, and finished her drink.
“You up for a refill?” she asked, shaking her empty glass as the liquor stung her throat and filled her with a warm, cozy feeling.
Tom glanced at his cards, the king and five of spades, then set them face down on the table. He considered her question a moment and then nodded. “I suppose I can get away with one more and it won’t be a problem. Any more than that and I’d need someone else to do my guard shift tonight.”
“Right. Guns and booze don’t mix, I got it.” She smiled, pouring both of them a fingerfull. She glanced at her cards -- three and four of hearts -- and sat back, puffing gently on her cigar.
“That and I don’t want my reaction time dulled.” Tom added, going ahead and pushing a batch of matches into the center of the table. “If, god forbid, something were to actually happen I want to make sure I’ve got all my wits about me.”
“Here’s to having nothing happening,” Louisa May raised her glass in a small toast. “I, for one, would be perfectly happy if things were boring and uneventful for the rest of my life, thank you very much.” Which was something Tom could definitely get behind. She matched his bet. “Takin’ a card,” she said, drawing a two. She raised an eyebrow at Tom. “You need one?”
“Nah, I’m good.” Tom shook his head and let his cards stay where they were, moving another ten matchsticks to the pile. He was content to just sit there and puff on his cigar for the moment.
Louisa May drew another card, a nine, bringing her up to eighteen. She pondered for a bit, and then pushed the remaining matchsticks in her dwindling heap -- fifteen all told -- into the center. “What the hell. All in.”
“Well, how can I top that?” Tom raised an eyebrow, then shoved his considerable pile into the center to join the rest. “Thataway I guess. Call.”
Louisa May showed her hand. "Whaddaya got?"
“Not enough.” Tom flipped his cards rightside up. “You did good that time, the cards were in your favor.”
“Hah! You fought the good fight, but I won the war,” Louisa May replied. “Shouldn’t have wasted your whole pot.” She raised a glass. “Good game, Tom. We might just have to do this again. Often.”
“No reason not to,” He agreed with a smile before tossing back the last of his whiskey. “Maybe we should get a few more people together next time, make it more interesting.” Not that it hadn’t been interesting, but variety was the spice of life.
“I had a weekly game goin’ up in Portland, it was a nice break to the week. Something to look forward to.” She paused. “Who else d’you think?” She trusted Tom’s judgment on that more than her own.
“Hmm,” He pondered the question as he put the matches back where they belonged and made a mental note to look for a few packages of poker chips on the next raid. “I dunno, Jed and Alice maybe,” though maybe not both each time, “Mike for certain. Probably better to rotate a spot or two among whoever is interested, that way no one feels left out.”
“Works for me,” she replied easily enough. Although her interactions with Alice had been a bit unconventional, poker had rules, and that would make any conversation much less awkward than it would be otherwise.
“Excellent, I’ll spread the word.”