A Story begins...extract

Four Queens and a Joker

The car is coming towards me too fast, far too fast. The driver’s face is hard to see, through the slightly tinted glass of the windscreen, but I have the distinct impression that she is smiling.

She’ll see me in a minute, logic tells me, but the approaching car seems set on a collision course. Her face is clearer now, and in the moment before I realise she is driving directly at me, I can see her eyes, locked on mine, and yes, she is smiling beatifically.

Adrenalin kicks in. Wrenching the wheel violently to the left, tyres screaming, I swerve across the opposite carriageway, but it’s too late.

The noise that metal makes when tearing apart is one that will live in my nightmares forever. It’s all too fast, now, a cacophony of sound, sickening blows to body and head, branches, grass, sky and bits of car flying past my eyes in a seemingly never ending sequence of twists and tumbles that must be happening to somebody, somewhere, although I can’t quite grasp that it is happening to me. All thoughts of what is happening to the other car, the other driver, are blown from my mind in a frantic but useless effort to protect myself. I am conscious of a sudden pressure on my chest, my face, as the airbag explodes into action, and now there is nothing to do but wait, resign myself to whatever will happen when what is left of my car, and myself, finally breaks this crazy cycle of spinning and tumbling into oblivion.

Chapter one

The Deal.

Five cards dealt, spread out on the table. Turn them over, one at a time. Incredibly, they are:The Queen of Spades.The Queen of Diamonds.The Queen of Clubs.The Queen of Hearts. And...the Joker.

Their meaning, at this point, is unclear, but as time rolls on, the Queens (one married, one divorced, one spinster, one widow) will lock crowns in a battle for supremacy as fierce as any power struggle from history, a no holds barred, no quarter given, no rules adhered to fight from which one, or perhaps even none, may emerge triumphant leaving the others bruised and bloody to crawl away to lick their wounds.

And the Joker? What is his role in this? To make sense of the strange card, the card that is excluded from many card games because it is too unpredictable, too hard to pin down, we need to understand the nature of the Joker. What is the saying? 'Joker's wild'....and indeed, he is. Not savage wild, of course, for our Joker is no figure of terror, no macho posing muscle bound aggressor, but rather he is all things to all women, a chameleon like figure whose ever changing colours and form can leave one mesmerised and ultimately, hopelessly confused. A well played Joker can win the game, but this card needs to be understood, identified, its powers controlled and its role clearly defined. A Joker who has no understanding of his own reality or his effect on the other cards on the table is a frightening proposition indeed. Wild and changeable he may be, to the advantage of some and the demise of others, but the Joker has to be able to control the game, to be fully aware of the effect of his position on the pack. What kind of Joker do we have on our table? Time will tell.