THREE

 

 

So much for my pleasurable game at my home casino while Patty worked. I focused in even more on both playing great cards and watching for any idea of what idiot boy was up to.

When he got down to two thousand in chips again, he went and rebought another ten thousand.

I now had a good nine thousand in front of me and the other four regulars who knew how to play against idiot boy’s type of play had thousands each as well.

We were just plucking this guy like a dead chicken.

And his smell of fear and addiction just seemed to increase. I was amazed that no one around me could even smell it.

Finally, as he rebought for his fifth time, I couldn’t take it any longer. If he was borrowing this money and planning on a scam, he was going to hit this casino for fifty thousand and that was too much.

I froze time again and jumped into the financial cage, something I almost never did.

They had his tab right on the counter clear as day. He had put fifty thousand in cash on deposit. He wasn’t scamming the casino or playing on credit. It was his money and he had gone through it all, except for the chips in front of him on the table.

I jumped back to the table and let myself back into the flow of time.

With his last ten thousand on the table, I decided to try to engage him a little in conversation.

After he lost a fairly large pot to one of the regulars that idiot boy had kept raising over and over, I said to him. “Tough night, huh?”

He looked at me and shook his head. “My lot in life.”

My little voice screamed at that answer. It wasn’t the answer of a man fearful of losing, but a person resigned to his place.

“Looks like you can afford the loss,” I said. “We all have them.”

“I always have them,” he said. “I’ll go back, get more money, and then lose it again.”

“So the nickname?” I asked as he shoved in his last two thousand in chips to cover a bet.

I was starting to understand. His nickname wasn’t that he was the presumptive winner, but the presumptive loser.

“Just a joke for myself,” he said, shaking his head.

“What’s the punishment for?” I asked. “What did you do?”

As his last bit of money was pushed to another player, he looked at me and I think, for the first time, he finally saw me. He had been under some sort of screen to not be able to see me before he lost all his money.

And that screen had kept me from seeing him clearly as well. He now radiated power equal to that of a god.

A very old and powerful god.

Holy smokes, what had I just done?

He smiled at me and then shook his head. Then he looked up at the ceiling, all smell of worry and fear gone completely.

“Really?” he asked to the ceiling. “I mean, really?”

I took us both out of time and it didn’t even startle him.

“Stan?” I said into the air. “We’re done.”

Stan appeared next to Laverne, Lady Luck herself. This guy really, really must be on the shit list if Laverne was here.

Laverne looked her normal stern self with a pinstriped business suit on and her hair pulled back tight off her face.

The guy stood up and joined the three of us standing near my end of the table.

“You going to be all right, Hermes?” Laverne asked, her face actually showing some compassion.

“Feeling fine again,” he said, moving his shoulders around. “This treatment really works. Thanks.”

The guy I had been calling silently idiot boy turned and shook my hand. “Glad I can remember that game,” he said. “It was a pleasure playing with Poker Boy. I’ve heard so much about you. And you being able to spot me is really amazing.”

I was just standing there feeling shocked. I had played a night of poker with one of the original gods of gambling, Hermes.

And kicked his ass.

And he wasn’t angry.

Kicking a god’s ass often resulted in great anger that resulted in earthquakes and lightning and all sorts of other really nasty stuff.

But for Hermes, the losing had clearly been a treatment of some sort.

“Thank you,” I said. “But you had me worried.”

Hermes nodded. “Yeah, this is sort of all my gambling addictions wrapped into one evening every five years or so. But by doing this, lancing the wound, so to speak, I don’t need to gamble for another five years. A night like this just cleans me out.”

“Makes Sally happy,” Laverne said, smiling.

“That it does,” Hermes said, laughing. “And never hurts to have the wife happy.”

Clearly this Hermes was liked in his real, unprotected form.

At that moment, Patty appeared next to me. I hadn’t realized how long the evening had taken and she was already off work and dressed in a casual blouse and jeans.

When she saw Stan and Laverne, she smiled and then turned to Hermes. “How have you been? How’s Sally?”

My girlfriend knew Hermes. Holy smokes!

“She’s doing great and going to be waiting for me to get home with a bottle of nice wine and a good dinner,” Hermes said. “Thanks to your boyfriend here, I’m going to be early.”

“Yeah,” Patty said, laughing, “he can cause people to leave a poker table quickly.”

“Not sure how to take that,” I said.

Patty kissed my cheek. “In the best possible way.”

And I had no idea how to take that, or the fact that everyone was laughing.

Hermes just patted my shoulder. “Poker Boy, you can help me with my treatment any time you want.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But I had no idea that you would be here tonight.”

“So this was just happenstance?” he asked, shaking his head.

Hermes glanced back at all the stacks of chips in front of my position at the table and the stacks in front of the other regulars who had ridden this right down with me. “Certainly helps me understand that there are a lot better players in the world than I am. I think once every five years is enough.”

With that he kissed Laverne’s cheek, shook Stan’s hand, hugged Patty, then shook my hand. “Let’s get this back into real time so I can get out of here. I got dinner waiting.”

“And you have a girlfriend waiting,” Patty said to me, smiling. “I’ll be home.”

With that Patty and Laverne and Stan vanished.

As Hermes walked back to his seat, he laughed. “Looks to me, Poker Boy, that tonight, we are both winners.”

I nodded. “In a far more important game than is played at this table.”

“Got that right,” Hermes said, smiling at me. “Totally right.”