Gin Rummy

He walked out of the shower and suddenly fell down.

Set the scene: Three are playing Gin Rummy—a mother, a daughter, a son—when the Mother gets a message. She immediately phones someone unknown. The call is on speaker at first. She turns off speaker mode and places the phone by her ear so Daughter and Son won’t hear. She tells the two to continue. The three keep playing.

Son discards a card. Daughter snatches the missed opportunity from under his eyes. He grows frustrated. He tries to take it back, but Daughter won’t let him. He starts to protest. Mother, only half-listening and still on the phone, threatens to throw her cards. Son, already reluctant to play, tells her to do so. He only somewhat wants to be there. She does not throw the cards.

Turns go on. Son continues to tell Mother to throw her cards. The room is quiet. Son throws another usable card into the discard pile. Daughter hesitates, trying to let him take it back. Son is too busy telling Mother to throw down her cards. Mother, having enough, throws them and breaks the news. Couldn’t you have just cooperated? she asks. Couldn’t you tell I was talking to someone else? I didn’t have to keep playing.

I’m on the phone because your grandfather’s younger brother died, she says.

He walked out of the shower and suddenly fell down.