“One flip,” Donnovan said. He laid his palm on the table, pulled it away — revealing an old, shiny quarter.
Rammy agreed behind him, the humming wordless way he used to agree with Donnovan — “hmahm”.
“If it’s a head you go back to your cell no fuss, that’s it, and we say goodbye and we part ways, adios.” “hmahah,” said Rammy. “If it’s not we look away for a couple of minutes with the door open and your handcuffs — oops! Gone”.
“One flip,” said the prisoner, whose name they now knew was Johnson. His hands were handcuffed to the chair behind him, and he looked chained and broken, like on some scene from a hardcore porno movie. His hair was disheveled, like his shirt, and he was talking to them through it. “Let’s make it interesting, ha? Boss? Kinda boring like you said it”.

Donnovan looked at Rammy and Rammy looked at Donnovan. “Interesting,” the prisoner said. “More risky. Like,” he said, gaining pace, like he was feeling that he was losing them, “like you flip it and don’t catch it, it lands on the table. And, and if it’s heads I lose and if it’s tails I lose also”. He smiled to himself in satisfaction, the smile of a showman finally hooking his audience. They were looking now — Donnovan worried, Rammy blankly puzzled.
“But if it rolls off the table you take me with you. Past all the guards and the border patrols. I wanna be in Iowa too. Good, solid table, not much chance of that coin rolling off it, Boss? What do you say?”
Donnovan looked at the good, solid table. It’s been a long while since he and Rammy lost a coin toss. Are the new rules Johnson proposed still covered by that inexplicable good fortune they were enjoying? Like his prisoner said, it was more interesting. And like Rammy said, in those few times Rammy spoke — one way to find out.
Donnavan picked up his coin with his fingernails. He held it up, looked at the chained prisoner through it. “Okay,” he said. He gave his coin a flick and it arched beautifully in the air between them — ascended, turned, reached its zenith leaning on one side, graciously dived towards the table — all in a familiar, predictable motion. Heads, said Donnovan to himself. No, tails, he could hear Rammy thinking. The coin danced for a moment and fell flat in the middle of the table. It was heads.
The prisoner leaned back, then kicked hard with both his feet. The table rose, flew at them, hit Donnovan straight in the nose, then fell. They could all hear the happy ringing of the coin hitting the floor.
Rammy said nothing. They sat looking at each other across the upturned table. The prisoner, barely holding his head, smiled in triumph. Donnvan felt his nose bleeding.
“How did we not think about it?” he said.
“hmamahm,” said Rammy.