The Cardturner: A Novel About Imperfect Partners and Infinite Possibilities

by Louis Sachar

  We played against Syd Fox in the fourth round.

  “Hi,” Toni brightly greeted him when we sat down. “We went to your lecture the other day.”

  “I hope it wasn’t too boring,” he said.

  “No, it was great,” she assured him. “Alton got his head chopped off three times.”

  “But on the fourth, I got to marry the princess,” I said.

  Syd Fox eyed Toni, then looked at me. “I think you came out ahead on the deal.”

  Toni blushed. “We’re just bridge partners,” she told him.

  On our first board, Syd Fox was the declarer in four hearts, down one. One hundred for us. He didn’t seem too concerned. In the post-mortem, he told his partner that it took good defense to set him, “but in this field, that should be the normal result.”

  On our second board, Annabel was the declarer in three no-trump, and made an overtrick for 630. When the hand was over, Syd Fox turned to Toni and said, “Next time, you should be the one giving me the lecture.”

  Three tables later we came across two other people I knew. (Who would have guessed I’d know so many bridge players?) They were the two women world champions that Trapp and Gloria had played against in the regional knockout. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to see them here.

  I didn’t remember their names, but they remembered mine, and introduced themselves as Robin and Natalie. (In what other sport do you have the opportunity to play against the best players in the world? It would be like playing a round of golf and being joined by different people at each hole. “Hello, my name is Tiger, what’s yours?”) I introduced them to Toni. There was no point telling them she was Annabel Finnick, since they already knew I wasn’t Lester Trapp.

  “I noticed your uncle’s name right up there among the leaders,” said Robin, the younger of the two women. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful if he won?”

  “Yeah, it would,” I agreed. Robin and Natalie must not have had a chance, or else she wouldn’t have said that.

  “I’m surprised we haven’t seen him,” said Natalie. “I guess he must have somebody else turning his cards for him.”

  “Yeah, a really cute guy,” said Toni.

  “Oh, really?” asked Robin. “And does he know you think he’s so cute?”

  “It’s complicated,” said Toni. “I’ve been going out with his best friend.”

  “A word of advice from someone who’s been there,” said Natalie. “You don’t want to come between friends.”

  “Oh, I know,” said Toni.

  “Enough of this friendly chitchat,” declared Robin as she removed her cards from the board. “Now it’s war.”

  I didn’t know what Toni was trying to do with those remarks, but it totally messed up my mind. I couldn’t perceive anything from Trapp. Toni opened the bidding, 1. Robin passed, but all I could hear was “really cute guy” and “going out with his best friend.”

  I looked at my cards.

  I knew enough to set the 1 card on the table.

  Natalie passed, Toni bid 1♠, Robin passed, and it was back to me.

  I had to choose between 1NT and 2. I think most experts would bid one no-trump, because of the scoring. You get more points in a no-trump contract than you do in a minor-suit contract. For example, you get 120 for making two no-trump, and you only get 110 for making three diamonds.

  But I had something else to consider. I didn’t know when my brain would settle down enough for me to hear from Trapp again. If I bid one no-trump, I’d be the declarer. In diamonds, Annabel would play the hand. I put my money on Annabel and pulled out the 2 card.

  Everyone passed, and two diamonds was the final contract. As I tabled the dummy, I heard Trapp say, “Interesting bid.”

  At least he didn’t call me a donkey. Of course I wouldn’t have made that bid if I’d known I’d be hearing his voice so soon.

  Either I made the right bid, or Annabel played it exceptionally well, or both, but she took ten tricks for a score of 130. In the post-mortem, Natalie and Robin agreed that the most I could have made in no-trump was 120. Those ten extra points would be the difference between an average score and perhaps a cold top.

  I hoped that made up for the donkey hand.

  73

  The Final Table

  Table four would be our final table. We had to stand aside and wait until the people there finished playing a hand from the previous round.

  “Whatever happens,” Toni whispered to me, “this has really been great.”

  I gave a half-nod in agreement, about as much as my neck would allow. “I hope Trapp and Annabel think so too,” I said.

  “Oh, they do,” said Toni. “They’ve waited forty-five years for this!”

  I smiled as I thought about Annabel, her wink, and the way she had purposely won a trick with the “beer card.” Toni was right, I thought; Annabel was having the time of her life, although I guess that might not have been the most appropriate expression.

  The people at table four were finished. They placed their cards in the slots on the board. The man sitting North recorded the score. The boards were passed to table three. The pair sitting East-West got up and moved to the next table and Toni and I took their place. A caddy collected the scores.

  I removed my cards from the new board and looked at my hand. If it hadn’t been for the jack of spades, I would have had a Yarborough. There was no other card higher than a nine. I had all four twos.

  I remembered Trapp once telling Toni that these were the hands that separated the experts from the average players. I believe his exact words were Even Alton can win a trick with an ace or a king.

  Okay, Trapp, I challenged him. It’s your turn. Let’s see what you can do with this one!

  The guy on my right opened 1♣. I didn’t hear anything from my uncle, but I had a pretty obvious pass, and set a green card on the table.

  Our opponents had a very sophisticated bidding system. They made so many bids I actually ran out of pass cards. For my last two bids, I just pointed at one of the green cards already on the table.

  I never heard from Trapp. Maybe he trusted my ability to pass.

  They bid all the way up to six clubs, and I was on-lead. I waited, but still got nothing from Trapp, not even fuzzy mumbles. I chose one of my deuces.

  The hand was over before it got started. After the third trick, the declarer laid his hand on the table for us to see and claimed the rest of the tricks. He took all thirteen, making his slam plus an overtrick.

  North recorded the score of 1,390, but surprisingly, he wasn’t happy about it. “Everyone else was probably in six no-trump,” he muttered. “Or seven clubs.”

  “Only because she had the king of clubs,” South griped. “If he’d had it, instead of her, six clubs would be the only makeable slam.”

  Their bidding system was so sophisticated, they knew that six clubs was cold even before I played my first card. Other pairs who weren’t such expert bidders would not have known that, and probably would have tried six no-trump. That contract would have gone down if I’d held the king of clubs instead of Toni.

  The pairs who had bid six no-trump got a score of 1,440. And those who had bid seven clubs scored 2,140.

  In other words, we got a very good result even though we didn’t take a single trick.

  74

  The Final Hand

  Toni and I had played 103 hands, not counting the side game. These were my final thirteen cards:

  I’ve saved the hand records from the tournament, and have been using them to help me write an accurate account. But I didn’t need to look at the hand records for this one. It’s a hand I will never forget.

  East was the designated dealer. Toni set the 1♣ card on the table. South passed, and it was up to me.

  I had hoped that the reason I hadn’t heard from Trapp on that last hand was because he knew it wouldn’t make a difference, but I still wasn’t getting anything from him.

  I bid my longest suit, 1.

  North p
assed.

  Toni placed the 3♣ bid on the table.

  She could have just bid two clubs, so Annabel’s jump to three clubs showed extra strength. Since I had an opening hand too, we definitely belonged in game, and possibly slam.

  South passed, and it was back to me.

  I could use a little help here, I thought.

  Maybe it had to do with the location of the table. Hell, for all I knew, it could have been the location of Jupiter, or the fact that the guy next to me was wearing a striped shirt, but for whatever reason, I was getting no help from my uncle.

  I looked at my cards again, then at the bids on the table.

  I thought about bidding three diamonds, but I was afraid Annabel might pass, and we needed to bid game. I could try four diamonds, but that would take three no-trump out of the picture. But if I bid three no-trump, we wouldn’t get to explore for slam. I considered just taking a shot at six no-trump.

  I wondered what Lucy had bid when she had played the hand earlier. She was also sitting in the West seat. Earlier in the session she had held these very same cards.

  I decided on the safest action, and set the 3NT bid on the table. I wouldn’t want to be in slam without Trapp.

  North passed and it was Toni’s turn again. She sat there a long time without making a bid.

  I wondered what Annabel was thinking about. I wondered if it would make a difference if she knew I was her partner.

  Toni reached into her bidding box and pulled out a green card.

  The final contract was three no-trump, and I would have to be the declarer. North led the six of spades and Toni tabled her cards.

  It looked easy. I could win one spade trick, three heart tricks, and six diamond tricks. That’s ten tricks right there. And I might even get some club tricks.

  “Thank you, partner,” I said, then told Toni to play the four of spades.

  The next person played the ♠Q, and I was just about to play my ace, when I suddenly realized it wasn’t going to be as easy as I had first thought. I had a serious transportation problem.

  My ace of spades was the only entry to my hand. All my other suits were blocked!

  If I’d played the ace of spades immediately, I’d have won that trick. I could then have won the next three tricks in dummy, with its three red cards. But then I would have had no transportation to my hand to play the rest of my good hearts and diamonds. I’d have been forced to lead a black card from dummy. The defenders would have been able to take two club tricks and at least three spade tricks, setting the contract.

  I stared at the cards in disbelief. I had all these high cards and no way to use them. Strange, but the dummy would have been a lot better if it had had the two of diamonds instead of the queen of clubs.

  I have this rule. If you can see that plan A won’t work, don’t do it, even if you don’t have a plan B.25

  I suppose experts always have a plan B, and even a plan C, but my rule had worked pretty well when I played in the side game.

  Since I knew playing the ♠A wouldn’t work, I ducked. I played the ♠8.

  The opponents won the first trick. I could only let them win three more.

  My other opponent was on-lead, and he set down the ♠K.

  Again, playing the ♠A wouldn’t work, so following Alton’s rule, I ducked, playing the ♠10.

  They’d won the first two tricks.

  My best hope was that my opponent would now lead a red card. I suppose that was my plan B.

  No luck. He led the ♠3.

  This was what I had left.

  My ace of spades was my last spade, so I had to play it. The guy on my left played the ♠7, and I was just about to discard the ♣2 from dummy, when I suddenly spotted my plan C.

  Since I had no transportation to get from the dummy to my hand, I just had to make sure that the dummy hand never won a trick. And that meant discarding the ace of hearts!

  “Ace of hearts,” I said.

  A look of surprise came across Toni’s face, but dummy has no choice in the matter. She discarded the A.

  I was on-lead. I led the K, and once again had to discard something from dummy. “Ace of diamonds,” I said, throwing away a second ace. Next I led the Q and discarded the K. I’d taken three tricks. I needed six more.

  I started with six diamonds in my hand, and the dummy began with two, for a total of eight. That meant the opponents had five diamonds between them. If they split 3-2, I could run off six diamond tricks.26

  I led the Q.

  Both opponents played low diamonds. There were three diamonds still out.

  I led the J.

  Again, both opponents followed suit.

  My 10 took care of the last outstanding diamond. I ran the rest of my diamonds, for a total of nine tricks. The opponents took the last two.

  At first glance the hand seemed like it would be a snap. I had more than enough high cards. However, on second look, it seemed hopeless. Strangely, I didn’t have enough low cards! I came up with a very unusual plan. Normally you only discard low cards. I discarded two aces and a king!

  Maybe Trapp could have done better, but at least I made my contract.

  “Let’s go!” Toni said, jumping up from the table.

  She was right. We needed to check the results and get out of there ahead of Lucy and Arnold.

  When I stood up, I was finally able to hear Trapp’s voice again.

  He said just two words to me, but those two words caused me to stop and then grab hold of the top of the chair for support. I was still standing there when Toni returned three or four minutes later.

  “Are you all right?” she asked. “You’re trembling.”

  I didn’t know it at the time, but those were the last two words my uncle would ever say to me.

  He had said, “Nicely played.”

  75

  Talk About Wow

  “C’mon, we gotta go!” Toni said to me, grabbing my arm.

  I heard Arnold’s voice coming from where the results were posted. “If this is someone’s idea of a joke … !”

  We hurried across the room, then hid out in the middle of section H. Toni told me that with two rounds to go, Annabel and Trapp were leading with a 64 percent game.

  That was just for their section, and Toni had only looked at the East-West scores. Sixty-four percent was good, really good, but we had no way of knowing if it was good enough.

  “Our last round has to be good,” she said optimistically. “First, they were in six clubs instead of six no-trump. And then on that second board, Trapp was amazing! I couldn’t believe it when he told me to discard the ace of hearts! And then also the ace and king of diamonds! Talk about wow!”

  I had no reason to tell her differently. Nothing she could say would top my uncle’s last two words.

  There were three printers on the directors’ table, and they all began spewing out results. Caddies posted the printouts at various places around the room.

  Section A was the first one posted, but Toni and I didn’t dare go anywhere near it. It seemed to me that we should probably just leave and come back later after the room cleared, but we remained glued to our spot.

  “May I have your attention, please?”

  I could see the head director speaking into his microphone.

  “The winners of the National Pairs Championship are … Annabel Finnick and Lester Trapp!”

  Toni and I stared at each other. There were tears in her eyes, or maybe I only imagined them because I was looking at her through the blurriness of my own tears. The next thing I knew, her arms were around my neck, and I was holding her as tight as I could.

  Since you’ve stuck with me this long, you know I don’t do a lot of long descriptive paragraphs. I don’t use many similes or metaphors. “A screaming lightning bolt of pain” is the only one that comes immediately to mind.

  What happened next was that Toni and I kissed, and you’re going to have to take me literally when I describe that kiss as cosmic. I didn’t know where
I was. I didn’t even know who I was. I can’t tell you how long the kiss lasted. Everything seemed to disappear, including time and space.

  When I opened my eyes I looked at Toni looking at me.

  “Talk about wow,” she whispered.

  “Was that you and me,” I asked, “or Trapp and Annabel?”

  “I think it was Trapp and Annabel,” Toni said, then added, “but I liked it.”

  “Will Annabel Finnick and Lester Trapp please come forward?” the director called, for what was probably the third or fourth time.

  I became aware that the pain in my neck was gone. It had melted away with the kiss.

  “Annabel and Lester, please come up to the front to accept your trophy and to have your picture taken.”

  Toni and I held hands as we left the area. We walked quickly, but not too quickly, down the hall to the hotel lobby.

  We didn’t know who might come looking for us. Lucy and Arnold? My parents? A committee from the ACBL? The police? A crazed photographer?

  We kissed again in the elevator. This time, it was just the two of us. Somewhere between the lobby and the twenty-seventh floor, Trapp and Annabel had left the building.

  76

  Philosophically Bent

  Because I am now a member of the ACBL, I receive their monthly bridge magazine in the mail. In the October edition of The Bridge Bulletin, there was a very nice article written by Gloria about Lester Trapp, who during the last year of his life had played the game blind, “but could see the cards better than anyone in our club.” The article mentioned that he had died on June 24. Elsewhere in the very same edition, Annabel Finnick and Lester Trapp were mentioned as the winners of the National Pairs Championship. It mentioned that Lester Trapp had reached the rank of Grand Life Master, but there was no accompanying article or photo. Still, you would have thought that some editor would have caught the fact that Lester Trapp had won the event after he had died.