“Does anyone have advice about a grandson problem?” asked another player who sat down at our duplicate bridge table Saturday afternoon in Oklahoma City.

“How old is he?” I asked, and looked around to make sure The Jerk wasn’t around who’d called The Director on me for saying “Wow!” during our previous match.

“Eleven,” said the grandfather, “and he’d never once lied to me before.”

The boy has an electronic game where you can purchase increments of $10, $25, $35, and up for them, he said, but when he asked his grandson for the lowest amount, the boy said $25.

“So I’m going to give him a $10 one, and let him know that’s what he gets when he lies to me,” the grandpa said.

That caused the grandma in me to take a breath then he said, “But I’m going to give him a $45 one, and tell him that’s because I love him. Do you think that’s how I should handle it?”

“Sure! You made your point, but he still knows you love him.”

Now about The Jerk from Texas who’d called The Director on me.

Saturday was supposed to be our fifth lesson in duplicate bridge, but the club had invited us to their all-day tournament against the pros.

We’d been playing for about six hours when I said “Wow!” about my partner’s bid.

The Kind Director explained that no comments during bidding are allowed unless there is a question.

You would have thought that our middle-aged opponent could have been more cordial to an old woman, so my knee-jerk reaction was to bid us to game.

The Jerk played the setting card, and made some comment, and I instinctively called, “Director!”

The Director looked our way.

The Jerk waved him off.

I shrugged, and smiled sweetly.

Last night I read the duplicate bridge rules.

It appears that I’m The Jerk.

This afternoon when I told an OU friend both of those stories she said the Texan was a jerk, and that both the grandfather and I were wrong.

She said the grandson would grow up to believe he could continue to lie to him, and wouldn’t have “learned his lesson.”

“But it’s his grandson,” I pleaded.

“How does that make any difference?”

“Wow! You sure can tell you don’t have any grandkids.”