Cards
by Sifo Dyas Jr.
Jim tapped the back of the Honda Accord as he slung the dufflebag over his shoulder. As the car drove off, Jim looked around the old neighborhood as he rubbed his goatee.
Home. At least it was before his parents sold it. They moved out to Arizona not too long after he had started college. He usually went out to his parent's house for Christmas, but, after begging them and hitching a ride with Tom on his way home from school, Jim figured he'd give his long-time girlfriend a nice holiday surprise.
The long distance relationship had been tough, but he came out to the east coast during the summers, and whenever she was able to save up enough airfare, she'd fly out for a week to Colorado. They had originally planned on attending Compton University together, but her grades didn't pan out so she remained in Virginia to attend NOVA community college. He always teased her that the N stood for 'Knowledge'.
Before Jim could even reach Becky's front door, he was greeted with a huge hug by her baby sister, Rachel.
"Jim!!!" she screamed as she slung her arms around his neck and nearly choked him.
"Geez Rach...! I'm glad to see you, but you're getting so big you're gonna break my neck one of these days!" he joked as he embraced.her.
"what are you doing here, Becky said you were going home???" she half-asked, half-squealed.
"I figured I'd give you guys a surprise present this year. Is Becky here?"
Rachel calmed down rather suddenly. "Um... no. I'm not sure where she is. I think she might be at work." she said while looking down at the ground. "She should be home before too long." She changed the subject quickly. "So, you brought me a present???" she bounced up and down trying to reach into his bag.
"Yes I did. But it's still a week before Christmas, so you've got to wait." Jim held the bag high over his head. There was a time that that would have been out of her reach, but she had a big growth spurt since he saw her in the summer.
"Well, you owe me a present from my birthday, so you can just give it to me early." she said matter of fact.
Jim looked stunned for a minute. "Oh geez. You're right! I did forget your birthday. Oh man... I'm so sorry Rach! Geez, I remember when your parents brought you home from the hospital... that must have been what? Nine years ago now?"
"Shut up! You know I'm 13 now!" she yelled.
"Thirteen? No way. You're not thirteen. You're ten at the most!" he teased.
"Shut up you loser!" she shoved him back.
"You're getting strong that's for sure. So... thirteen... you got any boyfriends now?"
Rachel quickly turned beet red. This was definitely a sore spot with her because, for the longest time... longer even that Becky had been dating him, she had a crush on Jim. It started back when she was six and he had to babysit her.
Jim noticed the blush. "Ah... so you DO have a boyfriend! What's his name?"
"Shut up. I don't. Okay?" she got real quiet for a moment and then looked back into the house. "Oh my gosh! You've got to come up and meet my friends! " Before Jim could say a word, she had grabbed him by the hand and pulled him up the stairs to her bedroom, where 4 middle school girls were hanging out.
"Guys... this is Jim." she said, introducing him to her group. "Jim, this is Karen," she pointed to the tall blonde girl, "Amanda," a really short brunette, "Mei", a cute asian girl, "and Michelle" she pointed at the tomboyish girl in the corner going through drawers of stuff. Michelle looked at Jim, then looked at Rachel and whispered "nice...", and the whole room burst out in giggles.
"Um... well... I'll let you get back to what you were doing." Jim said uncomfortably as he started out the room, but Rachel Amanda grabbed him by the arm. "No... you've GOT to stay... Rach has told us SO much about you!"
"Um... she has?" Jim asked, more than a little confused.
Michelle was looking very agitated now. "Dammit Rachel. Where did you hide those cards? I want to play..."
"I don't want to play that game right now. I've got company. We'll do it later." Rachel said as she bounced onto her bed.
Michelle looked over at Jim again and her eyes lit up. "Hey, why don't we get Jim to play too? Jim, do you play cards?"
"No. Jim doesn't want to play. Ok?" Rachel said very defensively.
"C'mon. It'll be fun. I bet Jim is great at cards. Right?"
"Well... depend on what we're playing.... but yeah, I guess I could play a hand or two." he plopped down on the floor next to Mei. "So deal me in."
"Michelle... he isn't going to understand..." Rachel said under her breath.
Michelle laughed. "He's in COLLEGE, Rach. He'll learn how to play." She turned to face him. "it's basically poker--just with some different rules. We don't play for money. We play for swaps."
"Swaps?" Jim asked.
"Yeah swaps. It's easy. You'll see. So are you in?"
"Um. Yeah... sure. Swaps. Ok." Jim got comfortable.
Before Rachel could protest, Mei pulled a deck of cards out from between Rachel's mattress and box springs. She looked at Rachel and shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry."
As the cards for the first hand of 5 card stud were dealt, Jim noticed that tthe cards were very peculiar. They had a slight glow to them that didn't seem quite natural, which didn't make any sense because they were so ancient. They looked like that could be over a hundred years old. He took his hand and after trading in a couple of low cards for a grand high of one Queen, he folded. After a couple of minutes Amanda won the hand.
"Ok Amanda, lets get this first one over with." Karen said while clutching on to her hair with a deep sigh.
Mei chimed in. "She always does this."
Amanda defended herself as she put her hand on the deck of cards. "C'mon Karen you know I love your hair. So I want to swap hair."
Jim started to laugh. "Oh-kayyy.... this is, uh.. different." He looked down at the deck under Amanda's palm, and they started to glow even brighter... then he looked at the two girls. Karen's hair started to turn very very dark, while Amanda's hair turned blonde.
"I hate your hair..." Karen whined as she tugged at her thin dark hair.
"It's your hair now!" Amanda smiled as she ran her fingers through the long blonde locks.
"Just until the next game. Shit. Ok someone deal."
Jim stood up. "Ok, wait a minute... this is some kind of practical joke right?"
There was silence as they girls looked up at him.
"C'mon. I'm not that gullible. What's the trick? Did you guys have wigs on or something?"
"Nope." Michelle said. "That was a swap. A lame unoriginal swap." She shot a look at Amanda. "But it was a swap. The winner can swap any one characteristic of anyone else. Amanda does this the first hand of every game we play."
"Ok, ok... I'll play along. Deal." he sat back down in the circle
Jim picked up his 5 cards one by one. 3 of hearts. 7 of hearts. 2 of hearts... Ace of spades. Queen of hearts.
He traded in one card and came up witth a 6 of hearts. Flush. He won the hand easily beating Michelle's pair of aces. All eyes were on him now.
"Ok, so what do I do?"
Rachel put the deck of cards directly in front of him. "you put your palm on the top of the deck and then say what you want to swap with whom. It can only be one thing though. Big or small, it can only be one thing at a time."
"Alright then. Here it goes... about to prove how lame this whole thing is... " Jim scanned around the room trying to think of something good to swap." Yeah... ok. I've got it.." He looked directly into Mei's eyes. "I want to swap eye color with Mei."
The deck glowed again and he felt a strange tickling sensation on his eyeball that passed quickly, and seemed to leave everything in the room with a richer color. He looked over at the cute asian girl who now had deep blue eyes.
Before he could say anything, Karen shoved a mirror in front of him. His face looked weird with dark eyes. "Oh my god. This really does work."
Karen laughed. "He's slow for someone in college."
Mei grabbed the mirror from Jim and looked at her own reflection. "This is SO cool! This is much better than when I got those colored contacts."
Karen began to deal. Jim just stared forward, trying to figure out what had happened.
"C'mon brown eyes. do you need any cards?"
Jim picked up his cards in a sort of daze. He noticed that the reds on them seemed more red than he had noticed before. He quickly scanned them and said. "No... no cards." But he didn't even have a pair of anything.
Michelle won the hand. She chuckled. "Ok... hmmm.... I know what I want to swap..." She winked over at Rachel. "you'll like this one! Heh... a lot...."
She put her hand on the deck and said "I want to swap ages with Jim."
The cards glowed and Jim began to feel that tickling sensation all over. It didn't register with him what she had said until he felt his body begin to shrink.
"What the--?" His voice cracked.
He held up his hand in front of his face and didn't see his hand. Just the sleeve of his sweater. He pushed the sweater arms up to his elbow. He looked over at Michelle... she looked a little different... her body had filled out and she was a little bit taller...
"No. You can't do that." Jim said. This time his voice didn't crack at all. It was just higher pitched period.
"Oh? I can't?" Michelle said mocking him while fiddling around with something on her back. She pulled out a training bra from under her blouse... her very large breasts now bouncing freely. "Ok. I can't swap ages with you. Heh...."
JIm stood up and while his body went in one direction. His pants stayed where they were--and slid down his legs to the floor. It didn't reveal anything critical because the sweater hung so low on his body now.It didn't stop him from blushing.
He grabbed the belt which was still fastened around the waist of his pants. He pulled the pants up and held them with one hand.
Michelle continued to mock. "Wow. You were a shrimp in seventh grade! But a cutie! Even more so without that goatee. Don't you think so Rachel?"
Rachel ignored what Michelle was saying, even though she was thinking it too.
"Change me..." He cleared his throat several times, trying to get a normal sounding voice out of his mouth. "Change... damn...Change me back. Now." he said with a high pitched whine.
Michelle stood up next to him. She was now a good 4 inches taller than he was. As he looked around the room, he realized that all of the girls except Amanda were taller than him now. She looked down at him. "I can't." she said calmly as she smiled.
Rachel chimed in, looking the boy over. "She really can't until the next game."
"And each game has ten hands in it." Karen said bitterly while tugging annoyingly at her hair.
Rachel put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry Jim. I'm sure you'll be able to swap back before Becky gets home."
Continued in part 2