“Pair of aces queen high,” I breath, anxiously waiting for Mrs. Janson. I watched as she smirked sighing as she showed her cards. “Beats me,” she smiled. I sigh in relief, gathering my winnings from the table. As I add the chips to my pile I notice myself agreeing up once more. In only moments I find myself to be 20 once again.
“Hey I got older,” I say in surprise. Counting my chips I see I have well over 20, yet I don’t appear to have gotten any older than my original age.
“Slightly confused,” Mrs. Janson said as she shuffled the cards. “I’ll explain, you see the cards are enchanted. We happened upon a Magic Shop not so long ago. As a gag we bought the cards, thinking it to be a big joke. Turns out that they do make you younger but they can’t make you any older than you already were when you started.”
“So what do I do with the extra chips,” I ask, still perplexed by this unique card game. “Well it’s kind of like insurance,” Mrs. Wells replied. “If you lose the extra chips you won’t get any younger. If you fall below your original chip count though well...” Mrs. Wells trailed off as the women began to laugh softly. Obviously this was something the ladies had tried on more than one occasion. “Mom how many times have you played this game,” I asked.
“Few times now,” she shrugged. “Unfortunately for the rest of us Mrs. Janson has a habit of beating us every single time.”
“What can I say ladies,” she smiled. “I’m just a natural when it comes to poker.” I watched as the women now threw a chip into the pile, growing a year younger each as they picked up their cards. Still looking for answers I turned to my mother once more. “So how do you win and when does it end?”
“The game ends when one person loses all their chips,” Mom said. “The thing is the chips only take away years but not months. That means that even if you lose everything you’ll still be anywhere between a few minutes and 11 months old.”
“Then that’s when the fun begins,” Mrs. Janson smiled as she discarded two cards. The tilted my head towards the woman, wondering what she meant by that. Mom immediately noticed my confusion laughing softly.
“The dumb penalty phase,” mom laughed. “The loser gets dressed in baby clothes and has their picture taken. It’s a little embarrassing but harmless fun.”
“Your just saying that because you lost last time,” Mrs. Janson laughed as she looked at my mom. “To be honest you were quite adorable.”
“We’ll see who’s adorable tonight,” my mother countered adding two more chips to the pot and growing two years younger. I gazed at my cards now anxiously, noticing I had been dealt thee sevens. “Ugh I don’t want to drop below twenty chips then,” I thought. As I thought that I felt a tingle spread through my body. At first I was curious why, then I realized what had happened. The ring. The ring had taken my thoughts as a wish, now, no matter what happened I wouldn’t grow any younger than 20. For all intents and purposes I had guaranteed that I would not lose this game. Smiling confidently I now discarded two of my cards before seeing the bets that had been made.
“Well girls I have no intention of losing,” I said. “So let’s get this game going.”
Mrs. Janson smiled leaning back as she looked me over. “I like that confidence,” she said. “But I haven’t lost one of these games yet.” I now noticed as she threw three more chips into the pot. Regressing from 26 to 23, the woman was quite attractive now with a youthful face, glowing hair that cascaded down her shoulders and firm, full CC cup breasts. “Things change Mrs. Janson,” I smirked. “So let’s see how things go.”