Ante Up

Years ago my husband and I had very interesting neighbors.  Interesting in the sense that all kinds of nutty things used to go on in their house and we would laugh at them behind their backs.  That kind of interesting.  Truthfully though, the wife was very, very nice.  Not particularly fastidious, but nice.  The husband on the other hand, was one of those one-upping, know it all types.  The only problem was that he knew very, very little about many, many things.      

As luck would have it, my daughter Kelly was the same age as their daughter and she would sometimes go to their house after school to play.  One particular afternoon Kelly came home and told me that Mr. Z. opened up the front hall coat closet and took out a bag of potato chips, which had been laying on the floor.  But when he stuck his hand in, he found that a mouse was in the bag.  According to my daughter, who was not known to embellish, there was a brief struggle over the chip and the bag went back in the coat closet and the door re-closed.    

In the interests of neighborly harmony, but against my better judgment, my husband and I agreed to ‘Friday Night Game Night’ so the girls could play together.  We would alternate houses and have dinner first, followed by either cards or a board game.  On one of their nights to host the dinner, I was sitting at my neighbor’s dining room table when I spied Mickey Mouse walking across their kitchen counter, which was strewn with pots, pans, dishes and everything else my neighbor had used to make the meal.  What I found most perplexing was Mickey’s cavalier attitude towards people, as he nonchalantly strolled in the twilight.  He gave me a quick nod and my immediate assumption was that he had run out of dip.  My neighbor saw what I was looking at, shrugged and resumed eating her pasta.  I put down my fork and napkin, wiped my mouth on my sleeve and announced that I was full.  From then on we had game night at my house. 

But all’s well that ends well.  Since the girls were too young to play, Mickey would fill in for poker when we needed a fifth.