Anyone for a game of Old Maid?

It was supposed to be a leisurely, relaxing game of Old Maid to while away the time while we let our stomach juices digest out terribly huge dinner at Shogun. The pack of cards had only cost Sam and Aisha 90 sen at MPH. 90 sen! For those who have forgotten this childhood game of cards, the objective of the game is to find and match the pair of characters by picking a card at random from the player next to you. This goes on until the last person remains with the Old Maid, whose identical partner is sitting in the box.

In the first round, Rizal wins. Sam holds on to the Old Maid until the eleventh hour, passing it on to Aisha and sis. Sis ends up with the short end of the stick: the Old Maid.

For kicks and to make the game more unpredictable, the veritable Game Master (in other words, Rizal, who on a regular basis, runs his own fantasy RPGs, complete with background music, maps and miniatures) decides that we should put the pair of Old Maids back into the deck and take out a random card. We wouldn’t know which card is the actual “Old Maid”, so that would be more exciting.

We tag-team the effort: Chin Lai shuffles, Sam picks a card at random and Aisha shoves it back into the box. As the game moves along, Rizal wins yet again. He insists that it’s because he keeps pairing his squirrel card and yells out the tagline on the card: I love nuts. Then I finish my hand. Chin Lai soon has all his pairs on the table and finally, Sam. We’re down to our last two again: Aisha and sis. And still the Old Maid had not surfaced. Cue opening theme for Twilight Zone.

Sis finally picks the Old Maid from Aisha’s hand. The Old Maid!! Suddenly the hairs on my neck were standing up. There’s a palpable tension in the air. We look at each other and I could tell everyone was thinking the same thing: how the hell did we end up with the Old Maid again?

To see whether it was just coincidence we decide to randomly pick a card again. Rizal takes the deck this time. He shuffles and offers it to Sam to cut. The big bear of a wuss refuses, “I’m not going to touch that deck!” So I cut the deck, Rizal picks out a card and stuffs it into the empty box. And we start another round. Halfway through someone mutters the obvious, “The Old Maid is still not surfacing yet.” Cue Twilight Zone theme again. The hairs on my neck are standing at full attention now. This time, the last pair is down to sis and Rizal. And the loser with the last card is … Rizal! With the … Old Maid!!

Mayhem breaks lose. Everyone starts shouting at the same time. “I’m not taking that pack of cards home!!” shouts Aisha. “Ooooh maaaaan!! What are the blurdy odds of that happening?” I add. “This is so freaky!” exclaims Sam. “Thank gawd I didn’t end up with the Old Maid for the THIRD time!!” goes my sis. Everyone is incredulous and slightly, if not extremely, freaked out by the occurrence.

The Old Maid twice in a row. At random. Picked out by different people.

Cue Twilight Zone theme from background into the foreground.

Sam insists it’s the power of the mind. Everyone was probably thinking about the Old Maid, therefore she was picked. I disagree. I don’t know about the rest of the group but I was not thinking about the Old Maid at all. But how do you explain the Old Maid showing up again and again? Our odds can’t have been that good. We are still spooked but it’s time to go home. Starbucks closes at 10.30pm on weekdays.

Sam decides that he will take the deck home with him even though we had thought of leaving the “tainted” deck at Starbucks for the next unlucky players. We leave Starbucks still shaking our heads and with the lingering feeling of incredulity.

Anyone for a round of Old Maid? At Sam’s place?