Thirteen Diamonds

contents of the bottle into the needle and plunged it into Gerald's arm, the nurse pulled out a scalpel and a thin plastic tube, as well as disinfectant.
    At that point I stopped watching, as did most of the others. I don't watch emergency room shows on television either. The bridge players gathered in groups of two or three, talking in low voices. Soon the paramedics arrived, in uniform, with more medical bags. We overheard one of them say that Gerald's heart had stopped beating. When they brought out the paddles to attempt to restart his heart, Tess and I left the room. Not long afterward, Gerald was pronounced dead.
    Some of the stunned members of the bridge club, including Tess and I, continued to loiter in the corridor of the main building, even after they took Gerald's body away, as if we had nowhere else to go, but nobody suggested that the bridge games be resumed. Even I had no interest in bridge.  Wesley, the president of the bridge club and also of the residents' association, walked from one person to another, mouthing soothing words.
    Other people came and went, including Carol Grant, the executive director of Silver Acres, who talked softly to the doctor from the clinic. She had a good job, but its downside was that she lost most of her customers because they died.
    I have always had the desire to experience everything fully, so a kind of fascinated horror held me there. Tess and I talked about the uncertainties of life. After a while she calmed down and we strolled back into the recreation room. I looked at the cards still lying on Gerald's table and said, “I wonder what kind of a hand he was dealt.”
    Tess looked at me strangely and said, “What does it matter now?”
    “I don't know; I'm just curious.” I stepped over to his table. Nobody had touched anything since Gerald had collapsed. I gathered his cards, which were scattered; several were on the floor. As I put them together I saw only red suits on the cards that were face up.
    When I had all 13 in a stack I fanned them out. Then I gasped. “Tess, look at this!”
    Tess looked, then said, unbelievingly, “They're all diamonds!” She added, “Are you sure you have the right cards?”
    “Yes. The other three hands are in neat piles.” I picked up each of the other hands and looked at it. They were fairly normally distributed, except that all had voids in diamonds. One hand held seven spades.
    “Thirteen diamonds,” Tess said, shaking her head. “A dream hand. Maybe the shock of seeing it is what killed Gerald.  Although I didn't know he had a weak heart. What are the odds against being dealt a hand like this?”
    “I actually tried to figure that out once,” I said, “but my calculator couldn't take such a small decimal so I gave up. I can tell you that the average bridge player will not be dealt 13 of any suit in a lifetime.”

CHAPTER 2
     
    Two days later, as Tess and I walked into the comfortable office of Carol Grant, I thought what I often thought about Carol—that she was one of those super-competent women who effortlessly run organizations and/or families.
    In 50 years the whole developed world will be run by women. Women can already do all the things men can do except heavy lifting, and the need for that is rapidly disappearing in our society. Of course a few chosen men will still be needed for stud service, but the rest....
    Carol's hair was an undyed brown, longer than the average length of the female residents’, and she wore her skirts shorter, just above the knees. She more than held her own in the brains department with the intelligent and educated residents.
    “Hello, Lillian; hello, Tess,” Carol said, shaking hands with both of us. She seemed to know every resident by name, even though there were several hundred of us. She smiled and her face lit up, giving her a grownup prettiness, enhanced by her stylish glasses. “Please have a seat. Would you like coffee?”
    Tess declined but I accepted. I rarely turn down coffee. “Black, please.”
    Carol poured from a small coffee maker on the wooden credenza behind her large desk into a china cup and served it to me, complete with saucer and paper napkin.
    She said, “First, let me extend my condolences on the passing of Gerald. I know that both of you were at the bridge club meeting when it happened. Something like that is always a shock.”
    Tess nodded. “It was a terrible shock. We didn't know him that well, but he seemed to be in good health.”
    “So you