The Worst Luck

"Writers Cramp" challenge entry

Royal Flush

Three lousy diamonds! She just had three diamonds! One more and she would have not lost the hand.

Jack watched Sara slam her losing hand on the table and run out of the hanger bay. He stormed after her before she could get too far away.

“Oy Sara, wait,” he called. She paused, her back stiffening, and spun around on her heels. Jogging on the tarmac to catch up, he could see her watery, reddening eyes and knew she would soon lose her composure.

“It was a fair game Jack. I lost. Just go back to the hanger. I’ll be fine.” She started to turn her back on him, but he grabbed her arm to stop her.

“Look Sara, it was a bloody stupid idea. We should have decided who goes another way. You’re the best pilot in this unit.”

“One of us had to go, Jack.” Sara’s voice waivered. His own heart sunk when he thought about just how much she’s lost in one hand of poker.

Word had come down this morning from top Royal Air Force leaders that the Prince of Wales would be joining their Helicopter Squadron. The problem was, they had one bird for each pilot, and the addition of the Prince meant one of them had to go. They’d spent months in training and now, here in the final days before they deployed Afghanistan, none of the pilots wanted to be left behind. Sara especially. He knew flying the Lynx Helicopter had been her dream for years. She fought tooth and nail for a place on this crew and lost it with nothing in her hand but three diamonds, a club and a spade.

He’d come up with the brilliant idea that they would play a hand of poker, the pilot with the worst hand would leave, and the Prince would take the empty spot. But looking at Sara’s face now, he wished they’d decided by longevity or merit. Then Sara would be going with him to Afghanistan.

Taking a deep breath, he offered, “Sara, I’ll stay. You’ve trained too hard for this mission.”

She flared up, incensed, “we’ve all trained hard for this mission. This is bull …” She quickly drew in a deep breath, clenched and unclenched her fists, then with an exhale continued. “I’ll be fine, Jack.” She looked unconvinced, “but what am I going to tell my dad?”

“He’ll understand, Sara.” Jack answered, trying to offer some comfort, but he knew the conversation with her dad would be hard. She had told Jack that five generation of her family had served in the military. Her dad had the shortest career of the all, being discharged from the Royal Navy as a young sailor following a back injury. His dreams for military glory now burned bright for Sara. Yet here, on the verge of her first real mission, she had to relinquish her spot for the Prince of Wales.

He tried one more time, “really Sara, I’ll stay here. You go.”

She shook her head and with half smile that didn’t reach her eyes she replied, “no Jack. Thank you, but no.” Then she slowly turned and walked away. Sickened, Jack watched her go.

He went back to the hanger in defeat. The pilots, usually laughing and joking, hadn’t left the makeshift poker table that was tucked away in the corner. Sara’s own cheery laugh was conspicuously absent.

“Is she alright, Jack?” Clyde asked his face wrinkled in concern.

“I don’t know,” Jack shook his head slowly, “I just don’t know.”

Each of the pilots watched him carefully now. They knew how he felt about Sara. He tried to shrug off their jokes and teasing, thinking that if he acted nonchalant, they would think they were mistaken. But he could never quite pull it off. Each member of the crew knew he was head-over-heels in love with Sara. He was hoping he would get the courage to advance their friendship into something more in Afghanistan, but that hope, too, was now lost to chance.

He fell into an empty chair at the table and stared at the television in the corner. BBC was the station of choice, but he wasn’t interested in the news. He hoped his intense gaze at the screen, though, would make it seem like he paying attention and the others would leave him alone.

Then suddenly the TV screen filled with a still shot of the grinning Prince. With his lips curling into a sneer, Jack listened up.

“…just released today, the Prince will be joining the Lynx regiment…”

The announcer was drowned with Clyde’s cry, “what did we do wrong to get stuck with the likes of him?”

Jack sighed, returning his attention to the TV.

The anchorwoman excitedly continued, “Details remain vague on his future missions with the RAF. On his last tour in Afghanistan, the Prince was forced to return early after an American blogger broke the media black out, and revealed his location, endangering the mission.

Clyde continued his commentary, “where is that bloody American now? I’ll fly him here for free, give him the scoop and a brand new laptop.”

Jack shook his head and smiled ruefully, if only it were than easy.

Then Jack sat up straight in his chair. Why can’t it be that easy, he wondered?

He rummaged through his backpack pulling his own laptop free. He turned it on and waited impatiently as it searched for the wireless signal. Finally he was staring at the Google Search page. He hurriedly typed in his key words and hit return.

His searched resulted in 687,000,000 possible hits, but the first one would work just fine.

Jack clicked on the blue underlined link: “Blogger: Create your free blog.”

Within a few minutes his fingers furiously typing, Jack became a time traveler, hopefully returning his world to the way it was yesterday.

Tina B

Word Count: 982
Prompt: Use three diamonds, Lynx Helicopter and young sailor in a story or poem.

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