Fiction River: Risk Takers, page 18
The freeway coming in from Los Angeles was still a steady stream of orange lights of promise as they crested the hill and formed a snake-like trail down into the Las Vegas area. The red trail of tail lights of cars leaving felt almost sad.
The night air was crisp and slightly cold for an October evening, giving the city and car lights and the stars above a feeling of extra sharpness.
It also felt peaceful. Calm.
A feeling that I seldom had as Poker Boy.
So tonight I was going to enjoy the moment of calm. I just hoped that didn’t mean a storm was coming.
My office floated a thousand feet above the Las Vegas Strip, invisible to all but gods and a few superheroes. I had made all four walls and parts of the ceiling glass, but then I had had to put the wooden railing around the room against the glass at just below waist height to stop the fear of sliding on the checkered tile floor and falling off.
Before I had the railing, no one wanted to come in here, and when they did, they huddled to the center. I was no exception. The glass was so clear, it felt like you were standing on a checkered platform floating a thousand feet in the air.
The oak railing really helped. And it was a good place to put your feet up, sit back, and just admire the view.
The only other furniture in the office besides a half-dozen chairs was a large 1950s diner booth right in the center of the office. It was a larger replica of a booth in The Diner down off Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas.
My team had used that booth in The Diner as a meeting place for years, so when I got to put this office here, it just felt right to have a booth. And everyone seemed to really like it. I know I sure did.
It was just before eleven in the evening now, and I was here, waiting for my girlfriend, Patty Ledgerwood, aka Front Desk Girl, to get off work at the MGM Grand Hotel front desk. Her quitting time was eleven. Just as I was a superhero working for the gambling gods, she was a superhero working for the gods of hospitality and lodging.
We liked to meet here, enjoy the view for a short time together, and then head home to her apartment. We were building a huge dream home in the Oregon Mountains that would be done shortly. Until then, she kept her apartment here and I lived with her.
It was five minutes before eleven when suddenly I wasn’t alone.
My warning sense didn’t go off to tell me I was in danger, so I didn’t bother to even look around as the new person pulled up a chair and sat next to me. When I glanced over expecting to see one of my team members, I was surprised to see someone I didn’t know sitting beside me, staring out at the view of the city.
He looked like any rich corporate businessman, with a gray silk three-piece suit, a tasteful blue tie, and expensive gray loafers. His hair was black with touches of gray and his face chiseled like a male model from a glamour magazine.
Since he had teleported in and knew this office was here, I assumed he was a god. And I assumed he was here for my help. So much for a calm evening.
Since I still hadn’t gotten a feeling of danger from him, I turned slightly to him as he put his feet up on the railing. “I assume you know me, since this is my office. I haven’t had the pleasure.”
“Sorry,” he said, turning slightly to smile at me. The smile sort of reached his eyes, but not completely. “I forgot you are fairly new to this superhero and god stuff. Considering how many times you and your team have saved us all, I just didn’t realize you wouldn’t know me. My name is…”
Before he could tell me his name, Laverne, Lady Luck herself, appeared on the other side of the stranger and pulled up a chair.
Laverne was dressed in her evening power suit that in an odd way matched the guy’s suit. Her suit was also gray silk with a light blue scarf and expensive shoes.
She also put her feet up on the railing and stared out over the city.
“Hi, Laverne,” the man said, his voice deep and rich. “Long time.”
“It has been, Bob,” Laverne said. “Too long.”
With that the office fell silent and I just sat there with two gods. One I knew well, the other I had yet to officially meet, even though I now knew his name was Bob.
All three of us just stared out over the city, watching the lights and the beautiful sky and a plane drift toward the airport runway.
None of my warning senses at all were going off, so I figured that with Laverne here, she could handle this old friend and find out why he had just appeared in my office.
Finally, Bob sighed and put his feet down. “This is wonderful.”
Laverne and I did the same thing. I knew that now, finally, we were going to get to the problem at hand.
Laverne turned in her chair to face Bob. “What do we owe this honor?”
He laughed, the sound almost soothing. “When has my presence ever been an honor?”
“Bob, to me it is always an honor,” Laverne said. “And it has been far too long since we have talked.”
Wow, it wasn’t often that Laverne acted so nicely to another god. She even seemed almost human and vulnerable.
Again Bob laughed. “It’s only been a century. You’ve been doing just fine without me.”
“It hasn’t been easy to work both my side and yours at times,” she said. “I hope you are coming back to join us.”
“Sorry about the extra work,” he said.
“You know I didn’t mind,” Laverne said.
“I know,” Bob said, his voice as sad as Laverne’s sounded. “I just really needed some time alone after what happened with Carol. I wasn’t sure I was going to get past her death.”
“We all tried to save her,” Laverne said, her voice soft.
“It was not to be,” Bob said. “I have come to understand that now.”
I felt more like a wall that was forced to listen to a very intimate conversation between two people. I flat didn’t want to be here and I was starting to feel uncomfortable. But at the same time I didn’t dare tune the conversation out since Bob had come to me before Laverne for some strange reason.
“So why are you here?” Laverne asked.
“Well first, I wanted to meet Poker Boy,” Bob said. “Maybe spend a little time to get to know him.”
Laverne laughed.
I had no idea what to think so I just nodded. I had learned as a superhero that when gods were talking way over my head, nodding was usually the right reaction. Often turning the nod into a slight bow was even better.
At that moment Patty appeared, working at pulling her long brown hair loose from where she had it tied up while at work. She still had on her MGM Grand Hotel front desk uniform of a silk white blouse, black slacks and a black vest.
“Ready to call it a night?” she asked as she turned to face me. Then she saw who was sitting there beside me and she froze.
That’s right, she just stopped moving completely, her large brown eyes wide, her mouth slightly open.
Planes were still moving out over the city and cars were still creeping along the strip below, so I knew I hadn’t been taken out of time in any fashion. But the way Patty was standing, it sure seemed that way.
Finally Bob stood slowly and faced the frozen Patty.
“Hi, little angel,” he said, smiling.
At that moment, the fairly calm, fantastically smart, completely composed woman that I loved and lived with melted like so much butter in a hot pan.
“Daddy!” she shouted and ran and jumped into his arms, putting her legs around him and hugging him like I had never seen anyone hugged before.
I had a hunch my mouth was open in pure shock.
I glanced at Laverne and she smiled at me.
“Trust me, this is a good thing,” Laverne said as a thought in my head.
I nodded and both Laverne and I stood and moved aside as Patty and Bob hugged. Patty was crying and I had a hunch Bob was as well from what I could tell, but darned if I was ever going to accuse a god of crying.
Finally the moment passed and Patty managed to pull herself together a little and stood, one arm around Bob, beaming like a child just given a special toy.
“So,” Bob said to her, “are you going to introduce me to your boyfriend?”
She laughed. “Daddy, this is Poker Boy. I’m sure you’ve heard of him. Poker Boy, this is my father, Janus, who likes to be called Bob for some strange reason from far before I was born.”
Janus, or Bob, reached out his hand and I shook it. His grip was firm, his smile real and this time completely reaching his eyes.
“I hope you are taking good care of my angel,” Bob said.
“Actually,” I said, “she takes care of me. Which is much more than I deserve, sir.”
Bob laughed and smiled at Patty. “I see you have him trained perfectly.”
“Housebroken,” Patty said, laughing, “but that’s about all.”
Everyone laughed.
Then Bob looked at Patty. “I can’t believe how much you look like your mother.”
“I know, Dad,” Patty said, hugging him. “Are you doing better?”
“I am,” Bob said, indicating they should all just sit.
Patty quickly pulled over another chair and sat next to me, yet close enough to her father so that she could touch him.
“Thanks to Laverne and a few others taking up my duties,” Bob said, “I’ve been able to just rest and allow myself the time to recover fully from your mother’s death.”
I was stunned. First off, Patty had never talked about her real family, and since I was an only child and my parents had died in an auto accident right after I finished high school, it had never much came up. I had no idea her mother had died. I didn’t even know who her mother was, actually. And I still wasn’t sure exactly with Bob here what he did that Laverne had taken over.
“That’s really good to hear,” Patty said, smiling at her father.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t around more,” he said. “I’m going to try to change that now.”
Patty laughed. “You raised me and got me out on my own just fine, Dad. You were wonderful.”
He nodded thanks and said nothing.
“So besides meeting Poker Boy and seeing your daughter again,” Laverne said, “why are you really here, Bob?”
For the first time since he arrived, my warning bells suddenly went off. Not loudly, but enough to make me really focus on what was about to happen next.
He looked at Laverne, nodded, then turned to Patty and me. He took a deep breath and said, “I’ve met someone.”
Again, Patty froze. Then again, quicker this time, she melted and jumped at her dad again, hugging him as he sat.
Finally, she sat back down, smiling like she had been given the perfect Christmas gift, and it wasn’t even Christmas.
Bob laughed. “I assume that means you approve?”
Patty nodded. “I know losing Mom was the worst thing ever, but after almost a thousand years now, it’s time to move on.”
I glanced at Patty. I knew Patty had lived a long time, but I had no idea it was at least a thousand years. That just stunned me.
“So what exactly is the problem?” Laverne asked.
Bob sighed. “I have not used any of my skills and powers for a very long time now. I need help and that’s why I came to Poker Boy. He understands risk and reward better than anyone I have ever observed.”
Suddenly every alarm bell in my head went off.
Every damn one.
A god, Patty’s father, was coming to me for relationship advice. That would be like asking a kid on a tricycle advice about how to drive a racing car.
I was a clueless wonder and every day felt just flat lucky that Patty was with me. She was my first real relationship. Before then I had had a few girlfriends, but nothing more.
So I had no idea what in the world a god would need my help with with a relationship. And the idea of that just scared me more than I wanted to admit.
Then, finally, my brain kicked in and it suddenly dawned on me that I was talking with Janus.
I was so screwed. Janus was the god of beginnings and endings, the god of transitions, the god of risk and reward, the god they named the month of January after.
I damn near fell off my chair.
If I messed this up, I might lose Patty.
But what was I supposed to do? Patty’s father had a month named after him.
I opened my mouth and not a damn thing came out, so I shut it.
“So you are thinking of starting a new relationship, but no longer trust your own abilities in beginnings?” Laverne asked.
Janus nodded. “I can’t see it, the chance of it, the risk of it. I honestly don’t know what to think.”
“Dad,” Patty asked, “did you see Mom dying when you met her?”
“I did not,” he said. “I could not see the ending, could not fathom the risk.”
“Do you ever regret marrying Mom?” Patty asked.
“Not for a moment,” Janus said.
Laverne looked at me and nodded. Her thought came clear into my mind. “I’m going to slowly transfer some of Janus’s powers back to him now, but you need to talk him through this decision.”
I took a deep breath and forced myself into my place of calm where I went when I was under pressure in a tournament. I nodded to Laverne and turned to Patty’s father. “Sir, can I say a few things that I know are obvious to you, but might help some.”
“Please,” he said, nodding.
Patty held onto her father’s hand and I knew she was keeping him as calm as she could. It was one of her best superpowers. I had a hunch Laverne had told her as well what she was doing.
“When I am playing in a poker game against eight other players,” I said, “I do my best to learn about each one as quickly as I can. I watch for patterns, for fear, for tells in body language, and so on. And I watch how they play and react to different situations, even if I am not in the hand they are playing.”
Janus nodded, so I kept on.
“When a risk decision on my part comes in a poker game, a decision to either play a hand or not play a hand, I might not have a perfect understanding of the future, but I can assess the risk I am taking and the reward I might receive for the risk.”
He nodded, not yet angry that I was explaining his own powers to him.
“So with this new woman in your life, you clearly have had time to get to know this person. Correct?”
“I have,” he said.
“And you have opened up your mind and taken in all the variables about this woman, both good and bad.”
“I have,” he said.
I pushed on as fast as I could hoping against hope I wasn’t insulting the God of Risk and Reward. If I did, I might never win another hand of poker again.
“So you have looked at the risk of being with this woman,” I said. “And you understand from your marriage to Patty’s mother that risk can be worthwhile in the journey, even though the final ending is not what you had hoped.”
He nodded, more slowly this time. Clearly Laverne was giving him back his powers of risk and reward, of beginnings and endings.
“So you know, better than anyone on this planet,” I said, “that risk is a natural force, much as luck is, and outcome cannot be guaranteed.”
He nodded. “If you and my daughter and your team had not saved the world a half dozen times, I wouldn’t even have this chance to talk with you about this. Or see my daughter again. You took many risks with your own lives to save the rest of us.”
“So ask yourself that with this new woman in your life, what will the rewards of taking the risk to be with her be?”
“Do you love her, Daddy?” Patty asked.
Janus nodded.
“Does she make you happy?” Laverne asked.
Again Janus nodded.
“Sir,” I said to Janus, “If I had a hand in poker that sounds as good as what you have described with the woman you have met, I would have all my chips on the table.”
Janus nodded, then smiled.
He looked at me, then at Laverne, then at his daughter.
“Thank you. All three of you.”
“Would you like me to transfer the rest of your powers back to you now?”
Janus shook his. “Please give me a few days to get used to having these back.”
Laverne nodded.
Janus was smiling, clearly a huge burden lifted off his shoulder.
And I could feel all my alarms fading and somehow I managed to not break into a sweat.
Patty hugged her father and looked at him. “So when are we going to get to meet this wonderful woman that has my father smiling for the first time in a thousand years?”
“Dinner next week?” Janus asked.
“Wonderful,” Patty said.
I managed to nod I think.
“And Laverne, please join us,” Janus said. “I owe you so much.”
Laverne nodded. “I would be honored.”
Then she vanished.
Janus hugged Patty one more time, then he shook my head. “See you in a week.”
“Looking forward to it, sir,” I said.
He smiled, kissed Patty on the forehead and vanished.
Patty came over and hugged me, which I had to admit felt fantastic.
“Thank you for being so smart,” Patty said, “and figuring out what my father needed to hear.”
“I’m just glad I could get it together in time to say the right things.”
Patty laughed. “You tend to be able to do that. Do you think our relationship is a good enough risk to get all your chips on the table, as you said to Daddy?”
I kissed her, long and hard. “I’ve had all my chips in this for a while now. And I sure can’t see changing that. But there’s one or two things we need to get worked out.”
She looked puzzled and I had her sit down in a chair and put her feet up on the railing and I did the same beside her, holding her hand.
“I know you kept saying you would tell me later,” I said, “but it seems later arrived tonight. So tell me, what was it like growing up with Janus, the god of beginnings and endings? And exactly how old are you?”
Patty laughed and squeezed my hand. Then with a mischievous smile, she asked, “Wouldn’t you rather have this conversation in bed while we’re both naked?”
