The Winner Takes It All

He entered his friend’s home carrying a six-pack of Mickey’s Big Mouths and fifty bucks burning a hole in the front pocket of his acid-wash jeans.

The place smelled of young men:  Barley and hops, cigar and cigarette smoke, three extra large assorted topping pizzas, and the unmistakable odor of frequent and freshly minted farts hung in the air like a cumulonimbus cloud above the room.

He masked his jangled nerves by making an unfunny joke as he sat down at the octagonally-shaped, felt-covered card table.  His money was quickly exchanged for blue, red, and white circular plastic gaming chips.

It wasn’t until the third or fourth hand that he noticed the music that filled the gaps of their conversations.  Knowing Me Knowing You, Take a Chance on Me, and Lay All Your Love on Me.

From a perceived place of safety behind a fanned out wild card created full house, he stole glances around the table.  Nobody found it at all unusual that the soundtrack for the evening’s poker night was being provided by Abba.  In fact, he could even make the case that most of the guys in the game were surreptitiously mouthing along with the lyrics.

And although he bid a hasty and rather unceremonious adieu to his fifty bucks, the night wasn’t a complete loss.  He spent the next three hours nursing the same beer he was drinking when he went all in and lost, grazing on several varieties of pizza and other random salty snack foods, and learning to love every track on Abba Gold, which played non-stop for the duration of the evening.

There were reports that the young subject of this tale drove to Tower Records the next day and purchased his own copy of the greatest hits package but he could not be reached to confirm or deny these allegations.

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