We entered the bridge studio and made our way through the clutter of people, tables, and bridge gibberish.
"Aces and spaces …"
"I had nine points, but it was all quacks… ."
"Odd-even discards?"
Talk about being oblivious!
This being Thursday, I had assumed Gloria would be Trapp's partner again, but when we reached table three, someone else was sitting in the North seat, someone a lot younger.
"Hi, partner," she said brightly.
I guessed who she was even though I hadn't seen her for eleven years.
"You think you're ready?" Trapp asked as he settled into his seat.
She took a breath, then blew it out the corner of her mouth. "I hope so."
Did you notice that she didn't acknowledge my presence, even though I was sitting directly across from her? At least she didn't tell me to shut up and leave her alone, like she had the last time I'd seen her. She was pretty, with shoulder-length dark hair, pale skin with some freckles across the bridge of her nose, and a shy smile. "I'm really nervous," she said, and then, as if to prove it, she knocked over her bidding box. "Oops!"
"What happened?" my uncle asked.
"Sorry. I just knocked over my bidding box. Sorry."
"That's all right. Alton will clean it up."
I reddened. That wasn't part of my job description. Nonetheless, I got down on my hands and knees and began picking up the various bidding cards scattered across the floor.
"I hope I remember everything," said Toni.
"You won't," said Trapp. "That's how you learn. But after you make the same mistake one, or two, or five times, you'll eventually get it. And then you'll make new mistakes."
I gathered all the bidding cards. There were thirty-five possible bids, plus a number of pass cards, double cards, and redouble cards. They all had to be put back in a certain order, placed in such a way that each bid was visible.
"Thanks," Toni said to me when I put the box back where it belonged. "This is my first time, and I'm really nervous. I'm Toni, by the way."
I told her my name, then had to repeat it. She obviously didn't remember meeting me at Trapp's sixty-fifth birthday party, and I saw no point in mentioning it.
"I used to do what you do," she said. "Whatever you do, don't ever ask, ‘Are you sure?' " She smiled.
"Hah!" laughed my uncle. "You don't have to worry about that with Alton. He has no idea what's going on. He thinks we're playing Go Fish!"
The director came around and placed two boards on our table. West shuffled one, and I shuffled and dealt the other, placing the cards in their slots when I was finished.
The director made a few announcements, and then the game started.
"Well, here goes," said Toni, removing her cards from the North slot.
I removed the South cards, then led Trapp to the coffee alcove and told him his hand. His Go Fish remark had stung me. And I was mad that he hadn't bothered to warn me about who his partner would be.
I found myself rooting against them. After a hand is over, bridge players often discuss what they could have—and should have—done differently. It's called the post-mortem . I remember the first time I heard such a discussion, I felt like screaming, "Why do you care anymore? The hand's over!"
As I already told you, Trapp and Wallace yelled at each other after every hand. So you would have thought that Trapp would have plenty to say to Toni.
Nope.
It wasn't that he was unaware of her screwups. Even when he was dummy, he asked the other players to please say their cards aloud, so he could follow along.
Yet all he said to Toni were things like "That was a very tough hand. At least you recognized the problem." Then he'd compliment her on what she did right.
The worst thing he said to her was "Make a note of board eleven. We'll talk about that one later."
"Uh-oh, I'm in trouble now," Toni said to me, smiling. I didn't smile back.
I had been wrong imagining myself like Tiger Woods's caddy. A caddy gives advice. Tiger Woods and his caddy discuss club selection, wind conditions, and overall strategy.
Trapp would never take advice from me, I realized. He had no respect for me.
Toni Castaneda was his protégée. I was his trained monkey.
And I hated her for it.