Three Hustlers Playing Cards at Subway (Part 1) – Mad Chaos: February 18, 1999

A Month of Freak Occurrences

This month has taken a turn from the usual routine life and occurrences that I have and it’s spun into a month of good fortune and freak occurrences. Let me start first by stating how surprised I became with my Valentines Day gift from Rochelle, you would have never expected a twist like that in the story of my life.

This month also brought along a new character from across the street that I’m sure will be evident and talked of for time to came. More fruitful is the mission I spent in heading down to the City, visiting temping agencies and buying new clothes, another new start. Also, just a day or two back I had the opportunity to see an eclipse take place, something I never have seen before.

Two Radical Turns Today

Now, today has seen another radical turn you would not expect, well, two of them. The first is that Shawn and Jett robbed Simon’s house, stole his car and in it placed every white good they could get their hands on from within the house. Of course you wouldn’t expect that to happen but also, because Keith has found a way to cheat the system at work and get free money I am now included in the plans.

Thus, tomorrow night I will head there with Ralf and take out $50 to get me through the week and in time I will take out much more money. These newly occurring experiences will probably keep surprising me throughout this month and thus, this month dawns a new name that sheds the summer of love that was named in December and then the name I forgot for January. This month I feel should be called the eclipse of such orderly events or the eclipse of normality.

Now, as this month has been named and as I remember this month I have called ‘The slowing down period’ before, I will complete the rest of chronology before today’s action is noted. Getting back to the end of my last entry, we will begin with late Sunday night when Ralf and Shawn ended up coming over my house. Shawn had a Playstation controller in his hand and gathering that they were going to stay over to play the Playstation I asked where it was.

Ralf Keeps a Secret

“Keith’s bringing it soon,” Shawn uttered and as that happened Ralf blurted “I’ve gotta go home and get to sleep, I can’t stay.” Walking Ralf out I asked him what was happening for the weekend but he placed his finger on his mouth as if to tell me to be quiet. Ushering my outside we walked to his car before he told me that for the weekend he was heading to New Zealand with his sister because she was thinking of moving down there.

Therefor, nothing was happening that involved Ralf, maybe nothing at all. Shawn decided to come out to be a snoop like he always is but Ralf stopped chatting as soon as he came out and left for home. The controller that Shawn had in his hand for the Playstation was actually Ralf’s.

Chasing a Playstation

Heading back into my house we waited patiently for Keith to turn up who was supposed to head over to Tyler’s house to borrow the Playstation. While in my room Shawn took a look through my new Ralph Magazine with Peta Wilson in it and on the front cover there was a buy one get one free sticker to go see ‘Very Bad Things’. Shawn asked me to get him a drink because he was just at cricket and a little thirsty so I had to go upstairs to get him a cup.

Coming back downstairs I handed him his drink where he only drank what I poured for him and as he came up to a page with a comment on ‘Very Bad Things’ he uttered, “I want to see that.” My initial reaction was to show him the front page with the ‘Very Bad Things’ sticker on it but as I did I noticed it was gone.

Now I might be wrong in saying that Shawn nicked it while I was upstairs and although I’m positive it was on there when I bought it and brought it back home, I’m not sure if it could have fallen off somewhere in my room. Nah, Shawn stole it, his going quiet told the story as well as not inquiring what was on the front page. Keith once told me that Shawn was a thief at heart and would steal from his friend’s so I guess he probably also stole my Australian Music Directory Book.

Tyler Says Nothing

After two calls to Keith’s phone he finally came over to my house and heading into my house he informed me that Tyler didn’t want to loan the Playstation. Both Keith and Shawn were keen and obsessed on playing this contraption for the night so we jumped into the car and headed to Tyler’s house. When at Tyler’s house we beeped out the front and then whispered into his bedroom window but no one was answering. Keith had called him up to inform him he was coming but as Shawn checked the backyard and noticed the dog was missing he gathered the two of them were out on a walk, at 10:30 p.m.

Driving around we decided to ring his house and that’s where we found out that he was indeed walking around with the dog. So, parking back at his house we waited for him and both Keith and Shawn were egging each other on to talk to him and then trying to get me to do their dirty work.

Nope, when Tyler came they didn’t say anything and Keith being the dick head said, “Tony wants to ask you something.” That didn’t bother me that much as I just asked for my video back, he walked into his house and brought it out for me. Without saying a word to Keith or Shawn he just turned around and walked back into the house. This was probably because Keith didn’t return the Playstation to Tyler when he last borrowed it, he had to come and get it.

A Borrowed Deck of Cards

Once the idea of getting a Playstation was over and after their bids to call Jett and Ace for a Playstation we headed to Tamsen’s house where Keith walked down to borrow a packet of playing cards. While Shawn and I were sitting in the car watching Keith walk down the long and dark driveway he informed me that Min-Su and Jett will be spending the night at Tamsen’s house for Wednesday because her parents are going away for a week. That virtually gives the both of them a fuck spot granted by Tamsen and they will be spending the next few days there bonking their brains off.

Jett and Min-Su haven’t had sex yet and Wednesday night will be their first time together. Hearing Tamsen yelling at Keith in the distance because he turned on the sensor light and she didn’t know how to turn it off I started wondering about them two. There is never one time that the two of them get together and they don’t have a fight. What a joke.

Leaving Tamsen’s house with a full deck of playing cards we headed for our talked of destination, ‘Subway’. The chairs inside were already being put up as it was nearing 11:00 p.m. but as the person was still working behind the ‘Subway’ counter we didn’t seem to worry that much. Taking down some seats around a table we started to play our first hand completely oblivious of the guy behind the counter. Just three hustlers, that’s what we were, playing cards in an open area, all the more fun.

House Rules for a Card Game

The first game we started to play was ‘Thirteen’ and in that Keith was mostly the winner. From that game we started to play a newer game called ‘Asshole’. That’s not the real name of the game as we made it up (Well maybe it is the real name) but for a basic idea of the game, read on. There are six cards dealt to each player on the ground, three facing down, three facing up to be seen.

Then, a further three cards is dealt to each player to play with. The person with the lowest 3 starts and the highest cards are the Ace, 10 and the 2. The Ace is the highest card overall, nothing can beat it. The 2 is a card that can be placed on anything and thus, it will start a new hand where you can put anything on it. The 10 is a card where you can put it down and it will clear the deck of cards that have been building up so no one gets them in their hands.

Free Chicken After Midnight

House rules, You must continually place a higher card on what has been placed. There are no runs but you can put three of a kind, two of a kind or a single card on the deck as long as it exceeds the other cards worth. You always have to have three cards in your hand and once you have less you should pick up from the left over stack.

Once the stack is depleted you must play until all your cards are gone and then start on the cards that are upright on the ground. At the start you must swap your highest cards in your playing hand to the cards on the ground as it will help you. Four of any suit acts as a ten and clears the deck, even if one each player puts down a card of the same suit in succession and they are all on top of each other.

So those are the rules of the game and basically, the winner is the one who finished all their cards. However, the trick is that when the cards that are facing up are finished you have to guess which of the three cards that aren’t viewable should be chosen first.

Those cards could be anything and thus, you could pick up a whole stack of cards if chosen wrong. In our first run of playing ‘Asshole’ we each won around 9 games and in that the guy behind the counter asked if we wanted the leftover chicken. He was closing shop around 1:00 a.m. so we took that, had a break and then got back into it.

A Race to Ten Points

Starting all over again from a score of zero now it was to see who could make it first to 10 points. The funny bits of this game was where Keith hand a hand where no card was higher than a 5 so Shawn put out a low card and then I put out a higher card than 5 and Keith had to pick up the pack.

We kept doing this through the numbers knowing he didn’t have them and for about eight hands we just started cacking up until I finally put down an ace. He picked up that pile also but now he could beat it but he had half the deck in his hand. Shawn and I were in tears at what we had done to him and it wasn’t the last time either. That game ended with me wining 10, 5, 5 but even though I won the game and the time was near 4:00 a.m. we all wanted to press on.