My latest piece for Two Plus Two Magazine is (poker-related) fiction called Walter Tine’s Poker Odyssey, so I’m particularly curious to know what you all think of it.
If he crossed the street now, they would surmise that he crossed because of them. This would surely cause offense and perhaps even make him look more vulnerable than he already did. No, best to walk past them as though he saw such things every day.
Walter set his face in what he hoped was a grim, world-weary countenance and did his best to suppress the blood he felt rising to it. It’s an opportunity to practice your poker face, he thought, forcing himself to smile slightly at his own joke.
Are you interested in reading more of this kind of thing?
Hi Andrew,
I found it entertaining and would like to see more. I liked how you went through the character’s thought process throughout the piece.
Bridge has a long history of entertaining fictional pieces that weave interesting hands into the stories (eg Victor Mollo, David Bird,…)
Great story! As a fellow University of Chicago alum from around the same time, it’s abundantly clear that the setting has not been fictionalized in the slightest. That leads me to wonder how fictional the climactic scene is. While I never experienced anything like it, the concept of feeling unsafe despite believing that no one has an incentive to harm you is one that is very resonant. I agree with Dana – more please!