A deck of cards is the opposite of a majors-only deck: it has no dedicated trump suit. The four of spades corresponds to the four of swords in the occult tarot deck. It says I’m going to feel isolated for a while. I should use this time of isolation wisely.

My mom gave me this double-deck of cards about 30 years ago. She said to take good care of it, so I did. I played with it a lot when I was a kid. I played war, go-fish, crazy-eights, a dozen rummy games, casino, canasta, anything else my friends wanted to teach me. When I went off to college, the deck stayed at home. This past year I put the deck with my tarot card collection. I think my grandmother purchased it in Greece in the 1950s. One image is the Carvatides Erechiteum, the other is the Parthenon. I don’t want to play with the deck anymore. I want to look at it sometimes and remember all the times I begged my mom to play cards with me and she obliged. May I be patient and give my time so generously to my own child.