Nua is really good with cards.  

He can shuffle them normally and then the way that looks like a bridge, and lay them all out smoothly on ground, and then flip them all over so the faces are up.  Ava shows him a video on her laptop of a casino worker doing a bunch of tricks, and he can copy almost all of them on his second or third try.  

It’s really quite entertaining.  One day when rain pours over the windows and Miss Lilly is gone into the city for a meeting, we all sit in the living room on the second floor as Ava tries to teach us how to play hearts.  Her cat is rolling on the floor next to us, and Keol reaches back to scratch her every so often.

“Which one is the bad one again?” I ask once Nua duels all of us the whole deck, except for Bayan, who is lying on the couch as we all sit on the floor in a circle.  

“Queen of Spades,” answers Ava.  

“Which one is spades?” asks Keol.  

“Shovel,” says Ava with a grin.  “Spades is shovels, clubs is clovers.  Whoever has the two of clubs goes first.”

I throw it down in the middle of the circle, and then Nua and Ava and Keol all throw down cards too.  Ava wins the hand and sweeps them all towards her, and then plays a seven of diamonds.  

“What do I do?” asks Keol, and she smiles.  “Play a diamond card.”

“High or low?”

“Dunno,” says Ava.  “You gotta strategize.  It’s only the second round, so everyone probably has a diamond, so there’s little chance of you getting any points.  Might as well get rid of a high card so you don’t have to use it later on.”

And we go around and around, throwing out cards.  Keol gets confused between the face cards and Nua thinks for the majority of the game that the ace is the lowest card, until Ava informs him that it’s the highest when he wins all four cards with his ace of hearts.  We give up pretty soon, because the game just confuses us, and Bayan turns on the television.  

“Ooh,” says Ava, jumping up, and sits on the couch as well.  “Good show.”

“Which one is this?” says Keol, joining her.  Shiv the cat follows, jumping onto his lap and curling up. 

“The one with the Spanish dynasty,” answers Ava, reaching over to pet Shiv.  “Not the one with the fake demon possession.”

“You always did like your soap operas,” says Bayan with a slight grin, passing her the remote, and she turns the volume up.  

Nua and I sit on the couch as well, although Nua opens his book.  I catch him stealing glances at the television as the story unfolds, though, and about two minutes into the episode I’m lost.  I’ve missed a lot of storyline and have no idea what’s happening, but Keol must have watched all these with her because he seems to know what’s going on.  “Is that Donovan?”

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“No, that’s Dominic, he’s the one who got framed for the robbery but actually killed Vanessa and got away with it,” answers Ava.  “Donovan’s the one with the hair who faked his death.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Wild,” I say.  

“Yeah, that was like three seasons ago,” says Ava, waving her hand at me.  “Keep up.”

I smile slightly and lean my head back.  Nua extends his legs so his feet rest on my lap, and I make a face at him but don’t do anything about it.  We watch the soap opera.  

We make it through about half the episode before the television is abruptly shut off.  I jump, but Ava just sighs and looks up at her mother, who is standing over her holding the remote.  Keol doesn’t say anything and Nua hides his face behind his book.  

Miss Lilly drops the remote on the couch, looking down at her daughter, and then says curtly, “Bayan.”

He doesn’t answer, but stands and follows her out of the room.  

Ava swears under her breath, reaching over to the table and pouring herself a drink.  Keol makes a face at her but she ignores him. “I got him in trouble.”

“Not your fault,” says Nua from behind the pages of the book.  “Your mother…”

“-’s a bitch,” finishes Ava.  “I know.”

She leans back, staring at the ceiling but when Keol coughs a little, she looks at him.  I look at him too; he’s been worrying me lately, coughing just like Ava does when she’s mid-cigarette, although there’s no blood, at least.  

He squeezes his eyes shut, and then rubs them with the heels of his hands.  Nua looks over the top of his book at him as he picks up Shiv and puts her on the couch next to him.  “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he says slightly irritatedly, standing up.  He pauses for a second, sways, and then falls.  

Ava makes a noise that’s halfway between a gasp and a scream, and Nua jumps up.  She beats him to her husband’s side, and he blinks up at the ceiling, then says quietly, “Woah.”

“Keol,” she whispers, kneeling next to him, and he opens his mouth, and then coughs again.  This time, there’s blood.

“Shit,” she whispers, grasping his hand, and Nua leaves the room running.  

He gets Bayan, and they come back with Miss Lilly in tow.  Keol manages to stand, and Bayan and Nua bring him into one of the guest bedrooms by the second floor living room.  He lies down on the bed, his eyes closing, and sighs.  

Miss Lilly looks at us for a moment, and then once again says, “Bayan,” before turning on her heel and striding out of the room.  Ava looks up at him, and he touches her head, and then follows her mother out.  

“Ava,” I say quietly.  She doesn’t look at me.  

“Ava,” says Nua gently, and then Keol says hoarsely, “Ava.”

She moves closer to him, taking his hand in hers, and lays her palm against his forehead.  “You’re hot.”

He shakes his head.  “Cold.”

“And achy,” I say quietly.  Ava looks at me, and Keol nods.  “I’m fine.”

“No,” Ava whispers.

And this is how they stay, for days on end.  She sits on the edge of his bed, his clammy hand in between hers, and doesn’t move.  She doesn’t call us down for dinner anymore; Bayan brings us our trays of food and brings some to Keol’s guest room, too.  He doesn’t eat much, and she leaves them untouched on the bedside table next to her, only coaxed to take a few bites when Keol’s soft delirious voice asks her to.  He can hardly get out of bed, only a few times a day for a few minutes, and Ava does all her work in that guest room now.  I even overhear her once in the hallway on the phone telling someone that she won’t be able to come into town for a meeting.  

Once I stood in the doorway watching her without her noticing, and I saw his eyes blinking slowly, his dark eyelashes casting long shadows on his cheeks, following her hands as they moved towards his waist.  That was when she slowly untied the rope-belt from around his waist and he worked up enough energy to lift his hips slightly so she could pull it out from under him; that was when he smiled, his lips cracking, as she gave him a gentle kiss on the forehead before standing.  I got out of the doorway but saw her emerge a few moments later.  That was the only time I saw her leave him.