There was a card, it was the size of any regular playing card, it had the picture of an apple on it. The card was being held in the hand of a man in his late thirties.
“If you select this card among the three cards, then I will give you a pair of earbuds,” said the man with a smile.
Azha looked at the camera on the tripod. This was for his social media channel he had said.
“.. that’s it? If I pick the card with the apple, I will win the earbuds?” asked Azha
“Yes, that’s correct,” said the man still smiling
Azha smiled, “All right let’s do it”
The man added the card among two other cards, he shuffled them and showed the back of the cards spread out in his hands.
“Now, select,” said the man
Azha extended her hand to select a card then she stopped, “What is the name of your channel you said?”
“I haven’t said the name yet,” said the man, “you can find my channel with the name ‘The Cardman’”
“All right Mr Cardman here I go,” said Azha and her finger hovered over the cards before touching one.
Suveer who happened to walk to the same spot in the lobby found the man standing with two cards in hand, a camera on a tripod and a card which was lying on the floor.
The Cardman quickly reached over to pick the card on the floor, Suveer had a quick glance of what was on the card, it looked like the picture of a person, a girl.
“What is all this?” Suveer asked
The Cardman put the cards in his bag, “I was making content for my social media channel,” said the Cardman as he separated the camera from the tripod stand.
Suveer waited to observe the man who packed the stand and camera in bags.
“Something to do with cards?” asked Suveer
“Yes, its about cards,” smiled the Cardman as he pulled up the zipper of the tripod bag.
The Cardman walked away with his belongings as Suveer watched him with suspicion.
“Don’t you want me to subscribe to your channel?” asked Suveer
The Cardman who was facing away from Suveer showed signs of irritation but then he turned towards Suveer with a smile. The Cardman pulled a card from his back pocket, it had a picture of mango on it.
“Find this card among three and I will give you a pair of earbuds,” said the Cardman
“Okay,” said Suveer and then he looked at the camera bag which the Cardman made no attempt to open.
“You won’t record it?” asked Suveer.
“I already have the content I wanted,” smiled the Cardman, “consider this a fan service for a potential fan.”
Suveer looked at the Cardman smile and replied, “What is the name of your channel?”
“Look for the channel name ‘The Cardman’” replied the man as he shuffled and spread the three cards with their backs towards Suveer.
Suveer looked at the three cards closely and the Cardman looked at Suveer closely this time without a smile.
Suveer touched the back of a card and then pulled it out, the Cardman continued not to smile.
“I found it, the card with mango on it,” said Suveer smiling
The Cardman stayed silent for a few seconds and then his lips spread out to produce a smile and he took back the card from Suveer and handed him the box of earbuds.
The Cardman walked away in silence and Suveer was occupied with his reward.
Suveer returned to the apartment which he rented with his two other friends Nishad and Bhuma.
“Is that my birthday gift?” asked Bhuma as he observed Suveer walk into the apartment with a sealed box of earbuds in hand.
“I won this from the Cardman,” said Suveer, removing his shoes and keeping them in the shoe rack. Suveer noticed the silence from Bhuma and asked, “What’s the matter? Are you a fan of this guy’s social media channel?”
“There is no social media channel with that name I can assure you,” replied Bhuma
“What do you mean?” asked Suveer
“Three years back, The Cardman appeared in my small hometown. A series of disappearances have been linked to him. No one knew about him until a girl managed to pull out the right card like you must have. The disappearances stopped thereafter,” replied Bhuma
Suveer spoke in a tense tone trying to ignore the imagination of what could have happened to him with the wrong pull, “So… So, he has appeared in this city?”
“Yes, he has but maybe he will stop now and find some other place. The thing that has bothered people is how exactly does he make people disappear, what does he do with them and how is it related to those card”
Suveer recalled the images of the card being picked with the picture in his mind and wondered if it had something to do with the content the Cardman was looking for. Was the true reward of the simple card game life itself?
The Right Card
Early Morning Memories 
One response to “The Right Card”
Simply beautiful ❣️❣️❣️
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