Cardshark in the making

Today my dear son asked if we would like to play a game of "Sorry" with him, which we agreed to do after dinner was done. As we are prepping dinner we hear shouts from upstairs "I'm setting up the board" "What color do you want to be" and "I've mixed the cards around so don't touch them". "Fine, super, whatever you say dear" are our responses back to him. Yet he keeps going on about how he has shuffled the cards, how they are all set and that we should not touch them. OK, I'm getting a wee bit suspicious. Then we hear him call down "I got a twelve, I'm moving" "Dad, you have an 11, who do you want to switch with?" At this point we call up to him that we are not playing yet, wait to after dinner, then we will play. Oh yes, and put the cards he pulled onto the bottom of the pile. He insists that he can't do this, that he'll just keep them pulled and we can use them when the game starts. Hmm.

We have dinner and are cleaning up with prodding from him to "come and play". Luckily a call from Grandma distracts him for a bit, so we can clean up. Since he is still on the phone with Grandma, I sneak upstairs and shuffle those cards. He finished his phone call and we go play. 12 for him to start with, 11 for Dad, and a 3 for me.
We go another few rounds and he stops and says "hey, what happened to the cards?"
I ask innocently, "Whatever do you mean dear?"
"They are not the same, you're supposed to have the low cards, dad and I get the high cards so we can move faster."
Aha! "So you cheated?"
"No, I just arranged the cards so Daddy and I could win. That isn't cheating. How did you know?"
"Sweetie, I'm your mom, I always know"

Later my husband asks how did I know, since he had no clue. "Come on now," I say, "when someone is intent on you not rearranging cards in a game you know something is up." Dear hubbie looks me in the eye, pause a moment and says simply, "He gets that from your side of the family". True, oh so true. In fact, though I hate to admit it, I felt a little misplaced pride in my son's first attempt at a con job.