So after the sordid episode I spoke about previously, I got to thinking, was this really part of some strange curse cast on me by a gypsy woman?
Naturally, this sounded absurd, there's no such thing as curses after all, but after a few days, it was apparent that nobody was mentioning the incident, neither Gary nor Mike, his brother, brought it up even in passing, I even tried to mention it to Gary, asking if he remembered that day, but all I got was a very lukewarm response, it was almost as if that incident was completely mundane and uneventful.
With that little detail to occupy me, I wanted to see if this curse truly existed, and what better way to do so than by tempting fate?
I had organized a party between some of mine and Gary's friends, nothing too large, just a small get together to enact my plan.
The party itself started out quite normally, people mingling about, having fun, dancing with the music, and, quite possibly, there was some booze but nothing major, the best most people at the party could manage was a healthy buzz.
The party continued as any normal party would, with one exception, as the affair began to slowly die down, I made a shocking announcement:
"How about it folks, are you up for a little spicy game?" the crowd cheered back up from the lull it had sunk into just a moment ago, I felt a knot in my stomach.
"We'll each draw a card from this deck and show it to everyone, the people with the highest number, aces then face cards and so on, will get to pull out, the rest keep playing.
I continued explaining the rules:
"We'll keep going like this until we have the last person, that's our loser, and what does that loser have to do?" Shouts with lewd suggestions came flying out
" Have them do a silly dance!"
"Make them streak outside!"
"Give them a spanking!"
"Come on folks, think of something spicier!" I riled up the crowd further, making sure everyone was excited "How about they stay naked the entire night, and everyone gets to touch?"
This was the moment of truth, I knew these people, and if there truly was no curse, there would be some hesitation to this idea.
The crowd cheered.
I was now feeling a chill running down my spine, this was not the reaction I expected, but that wasn't the end of my experiment, you see, I had orchestrated the game to play out this way for a simple purpose:
There was about two dozen people in here, that meant I'd have to miss the highest card more than twenty times in a row; If this truly was the work of a curse, then this insane, competition with nearly a million to one shot of loss cannot end in any way other than me losing, correct?
I began giving out cards, reminding everyone that aces were high, I flipped my card over, a queen of spades! I wondered if I was going to disprove the curse almost immediately, but no, I was still in the game, as all the cards went out, kings and aces emerged from amongst the crowd.
Next round I got a 5 of hearts, nowhere near the top of the list, I was still in the game and so six of the two dozen or so guests were already out of the game.
Next round was the same, a 7 of spades, but the most galling aspect of this round was that Gary had pulled an ace, so he was out of the game! I was growing more incredulous by the minute, is this really going to play out the way I planned it?
This continued on, I kept on believing that at any point now I was going to get the high card, but that moment never came, the pit in my stomach grew and grew as twelve players remained, then nine, then eight, then six, sometimes it was close, and sometimes it wasn't.
Then there were two other players left, I was shaking from disbelief, I looked at my card and my heart nearly leapt from joy, a king!