Chapter 139: Card Night

Chapter 139: Chapter 139: Card Night

The apartment was quiet in the way that meant everyone had run out of things to do.

Kai was at the table with the field assessment documentation. Shira was at the window, staring at the street like it had personally offended her. Mira was on the couch with her feet tucked under her and the RF-7 off for once, which was rare enough that Kai noticed it.

Nobody said anything for a long time.

Then Shira said, to the window: "I am bored."

Kai looked up.

She did not turn around.

"This is the fourth evening in a row with nothing to do," she said. "I have read the briefing four times. I have run the form three times today. I have rearranged the cabinet twice."

"You rearranged the cabinet again?" Kai asked.

"I moved the blue tin back to the left. It was wrong on the right."

Kai looked at the cabinet. He had not noticed it was on the right.

Mira’s board appeared.

It said: She has been staring at the street for forty minutes.

"I have not been staring," Shira said.

Mira wrote: You have been staring.

"I have been observing."

Mira wrote: You have been staring.

Shira turned her chair around.

She looked at Mira.

Mira looked at the wall near her shoulder with the particular stillness of someone who had said something completely accurate and was not going to take it back.

Shira looked at the table.

She said: "There is nothing to do."

---

Mira picked up the board.

She wrote something and held it up.

It said: There are cards in the drawer.

Shira looked at the board.

She said: "What cards."

Mira wrote: The ones from the building common room. I took them last week.

Kai looked at her.

"You took cards from the common room," he said.

Mira wrote: They were sitting on the shelf. Nobody was using them.

Shira looked at Mira.

She said: "You stole cards."

Mira wrote: I borrowed them.

"You did not tell anyone."

Mira wrote: I am telling you now.

Shira looked at the table.

She looked at Kai.

She said: "Get the cards."

---

The cards were in the kitchen drawer, exactly where Mira said they would be. A worn deck in a faded box. Kai brought them to the table.

Shira looked at them.

She said: "What game."

Mira wrote: I do not know any card games.

Shira looked at her.

"You stole cards from the common room and you do not know any games," she said.

Mira wrote: I borrowed them. And I thought we could figure it out.

Shira looked at the deck.

She said: "I know one. It is simple."

"Which one," Kai said.

"Pairs," Shira said. "You deal the cards. You take turns asking for a card. If the person has it they give it to you. If they do not you draw. Whoever has the most pairs at the end wins."

Kai looked at the deck.

"That is a children’s game," he said.

Shira looked at him.

"You have a better idea," she said.

He did not.

He dealt the cards.

---

The problem was immediately obvious.

Mira could not see her cards.

She sat at the table with the cards face-down in front of her and her board in her lap and the particular expression of someone who had not thought this through.

Shira looked at Kai.

Kai looked at Mira.

Mira wrote: You will have to tell me what I have.

Kai picked up her cards.

He read them out.

She listened.

She held up the board.

It said: Again.

He read them again.

She held up the board.

It said: I have two sevens. A four. A nine. Two threes. A jack. A two.

Shira looked at her.

She said: "You memorized them."

Mira wrote: Yes.

Shira looked at Kai.

She said: "She memorized them."

Kai looked at Mira.

Mira was looking at the wall near his shoulder.

She wrote: Deal.

---

They played for an hour.

Shira was ruthless. She tracked every card. She knew what Kai had before he knew himself. She asked for cards with the precision of someone running a form sequence, and she won the first two rounds without mercy.

Mira was slower. But she was patient. She waited. She listened. And when Kai asked for a card she did not have, she noted it.

On the third round, she asked for the jack.

Shira had the jack.

Mira held up the board.

It said: Shira. The jack.

Shira looked at her hand.

She looked at Mira.

She said: "How did you know."

Mira wrote: You asked for the three of clubs four turns ago. You would not have asked for it if you did not have the jack. The three and the jack are the same color. You always pair same colors.

The table went quiet.

Shira looked at her hand.

She looked at Mira.

She handed over the jack.

Mira wrote: Thank you.

---

Mira won the third round.

Shira did not say anything about it.

She dealt the next hand with the particular focus of someone who had just been outplayed and was not going to let it happen again.

By the fifth round, Kai had stopped keeping score.

He was watching them.

Shira, competitive and precise, her jaw set, her eyes moving between her hand and Mira’s board.

Mira, patient and quiet, her head tilted toward the table, her ears pink from the concentration.

They were playing. Actually playing. Together. Something they had never done before.

Kai looked at his cards.

He looked at them.

He smiled.

---

Mira’s board appeared.

It said: Kai is smiling.

Shira looked up.

She looked at Kai.

She said: "You are smiling."

Kai looked at his cards.

"I am not," he said.

Mira wrote: You are.

Shira looked at him.

She said: "You are."

He looked at the table.

He looked at both of them.

"I am," he said.

Shira looked at her hand.

She said: "It is only a card game."

Mira wrote: He is smiling because we are playing.

Shira looked at the board.

She looked at Kai.

She looked at her hand.

She said: "It is still your turn."

Kai looked at his cards.

He asked for the eight.

Shira did not have it.

He drew.

Mira won the round.

---

They played until ten.

Shira won three rounds. Mira won three. Kai won one and did not care.

Mira was leaning against the table by the end, her head propped on her hand, her eyes half-closed. Shira had stopped gripping her cards so hard. Her shoulders had dropped an inch from where they usually sat.

Kai collected the cards.

He looked at them.

He said: "Same time tomorrow."

Shira looked at him.

She said: "Tomorrow is Cara’s session."

"After," he said. "She leaves at nine."

Shira looked at the table.

She said: "Fine."

Mira’s board appeared.

It said: I am keeping the cards.

Shira looked at her.

She said: "You borrowed them."

Mira wrote: I am keeping them.

Shira looked at the table.

She said: "Fine."

Mira picked up the board.

She wrote: You are just saying fine because I won the last round.

Shira looked at her.

She said: "I am saying fine because it is late."

Mira wrote: You are saying fine because I won the last round.

Shira looked at her.

She said: "Go to bed."

Mira set the board face-down.

She stood.

She walked to her room.

Twenty steps.

She stopped at the door.

She turned around.

She held up the board one more time.

It said: Good night, Kai. Good night, Shira.

Shira looked at the board.

She said: "Good night."

Kai said: "Good night."

Mira lowered the board.

She went into her room.

The door did not close all the way.

---

Shira stayed at the table.

She looked at the cards.

She looked at the hallway.

She looked at Kai.

She said: "She memorized every card."

"Yes," Kai said.

She looked at the cards.

She said: "I have never played a card game with someone who memorized every card."

Kai looked at her.

He said: "Did you have fun."

She looked at the table.

She was quiet for a moment.

Then she said: "Yes."

She picked up her cup.

She drank.

She set it down.

She looked at him.

She said: "Tomorrow. After Cara."

"Yes," he said.

She looked at the table.

The corner of her mouth.

She said: "I am going to win."

She went to the second bedroom.

---

Kai sat at the table.

He put the cards back in the box.

He put the box in the drawer.

He looked at the hallway.

Both doors open.

He went to make tea.

He brought three cups.

He set one outside Mira’s door.

He set one on the window ledge where Shira would see it.

He took his to the table.

He sat down.

He drank it.

And for the first time in weeks, the apartment felt like exactly what it was.

A home.