Shuffle

The children have all heard that I learned to shuffle when I was nine years old and missed a couple weeks of school due to pneumonia and subsequent hospitalization. I had many hours in bed, so I taught myself to shuffle cards.

Friend Julia has been down to play cards with us the last couple nights. She’s eight, and she knows how to shuffle cards.

After Julia left, I found Yessa on the couch. She’s listening to a book Buster recommended to her. It’s tough to see in the photo but she’s got her tongue out, caught between her teeth, which is a habit my maternal grandmother and I both share.

She’s teaching herself to shuffle.

It touched somewhere in my heart to see her like this.