Play It as It Lays

by Joan Didion

I mean maybe I was holding all the aces, but what was the game?

“Because you and I, we know something. Because we’ve been out there where nothing is. Because I wanted—you know why.”

One thing in my defense, not that it matters: I know something Carter never knew, or Helene, or maybe you. I know what “nothing” means, and keep on playing.