Instant Gratification

Ace of spades.

“Nobody plays cards anymore. What happened to playing cards?”

Amos shrugs. “It’s not fast enough for people. What with cell phones, pagers, email, instant messaging, everything’s got to be instantaneous. Instant gratification.”

Two of diamonds. “See that’s what I never understood.”

“What?” Amos frowns at his cards, thumbs the one he’s going to lay down.

“Instant gratification.”

He puts down his card. He’s going for a pair of queens. Not bad. “What don’t you get about it?”

Three of clubs.

“I hate getting stuff easy and quick. Like when I have a big paycheck and I can finally go get whatever I want, so I do, I don’t like that feeling.”

“How do you mean?”

“It’s too easy. There’s no real sense of gratification out of that. It’s instantaneous, but it’s not gratifying.”

“Or you could just be strange.” He’s got a four. Nothing special, unless he’s got two more.

Four of diamonds. “Maybe that’s true, but I’ve watched a lot of people do a lot of crazy things to get gratification quick, and every time, at the end, they always seem to have less than they started with.”

Amos grunts and lays down a five. Nothing.

“I mean, at the beginning, at least they had desire, the really wanted something, you know? At the end, they’ve got it, but it doesn’t mean anything. They haven’t gained anything by obtaining what they were after. Now, if they’d had to work at it, I mean, save and save and save for months or years to get that one thing, or if they’d had to woo a woman with flowers, poetry, actual feelings, had to promise her security and happiness, had to prove she’d get that through marriage, and only then be able to have all of her, you come out of that with something. Even if it doesn’t work out, even if what you buy ends up being crap or the woman ends up cheating on you and leaving you for broke, you’ve still got that struggle to remember.”

Amos sighs out his nose. “I think that’d just frustrate me. Play your card.”

Five of hearts.

“I don’t think it’s frustrating, I think it gives meaning to what you get. Nothing you can get is worth anything by itself.”

“Look, baby,” Amos tosses his worthless cards on the table as he speaks, “I know this whole philosophizing thing means a lot to you, but sometimes you just use too many words. Let’s go do something that doesn’t involve speaking.”

“Instant gratification for you, is that it?”

“You betcha.” His grin is lopsided like a drunken man's, not remotely romantic. Foreplay never was his strong suit.

“Maybe I’ll just make you work for it.”

Amos rolls his eyes and leans back in his chair. “Maybe I’ll just sleep, tonight.”