"What about Go Fish? Do you know how to play that?"

He smiled a little, recognizing that term. "My brother and I did." He sighed, smile dropping. " He loved that...heh, he even did it on his hospital bed." His voice went soft, remembering how stubborn his brother had been. How stubborn but also kind.

Sitting in a rickety chair, she took the cellophane wrapping off the cards; the plastic made a crinkling sound as she put it aside. "Is that all you play? How about blackjack? Or canasta?"

He came over and sat on the ground besides her, head above her lap due to his height. "I don't know those other terms.Vincent(I'm just ganna make that his name.) never taught me anything of cards other than Go Fish."

"I'll teach you blackjack first," she said, thumbing through the deck and pulling the jokers out. "It's really easy." The deck rattled as she shuffled it. She dealt them two cards each, one face up and one face down, flipping them expertly across the table.

He watched curiously.

"Okay, now look at your card," She looked at her own card. "Okay, I'm the dealer this round, so you're trying to beat me. The goal is to get as close to twenty-one points as you can without going over. Wait, we need something to bet with--"

Shoving back her chair, she delved into one of the grocery boxes and found a large bag of M&M's. Cully had always had a sweet tooth, she remembered with a pang.

He was examining his card curiously. He must not get out to much, he seemed to be really interested.

Electa opened the bag and scooped out a handful, then slid it across to him. "Okay, the face cards are ten points each, the ace is worth either one or eleven, and the rest are what they say they are." She popped a brown M&M into her mouth.

He didn't seem to know what the M&M's where but tried to act like he totally did. And so he gave a nod of understanding of what she just said, trying not to poke at the M&M's curiously.