β Scribed by Volponi, Paul
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
When Huck Porter's dad suddenly dies, it feels like nothing will ever make sense again. Huck's "best friend" thinks that Huck should just get over it, the girl he likes won't give him the time of day, and his mom now works all hours at a roadside diner to make ends meet. The only thing that still makes sense for Huck is the game his dad taught him, the game they spent hours playing together: Texas hold'em.
Worse than all of that, though, is Huck's math teacher, Mr. Abbott -- a hungry card shark with an ego to match his appetite. He now wears the local poker tournament's first prize, a silver watch that Huck's dad wore proudly for three years. So Huck hatches a plan to knock Abbott off his throne and win back the watch. Only, bluffing his way into the tournament will mean lying to everyone Huck knows. But as Huck gets deeper in the tournament and starts to lose himself in the cards, he begins to wonder who he'll be when the last hand is played.
Raw and gritty, Paul Volponi's...
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
First published in the anthology Free Space , edited by Brad Linaweaver and Edward E. Kramer (Tor, 1997). This is the authorΠ²Πβ’s preferred text as published in the anthology Crossing the Line: Canadian Mystery Fiction With A Twist , edited by Robert J. Sawyer David Skene-Melvin (Pottersfield, 1999