Heads You Win

“You’ll be the blind man, and I’ll tell you the moves your opponent makes.”

“But you’re as good a player as I am, probably better.”

“I won’t be by the time I’ve finished with you. And in any case, you’re still only seventeen.”

“Nearly eighteen.”

“But you look about fifteen, which will make the punters all the more confident they can beat you.”

“When do we start?” asked Alex.

“Next Saturday morning, eleven sharp.”

“Can I ask a favor?”

“Of course. We’re partners now.”

“Can I have my dollar back?”

“Why?”

“I’m taking a girl to the movies tonight, and that was meant to pay for our tickets.”

* * *

Alex was standing outside the movie theater fifteen minutes before they’d agreed to meet. He walked nervously up and down the sid

ewalk, occasionally pausing to study the poster advertising the film. He was wondering how you ever got to meet someone as beautiful as Claudia Cardinale, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

He swung around to see Addie smiling at him. She took his hand and led him up to the box office.

“Two for Once Upon a Time in the West,” she said, and stood aside to allow Alex to pay. Lesson number one in the courting manual. She then grabbed his hand again and took him inside the dimly lit cinema.

Although the film seemed to be incidental to what Addie had in mind, it was Henry Fonda, not Claudia Cardinale, who Alex couldn’t take his eyes off. He wanted to talk like that, walk like that, even dress like that. He decided he would have to see the film again during the week when he wouldn’t be distracted, because he no longer wanted to be James Cagney.

Alex didn’t want Addie to realize it was his first visit to a cinema, so when the man seated in front of him put his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulder, he copied him. She snuggled up closer. He was enjoying the film, when a hand reached across, pulled him toward her, and he experienced his first kiss. There wasn’t time for a second, because a few moments later the words THE END appeared on the screen and the lights went up.

“Let’s get a Coke,” suggested Alex. “I know a great little diner not far from here.”

“Sounds good,” said Addie.

This time Alex took her hand and led Addie across the square to the diner Ivan had taken him to earlier that day. Alex marched in, waved to the man behind the counter, and said, “Hi, Lou,” before heading straight for Ivan’s table as if he was a regular.

“Two Cokes, please,” said Alex when the waitress appeared.

During the next half hour Alex learned far more about Addie than she did about him. In fact he knew her entire life history by the time the waitress asked if they’d like another Coke. He would have said yes, but he’d run out of money.

Addie didn’t stop talking while Alex walked her home. When they reached her front door she stood on her toes, put her arms around his neck, and kissed him. A second kiss. A very different kiss.

He walked home in a daze, crept into the house, and went straight to bed, not wanting to wake his mother.

* * *

“I’ve been given another raise,” said Elena triumphantly, when Alex joined her for breakfast the following morning. “I’m now on a dollar fifty an hour. I’m going to suggest to Dimitri that it’s time for us to start contributing to the rent.”

“Us?” said Alex. “I don’t contribute anything, Mama, as you well know. But that could change if you’d allow me to earn some extra cash on the weekend.”

“Doing what?”