Abbey Loses Everything

Abbey couldn't believe how foolish she had been. At 26 years of age she was a college graduate with an MBA and thought she had enough life experience to avoid being suckered, but that was evidently not the case. She was staying with her mother while she waited for her new executive level, river view condo downtown to become available. In addition to enabling her to spend some time with her family, visiting the old neighborhood also gave her a good opportunity to rub her success in everyone’s face, something she had been looking forward to for some time.

Unfortunately not everything went according to plan. The condo management had called her just one day into her stay. They informed her that her condo had mold and needed some additional work done and that she wouldn’t be able to move in for another week or possibly two. So until then, as she was somewhat cash poor at the moment, she was to stay there with her family, in the boring little suburb she had grown up in.

Frustrated and bored waiting for her first day at work to come around, she became a bit sloppy, which wasn’t normally like her at all. She had figured if she could land such a high paying position she was clearly smart enough to beat her younger sister Sara, who had just turned 18, at just about anything. Unfortunately everything didn't apparently include poker.

The game had started so innocently. The family had just finished cleaning up from lunch and Abbey's mother, Debora announced that she was going to take a nap. This left Abbey alone in the dining room with Sara, her divorced Aunt Sheila and her 18 year old niece, Maggie. Abbey had already had several glasses of wine when Sara asked if they wanted to play cards, maybe some poker. Abbey was somewhat surprised, she didn't know her sister played with anything other than dolls, she still thought of Sara as a little girl.

Despite the fact that Sara was off to college in the Fall, Abbey still saw her as just her annoying kid sister. This was particularly odd as Sara was now actually several inches taller than she was having finally sprouted. Abbey’s rather diminutive height and youthful complexion were in fact one of the main reasons she always made a point of dressing with such style and distinction. Designer suits told people that she certainly wasn't a child and expensive high heels added much needed height.

Even for just Saturday family dinner Abbey had worn a finely tailored pantsuit, silk blouse and 4 inch heels. Naturally her long glamorous hair and makeup matched her fine taste in clothing and were as always, perfect. Her appearance and attire were quite a contrast to the rest of the Carter family however. They were all dressed casually in shorts and t-shirts or in the case of Sara in short denim overalls and striped socks, which to Abbey made her look like a combination of Huckleberry Finn and Pippy Longstocking.

Sara had always found Abbey to be more than a little spoiled and far too self involved. She felt that as long as she had known Abbey she had looked down on where she was from and felt that she was better than the rest of them. She didn’t want to play cards for fun, she wanted to finally beat her older sister at something and take her down a peg or two. She was overjoyed when her older sister agreed to play poker as she had been waiting for just such an opportunity.

They played cards innocently for several hands. The stakes were small, quarters and dimes, nothing to get too excited about. Sara was careful not to reveal how well she knew the game and even threw a few hands she could have won. Abbey enjoyed winning hand after hand and to celebrate had a couple more glasses of wine. Coupled with what she had to drink at dinner this meant by the time Sara made her move that afternoon, she was quite .

“I raise,” Sara announced to Abbey’s surprise. She had what she thought was a winning hand and had made no secret of it. Clearly she thought, her little sister was trying to bluff and steal the pot. Not about to be shown up by little-miss-so-and-so she raised as well.

Sara wouldn’t give up though and countered with another raise which Abbey replied to in kind. Sheila and Maggie both folded as the sisters continued to raise one another. Before long they were out of quarters and dimes and as would be poor form for Abbey to simply out raise her teenage sister, they started wagering things besides money.

“You wash the dog,” Sara said writing it on a note and tossing it in the pot.

“You wash my underwear,” Abbey countered and tossed it in the pot.

“You do my homework,”

“You rotate my tires,”

And on and on it went with each sister continually raising the stakes and the other countering.

“Girls girls girls, stop already, this is getting out of hand!” Aunt Sheila tried to put a stop to the outrageous wagering. “This is supposed to be a friendly ‘reasonable stakes’ game.”

“We know what we’re doing, stay out of it, you folded.” Abbey replied none too nicely.

“Yeah, she’s a big girl, let her bet the way she wants.” Sara agreed.

And with that Sheila relented and sat back to see how things unfolded. Naturally neither one of the sisters would give an inch and the wagering just continued until it reached its inevitable conclusion.

“If I win I get your car. Or should I say Dad’s old car,” Abbey grinned. Both girls loved their Dad’s old cherry red 1957 Ford Thunderbird, but when he died he had left it to his youngest daughter and it had been a point of contention ever since.

“Fine,” Sara replied, “But If I win I get this,” and tossed her new wager in the pot.

Abbey looked it over and grimaced. If she lost she was in serious trouble she thought. She wasn’t going to lose though she said to herself. She was going to take her little sister to the cleaners and really put her in her place. “I accept,” she said tossing the wager back in the pot. “Now, as they say, read’em and weep”, she added splaying her cards on the table.

A pair of aces and.. another pair of aces. Four of a kind!

“Beat that!” Abbey gloated.

Sara sat there staring at her sister’s four of a kind for a moment and then calmly laid her cards down as well.

Queen, Jack, Ten, Nine and Eight. All Diamonds. A straight flush!

Abbey’s face drained on color. Her sister had won. She had been beaten. Suddenly she sobered up completely. What had she done. What had she lost?