A Battle Within

These two royal blue cards set in front me, so bright and vibrant even the white rim beams out like a glowing treasure. I feel a tingling, tsunami rush inside of me that begins rising from the soles of my feet crashing and eletricifying through the tips of my fingers. My fingers quickly dash over and cover the cards like my fingers are sprinting at the end of a marathon. I slide my thumb to lift the corners. I begin to realize my fingertips are slightly rough. There are little speckle grains as if my fingertips are fine sandpaper. My eyes are like a camera lens zooming to see my ‘hand’.

It’s a pair of Kings!

I release the cards and they gently slides against the skin of my thumb like a fragile razor maneveuring through the grains of my fingerprints. Everything seems to be in slow motion. Quiet, but yet I hear the cards thumping and pounding back onto the maroon, velvet table as if a grand piano has plummeted against the concrete floor. The table is so soft, like the fur of a child’s stuffed animal in contrast to the crisp, five-millimeter-thick cards. My hands sweat endlessly like the moisture of a rain forest. Hesitation runs through my body but my guts tell me there is a chance. My teeth grind against the bottom of my lips like a skateboard on a rail, back and forth. Echoing in the back my head, I hear my inner voice whispering “go all in, go all in!” I feel an itching inside my voice box like a vicious mosquito bite spreading everywhere. The waves of the itching slowly spread inch by inch upwards in my throat reaching for light. The flaps of my mouth fly open as I scream: “All in, baby!”