Score

I’ve always been mesmerized by people who find money or other interesting things when they go through old purses, bags, coat pockets, and the like. I’ve never been one of those people–okay, except once, I did find a dollar in a blazer pocket many years after I last wore the blazer. Since I could remember tucking it there for specific reasons, I don’t count that.

Recently I was checking the various pockets of the case that contains my old laptop. I found a business card from my CR-V’s car dealership–obviously I’d taken my laptop with me when I got the car serviced. And folded up into a tight little square I found this piece of paper.

front

back

I have a couple of notepads at the house with scores for our ongoing games of progressive rummy. One is used when we play Lynne and her family, and one is used when we play my sister during her visits. I probably folded this up and stuck it in my laptop bag with a promise to add it to the notebook. We consult these old scores when someone says stuff like, “I never win,” “I always lose the last hand,” or “Laura cheats.”

The moment I unfolded the paper, I knew exactly when it was from–September 2005. It was the first time Tim ever went to Lynne’s house–when we tried to evacuate as Hurricane Rita moved through the Gulf toward us. Our plan to leave the state was thwarted by the gridlocked traffic–it took us five hours to go fifteen miles–and we finally got off the highway and rambled along surface roads until we made it to Green Acres in the northwest suburbs. Whenever I look at our photos from those few days at Lynne’s, I’m amazed how much has changed. Our main reason for trying to evacuate was concern about how power loss and flooding could affect my mother’s health. She died in 2008. Craig died in 2006, and Tim’s dog River and cat Lazlo, both of whom were with us, have died, as have Lynne’s dogs Greta and Sparky.

But for that little period of time, we were all safe together. Though we were sometimes without power, we cooked and ate scrumptious meals, sat outside on Lynne’s patio and talked and (some of us) smoked, kept in touch with friends by phone and computer to make sure everyone was accounted for–and played lots of cards.

By the way, in progressive rummy, the winner has the lowest score–and oddly, this paper shows that each of us won one game. Maybe that’s why I kept it: proof that nobody loses all the time.

I still say Laura cheats.