It was Ted’s turn to deal. He deftly flicked up the cards out of his hands to each of the players. Jane sat next to him, neatly arranging the spoons in the middle of the table. Spoons was the name of the game Hans was playing with them, it was interesting and so far the game was fairly even.
Hans knew that they got dealt four cards each and then had to pass a card each to the player next to them. He passed to Chloe, then she passed to Ted, he passed to Jane and then finally back to himself again. Quite why he had no idea, but everyone else seemed to be make a fuss about having four similar cards or something. All Hans knew was that as soon as someone went for a spoon he had to grab one or he lost. He felt too embarrassed to ask what the rest of the rules were, all he’d done was gather everyone and then Chloe had rattled them off at too high a speed for him to properly comprehend, besides, so far he’d been doing rather well.
Instead he asked Chloe where her father had gone.
“He’s gone to the local wizarding union meeting, they meet in some church hall with a load of people who think they’re wizards. Apparently it’s quite a laugh. Then the real wizards go to the pub afterwards for the actual meeting,” she answered.
“Oh, didn’t know there was one,” he said feeling left out.
“Don’t worry, neither did I,” replied Chloe. “In fact, I swear he just makes these sorts of things up as an excuse to go to the pub,” she added, lunging for a spoon.
Hans reacted quickly, grabbing hold of the end of a spoon and pulling it back hard towards himself. Unfortunately Chloe was holding the other end and she fell into him, sending him flying backwards onto the floor with her on top.
They lay there for a second before Hans let go of the spoon. It was more than his life was worth to hold on, he thought.
“Thanks,” said Chloe and pecked him on the cheek, before excusing herself for a few minutes.
Hans looked back across the table, Jane and Ted hadn’t really spoken to each other since the incident earlier. As he was about to try and break the ice between them, Ted spoke.
“Sorry about what happened earlier, lass, my heads not been in the right place for a while. So, how do you know Hans then, is he a close friend, old flame, exotic relation or what?” he asked. “Only, I wish you’d talk a bit more, you know, its not like someone’s just shot the love of your life in front of you is it!”
Jane slapped him and stormed out of the room.
Ted stared at Hans, as if to ask what he had done wrong.
“Well, you kind of hit the nail right on the head just then.” Ted was shocked, a more posh people would have been flabbergasted, but you’ve not got that much choice when you’ve been living on the streets for year. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that.
“You know it probably didn’t help that you kept leaning more and more towards her, what are you trying to do chat her up or something?” Hans said, seriously.
“Geez, I certainly got a knack for putting me foot in it, ain’t I?” said Ted as he got up to find Jane.
He started out the door but never made it on account of walking straight into Mervin who was coming the other way.
