Summary

In a prison dayroom in the early 2000s, the first-person narrator played cards with fellow inmate Stinky, purported to have killed his wife for the insurance money. Most of the narrator’s friends had “killed someone” and “were notorious once” (100).

The narrator listed others’ card trick names (e.g., the “Turn and Run,” “Disappearing Deck,” “Bloody Valentine” [101]) but noted Stinky had none.

The narrator referenced Leonard Cohen’s comparison of five years at a monastery to “being a rough stone in a small cloth bag with other rough stones. The friction between the stones buffs them all to a flat shine” (100-101). He then foiled Cohen’s spiritual journey with the prisoners’ mindset: “They think they’re here by accident” (101). Later, the narrator also longed for “alternative music you can’t hear on VH1” (103).

According to “Bill Kurtis of Cold...