Viva Las Vegas!

My elderly father and I were sitting in the waiting room of his doctor du jour. I'd make a joke about how old the magazines were, but what would be the point? Besides...
      If the patients can be elderly, why not the magazines?
      Another elderly man sitting next to us was taking advantage of one of those magazines, however. It was an ancient issue of People, and he was doing the crossword puzzle. Crossword puzzles never age. If you haven't done it, then it's new to you. 
     The elderly gentleman went through it pretty quick, but then got stuck on one particular clue.
     My father, always quick to make another person's business his own, leaned back and sneaked a peek over the man's shoulder.
     "Wager," my father told him.
     "Excuse me?" the man said, lifting his eyes.
     "A five-letter word for bet is 'wager,'" my father said again.
     The man looked back down to check. Apparently, my father was correct, because...
     "Thank you," the man said. "I feel silly, it was so obvious."
     My father, his nosiness having come to a satisfactory conclusion, waved the guy an "It was nothing," and immediately lost interest.
     Finding what he thought was a new friend, the man asked my father, "So, do you like crossword puzzles?"
     "What?" my father replied, distracted by someone else doing something else across the room.
     "Do you like crossword puzzles?" he repeated.
     "Nah," my father told him, gruffly. "I just like to gamble."
 
 

Raising My Father

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