Game for Five Read Free Page B

if thinking that playing cards with four old geezers was a lot of fun mightn’t be a symptom of something strange about him, but he immediately dismissed the thought.
    Can I at least decide what I like? he thought, and focused his attention on the High Priest who was about to open the gates of the Temple to him.
    â€œSo,” said Pilade, who was acting as master of ceremonies, “this is how it works: the cards are dealt, all at the same time, eight cards per player. Then you do the auction. Each person in turn declares how many points he thinks he can win on the basis of the cards he’s holding. For example, the auction starts at sixty, the first person says ‘I win with sixty-one,’ the second says, ‘I win with sixty-three,’ and so on, until one player fixes a value so high that the others give up. Whoever wins has the right to choose the
briscola
, like this: let’s say you have an ace and a three of a particular suit, do you follow me?”
    â€œYes, yes, I follow you.”
    â€œThen you should call the king of that suit. You say ‘king of whatever’ and that way you establish two things. One,
that the
briscola
is that suit. Two, that your partner for that hand is whoever has the king of that suit. The other three are against. To win you both have to score the points you declared at the beginning. It’s good to win the auction because that way you get to choose the
briscola
, but you have to play to win while the others play to make you lose. Plus, you’re two against three.”
    â€œBut once the teams have been formed, how do you know when it’s your turn?”
    â€œYou just go around the table. The nice thing about the game is that
you don’t know who’s playing with you.
As soon as you’ve said the card, all four of you start giving each other dirty looks, and accusing each other of being the intruder, and saying they don’t have any cards of that particular suit. One of them is lying. But until that card turns up you have no idea how the game is going, neither you nor your opponents. Only the player who has the king knows the whole situation, and obviously he’ll do everything he can not to be found out, he may even lose lots of points to hold off being discovered as long as possible. Did you get all that?”
    â€œDeal the cards, and let’s give it a go.”
    Â 
    He had gotten home at four in the morning, after dumping Grandpa Ampelio on the couch, because Grandma Tilde went to bed at eleven and bolted the door of the bedroom and whoever was out stayed out.
    He had really enjoyed himself. And ever since that night, whenever the customers allowed it, he’d played
briscola
for five and had a whole lot of fun.

TWO
    About an hour and a half had passed and the game was over. Pilade had won, Massimo and Aldo had put up a good fight, and Ampelio and Rimediotti had been a disaster. As Massimo, once again forced to be a barman, gathered the glasses, the four old youngsters laboriously shifted their chairs in the direction of the sidewalk. Having transformed the vicious circle into a parliamentary amphitheater, they were now ready for what, in Pineta, was the national sport.
    Sticking your nose in other people’s business.
    Â 
    â€œSo, did you see? There’s even been a murder now.”
    â€œI know. Just imagine! A poor girl murdered in her own home! It’s already dangerous enough on the streets with all these Albanians around, now they kill you in your own home.”
    â€œGino, I’m sorry but, firstly, can you tell me what the Albanians have to do with it, and secondly, how do you know she was killed in her own home?”
    â€œShe was wearing slippers, fur slippers. Nobody walks about outside in fur slippers apart from crazy old Siria. That means she was killed in her own home.”
    â€œPoor thing . . . ”
    Massimo, who was emptying the overflowing ashtray in the bucket,