Sardines (Deluxe)

It's eat-or-be-eaten in this twist on Go Fish. Cast your line, reel in your catch, but beware -- reel in a sardine, and you'll be sorry! Outbluff your opponents to score the biggest catch!

"Do you have any... swordfish?" You ask. "Go fis-" she begins, then stops short. "Ah, nevermind, here it is!" she says cheerfully as she slides a card to you across the table.

Face down.

Alarm bells begin clanging inside your head. Instantly, you are on high alert. She says it's a swordfish... but is it? Could it be a... a... -- you gulp -- a sardine?

This is a test -- of the highest order -- one that cannot be failed.

She frowns at your hesitation. "What's the matter?" she asks. "Don't you... trust me?"

Boy, that was a loaded question.

See, to everyone else in the retirement home, she was nothing more than sweet old Ruth. But you know better. You know that she can absolutely, under no circumstances, be trusted.

You've seen her sacrifice everything for a petty victory. You've seen her end lifelong friendships over the Monopoly board. She's scattered her own flesh and blood like chaff across the mythical island of Catan.

How can your marriage of forty-five years hope to stand against this pale blue card in front of you?

As you behold the seemingly inconsequential card, you realize that -- in this moment -- nothing else matters. This decision -- right here, right now -- is all that there is. This piece of paper seems suddenly as weighty as a mountain, as monumental as the Great Pyramids, and as definitive as the stone lid of a coffin.

Do I trust her? You ask yourself. You scoff internally -- of course you trust her, she's your wife. How could you not?

And yet...

You feel the weight of her full attention -- silent, but tracking your every move. You feel a sudden kinship with the prey animals on nature documentaries. A single bead of sweat trails its way down your temple. You hear the roar of blood pumping in your own head. Time itself slows to a crawl as you shakily reach toward the card and lift it off the table to reveal its face -- knowing that, either way, nothing will ever be the same again.