Show and Tell
What the hell you doing here? Danny says. This ain’t no place for you. Go home. It was just a friendly game of five card draw among friends, neighborhood guys. Just some of the fellas. Burt wasn’t supposed to be there, but there he was, knocking on the back door of the bar after closing time on Tuesday night. He wanted in. Danny had opened the door, stepped outside, and closed the door behind him. He stood there looking at Burt. What the hell? Danny says.
Danny and Burt were friends, but Burt was already deep in hock and paying vig to Hal, which he was behind on by a few payments. Danny tells the guy to go home, he’s in over his head already and they’re playing high stakes, no limit. Besides, this was just a friendly game of draw with some of the guys — he didn’t belong here. Burt was hard of hearing, which is why he was paying vig on a loan he should not have taken out in the first place.
Danny got tired of trying to talk to Burt. He wasn’t going to babysit the guy. He opened the door and told the dealer to throw out an extra hand — they had a guest. Hal stood up and put a halt to any further proceedings. He wanted to know why Danny had let Burt in the place. The guy’s late, Hal says. I’m not playing with some guy what owes me money.
Hal makes a move like he’s about to take a swing at Burt. Danny steps between them — Let him play, he says, I’ll vouch for him. Hal gives Danny a bad look. Danny gives Hal a bad motherfucker look — it was Danny’s joint, Danny’s game. Hal looks at Burt, spits, and sits back down. Burt buys some chips and pretty soon he’s losing and buying more chips. He’s drinking too, asking for doubles and doubling his bets. Shanahan is having a good night, stacking up chips like the Fed. Beckett and Jimmy are sucking but they keep throwing in, hoping their luck changes. Hal is breaking even and Danny is losing a little but he’s making it back on his cut of the pot — his joint, his game.
Burt is the kind of loser who doesn’t know when to cut his losses. The more he keeps chasing what went out the door the more goes out the door. Pretty soon he’s asking to get staked. Hal and Danny look at each other, then Danny looks at Burt, who’s sweating like a pedophile on a school bus. Danny shrugs. Give it to him. The game goes on into the early morning hours. Shanahan loses momentum and Beckett is stacking chips now. Jimmy folds and calls it a night. Burt is still chasing what went out the door, getting in deeper. Finally Danny looks at him and says What the fuck you doing?
Burt is adamant. He’s good. Fine, Danny says, throw your keys on the table. Burt does and Danny nods to the house. Burt is flush with new chips. Deep into the game Burt is working on a full house and thinking nobody’s doing better. When he gets his card he pushes all his chips into the pot and calls. Danny drops his four of a kind and picks up Burt’s keys. Hal loses it and backhands Burt. Ya mook, Hal says. This time Danny does nothing. They figure up what Burt owes and it is a serious amount of money. Plus the vig he still owes to Hal, its looking pretty serious. Let’s go for a ride, Danny says.
Danny is a reasonable guy. The first thing he does is he takes Burt out behind the bar and beats the shit out of him. Burt stands there and takes it — what’s he gonna do? They get into Burt’s Escalade, which is now Danny’s Escalade, and drive over to Burt’s house, a nice two-story rambler on a quiet street in a good neighborhood. Danny stops the car in front of the house, cuts off the engine, and punches Burt in the face a few times for good measure. He takes out his cell phone and calls a taxi. Twenty minutes. I hope you got cab fare.
Burt goes into the house and walks up to the bedroom where his wife is sleeping. He loves to watch her when she is sleeping, but now he gently shakes her awake. Mary Ellen, he says softly, until she slowly opens her eyes. Wake up, Mary Ellen. Go get the kids, he says. We have to leave.
