CJ felt pretty good about walking away from the table a few hundred dollars richer than when he’d walked in, and was especially pleased that the lion’s share of his winnings came from the scourge of evildoers and miscreants everywhere. To hear the others tell it, Jake Weidman rarely went home with less than he’d brought with him. Rick lamented that Jake was the luckiest man he’d ever met, and the reason he kept inviting him to play cards was that he was hoping for some of that luck to rub off on him. Last night, though, CJ had taken Weidman nearly every hand, which had led Rick to comment that he might have found a new rabbit’s foot. In the too bright light of day, CJ determined that was more ludicrous than it had sounded last night. He personally couldn’t detect any thread of luck running through his life over the last month. So if Rick wanted to use him as a charm, he needed to prepare himself for fate’s wicked backhand. The only thing arguing against that was the fact that he’d run into Weidman in the first place, and that his luck at cards might manifest itself more fully as he tried to determine what role the man played in the subject of CJ’s article.
