Page 31 of The Intruder

She doesn’t seem convinced. I admit, it’s a controversial decision to be television-free. Even Lee has a TV, and he seemed just as horrified as Eleanor when I told him I didn’t have one.

“We can play cards if you want?”

She crinkles her slightly upturned nose. If she weren’t so painfully skinny, she would be very pretty. “Cards?”

I feel about a million years old. “Yes. I don’t usually have anyone to play with. But now I’ve got you.”

“Great.”

“We can play any game you would like,” I offer. “What games do you know?”

“Roblox. Minecraft. Fortnight.”

“I mean card games.”

“Oh.” She rubs her nose with the back of her hand. “War?”

“What about go fish?” That game at least will require some interaction on her part, which might get her talking. “Do you know that game?”

“Sure. I guess.”

I get up to find my pack of playing cards, which I have mostly been using to play solitaire. As I am sifting through the drawer of the desk in the living room, the lights overhead flicker and go out for a split second but then thankfully come back on.

The deck of cards belonged to my father. He loved to play. He taught me every game he knew, but our favorite one to play was poker. My father was an excellent poker player, and we spent hours playing Texas Hold’em. He said it might come in handy if I were ever low on funds.

The key to being a good poker player, he always said, is knowing when to bluff. It’s not as easy as you think. What it comes down to is you should only bluff when you know your opponent will fold. If your opponent is going to stay in the game no matter what, then it’s not worth it to bluff.

While I’m grabbing my father’s deck of cards, I can’t help but notice Eleanor’s backpack again. The bloodstain is still there, but at least it hasn’t gotten bigger. What is she hiding in that backpack? If her bloody clothes were something she was willing to show me, what is she hiding from me?

For a second, I am seized with the almost irrepressible urge to rip the bag open and look through the contents. But I’m finally getting her to trust me. Violating her privacy like that would destroy all the goodwill from my infinity promise.

Maybe I can worm the truth out of her.

“Do you want any more cookies?” I ask her as I return to the table with the deck of cards.

She looks down at the container of cookies. She’s eaten about six of them—half the tin. “Nah, I don’t want to get fat like you.”

Wow, nice. I let the comment slide and pick up the half-eaten tin of cookies to put it back in the pantry. I grab a sponge to wipe down the table from dinner, and then I sit down across from her. I deal each of us a bunch of cards, but I barely look at mine. My eyes are on Eleanor’s face.

“Do you want to go first?” I ask her.

“No. You can go.”

My eyes flit down to the cards in my hand, attempting to focus on the actual game. “Do you have any sevens?”

“Go fish,” she says.

As I pick a card from the stack, I say, “How old are you anyway?”

I stare at her pale face, waiting for her answer as the lights flicker one more time. She doesn’t lift her eyes from the cards in her hand.

“Do you have any jacks?” she says.

I pass a single jack across the table. “Do you have any nines?”

“Go fish.”

“Are you twelve?” I ask.