I don’t know who decided that we,
as a group would go to the jai alai fronton
that evening, but as the junior-most member
of the management team it seemed
at that moment less of a request or even
an invitation and more a command performance.
I knew nothing about jai alai and the names
of the players, all in Portuguese might as well
have been in Greek, Russian or Chinese.
I had no idea who was the better player,
and the program, like the tout sheet
at a race track, offered nothing but confusion.
So I bet each game to show, knowing that
I would never win much but had three chances
each game to win something. By the end
of the evening I was four dollars ahead,
better than anyone else in the group, and
fortunately, they never invited me again.