Pretend To Be Mine

by Suzie Nelson

  Enough time for one final decisive act of revenge against all of the gambling institutions that had ruined my childhood.

  Enough time to win Francois and I a chance of being together. I was not going to waste a second of it.

  Francois looked almost as excited as I was myself when he sat down at the bar in the very same spot where he was sitting that first night when he bought me the expensive bottle of champagne. I’m not really superstitious when it comes to seats and tables but, for some reason, it just seemed like it would be right for me to sit down in the exact same seat I was sitting in that first night, so that’s exactly what I did.

  “Can I offer to sell you some chips, madam?” the dealer asked and I nodded my head. The games were about to begin. I bought $5,000 worth of casino chips and watched as the dealer dealt me my first card. It was a 10 of clubs and I doubled my original bet of $500. There was no time to start off slowly tonight and there was also no need for it. Francois was 100% correct about the Pit Boss as I saw no one standing around to put any damper on the way I was about to gamble.

  “The gentleman over at the bar has bought you this bottle of champagne, madam,” a waiter suddenly spoke up next to me and I smiled at Francois as I looked at the bottle of Moët &Chandon French Champagne. My French lover certainly had a sense for dramatic repetition and I just loved the way he was supporting me in my final quest. The waiter poured me a glass of champagne and I winked at Francois as I took a sip of it.

  “Hit me,” I said to the dealer and he dealt me a jack of diamonds to go with my 10 of clubs. I watched as the dealer went bust and raked in my first winnings of the evening.

  As I sat there watching the cards making their way across the table I had flashbacks of the first time I’d played at the Golden Nugget casino. I remembered how excited I felt as I played my first couple of hands and how Francois’s presence at the bar had intrigued me as I gambled. As he sat there watching me now I felt an almost greater sense of wonder.

  He was still an enigma to me and I couldn’t put him in any of the boxes in my mind normally reserved for the people in my life. He was attractive and suave, but that was far from the only thing about him that intrigued me. He was extremely intelligent and seemed to always be one step ahead of everything and everyone, but I wouldn’t describe him as an intellectual. Even though he was a total charmer he wasn’t really one of those shallow men who relied solely on the charm to get everything he wanted.

  “Will you take another card, madam?” the dealer asked and I realized that I was getting caught up in my thoughts about Francois instead of focusing on the game.

  “Hit me,” I said and intensified my focus on the cards in front of me.

  In a way, it was not such a bad thing to have Francois there to take my mind off the seriousness of the task at hand, as I might just have become very nervous if I had to sit there thinking about my mother all the time while I was playing. However, I had to concentrate and didn’t want his presence to keep me from maintaining an accurate count of all the cards as they were dealt across the green felt of the Blackjack table.

  The game was progressing along familiar lines as I kept track in my mind of all of the cards as they were dealt. It was way too early in the game to start making significant moves as there were still way too many picture cards and 10’s in the deck which had not been dealt yet. Placing large bets, under these circumstances, would amount to nothing more than mere blind gambling and that was a sure way to lose money. Because it was early in the game I couldn’t predict the cards accurately yet and I lost a couple of hands, but my winnings were growing steadily as the game progressed and the odds kept improving in my favor. Soon I was up by about $10,000 and I could already see the dealer getting nervous. He glanced around once or twice; no doubt wondering where the Pit Boss was hiding.

  “Not tonight buddy…there’s no one around to save your ass tonight,” I thought to myself and gave the dealer my sweetest smile as I won another hand and another $2,000.

  This was one of the sweetest experiences of my life and I enjoyed every moment of playing under these relatively stress-free circumstances. If the casinos were really honest about offering all Blackjack players a fair game then this should have been the way for me to play every single time I sat down at the table. The fact that they hired those goddamned Pit Bosses just goes to show how dishonest these gambling houses really were; they couldn’t give a shit about fair play and were only interested in taking people’s hard earned cash off their hands.

  I glanced at my watch and saw that it was almost 11 pm. Everything else that Francois had said about the evening was correct so I assumed that he was also correct when he said I would only be allowed to gamble freely until midnight. I looked over at where Francois was sitting at the bar and was surprised to see that he had a laptop open in front of him. He seemed to be checking something on the laptop from time to time and I wondered what the hell he could be up to.

  I looked back at the table and quickly did a rough count of my winnings. I was up by $42,000 and it was time to start making major moves in the game. Most of the cards had been dealt now and it would not be long until the dealer used one of the shuffling machines to shuffle the deck, with the result that I would have to start counting all of the cards again from scratch.

  I estimated that there were about five hands left before the dealer would reshuffle the deck, so I watched anxiously as he dealt me my first card in the next hand. It was a seven and I immediately asked for another card. He dealt me a 5 and I now stood on 12. All of the 10’s and almost all of the picture cards had been dealt, but there were still two kings in the deck that could make me go bust. I decided to double up on my bet anyway. This was a calculated risk and I knew that the odds were good for me to win, despite the fact that the two kings were still in the deck. My bet already stood on $5,000 so I added another $5,000 to make it $10,000.

  I watched as the dealer carefully took the top card from the deck and dealt it to me.

  It was the bloody king of hearts!

  I watched in horror as the dealer raked in my $10,000 and my heart suddenly sank as I glanced at my watch. It was past 11 pm and I only had one hour left to play before the opportunity would be gone forever. I was now down to $32,000 and could easily lose the chance of getting together the money for my mother’s operation.

  Even though I could still take a trip to San Jose and gamble there it would mean that my mother would have to wait another couple of weeks and who knows if she would survive that long?! I would also lose the chance of staying with Francois if I had to leave, so the pressure on the next couple of hands was going to be massive.

  “I will bet $10,000 again,” I announced and pushed forward my chips. I was down to about $32,000 and my first job was to recoup all losses of the previous hand.

  The dealer dealt me a 9 and I doubled up my bet to make it $20,000. I was dealt another 9 and I was now standing on 18. The dealer himself had 16 so he had to take another card and I knew the odds were in my favor, although it was still possible for the dealer to beat me.

  I watched with bated breath as the croupier prepared to deal himself another card. He flipped the next card over and put it down on his other cards.

  It was a 7 and the dealer went bust as his total was now 23!

  I felt my heart beating in my chest as I raked in my winnings and looked at the chips in front of me. That last hand had won me another $20,000 and I was now sitting with $52,000 worth of casino chips in front of me; half of what I needed to make up the last $100,000 of the total cost of $500,000 for my mother’s operation.

  There were only one or two more hands left before the dealer would reshuffle the cards and when I looked at my watch I saw that there were only 15 minutes to go before midnight.

  “Time for little Cinderella to make her move before the clock strikes midnight,” I whispered to myself and pushed $25,000 worth of my chips forward for the next hand.

  The dealer dealt me
a 4 and an 8 to take me to 12, whereafter he dealt himself a pair of 7’s and a 4 to take his own total to 18. The second goddamned king was still in the deck so I knew that it could bust me out and take my total to 22 if I was unlucky enough to get it, but there was no time left and I was out of options. I pushed another $25,000 forward to double my bet to $50,000. There was an almost audible gasp that went up from around the table, where a number of other guests of the Golden Nugget were now standing close by to see what was going to happen. I glanced over to where Francois was sitting and he gave me an encouraging nod. It was ten minutes before midnight when the dealer put his hand on the last card he was about to deal me.

  “Please God, for my mother and for justice,” I prayed as the dealer picked up the final card. I had that sense of time slowing down which I so often experienced during moments of great anxiety. I watched as the dealer’s hand slowly traveled through time and space before he put the card down in front of me.

  “Please God, anything but a king,” I whispered before finally taking a look at my last card.

  A loud cheer erupted before I even had the opportunity to look down. Everyone around the table reacted as if they’d just witnessed a wide receiver scoring the winning touchdown in a Super Bowl final. When I looked at my final card I saw that it was a 9.

  I had scored a perfect 21 and it was all finally over!

  Francois looked at me and I could see that he was ecstatic, but also in a rush. I remembered what he’d said and quickly raked in my chips to exchange it for cash before the clock struck midnight.

  “Will you play another hand, madam?” the dealer asked as I got up to leave with my $102,000 in winnings.

  “No thanks,” I replied, “that last hand has just taken me all the way over the rainbow!”

  I made it out the front door just as my wristwatch announced that it was 12 midnight. I was surprised to see how three men in black closed the doors behind me as I walked out of the Golden Nugget. They were preventing any more customers from entering. When I looked back I also saw some of the lights going out and people started leaving the casino. It was very unusual for the casino to be closing so early and I realized that Francois had been absolutely spot on about the fact that I only had until midnight to play Blackjack.

  I looked around frantically to see where Francois had disappeared to and for a moment my heart sank as the thought crossed my mind that he might have disappeared from my life forever. Perhaps he’d only gotten rid of the Pit Boss for me as a way of easing his own conscience and was now on his way back to his loving family or whatever it was he’d been hiding from me.

  Just as I was about to lose all hope I heard the familiar sound of an Italian sports car and then saw my gorgeous French lover drive up in his blood red Ferrari Testarossa.

  “Need a lift, madame?” he asked and I jumped right over the door on the passenger side.

  “As long as we can stop along the way to pick up my bags you can drive me anywhere you want!” I shouted excitedly.

  “I’m so proud of you,” Francois said and gave me a long intimate kiss before pulling away with screeching tires.

  I finally knew that everything was going to be all right.

  “I love you, Francois,” I said and he looked at me with his beautiful blue eyes.

  “And I love you, ma chérie,” he said with the most beautiful smile, “now let’s get out of Las Vegas and see what else the world has to offer.”

  FRANCOIS

  I have to admit that I was getting very nervous as I watched Jenny playing the last couple of hands of Blackjack, especially when she seemed to have some kind of setback and lost a large amount of money right towards the end of the evening.

  I was also anxiously watching my bank account from my laptop to see if Peter Parkin’s $500 million was going to be paid into my account. It could easily have been some kind of setup and I have to admit that I had sweaty palms as I sat there waiting. I didn’t really care about the money so much; I just wanted to finish the whole casino business right there and then.

  My time with Jenny had given me an opportunity to see gambling from another perspective and I now realized that it was not a fair contest between the casinos and the gamblers at all. I also realized that the gambling houses were mostly run by bastards like Peter Parkin who wouldn’t think twice before taking an old lady’s last savings off her in return for a gambling experience where the dice were always loaded in the casino’s favor. I now totally understood Jenny’s anger towards these gambling houses and just wanted to get out of the whole business myself. There were many other business opportunities out there and if Vivienne wanted to be upset by the fact that I was not going to stay with the Golden Nugget for six months, then so be it.

  Just when the pressure had become almost too much for me to bear as I sat there at the bar, there was a notification sound from my laptop and when I looked down I saw that a cool amount of $500 million had just been wire transferred to my account!

  I almost thought for a moment that the loud cheers which suddenly erupted were for me and the wire transfer of money, but when I looked up I saw that it was all of the people standing around Jenny’s table who cheered so loudly as she obviously won a very large amount of money.

  I made my way out of the casino as fast as I could and hoped that Jenny would manage to cash in her chips and make it outside before Peter Parkin’s men closed the casino doors at midnight like he’d promised they would.

  “Are you still awake at this ungodly hour just to make another couple of dollars, Vivienne?” I joked as my grandmother picked up my midnight phone call.

  “The work is not done until all of the money has made its way to our family’s coffers,” Vivienne replied with her own joke, “now tell me what the good news is?”

  “How do you know it’s good news?” I asked.

  “Because I know you, my boy, and I have heard that kind of excitement in your voice before.”

  “Well, you are right!” I said, “I just sold my 60% shareholding in the Golden Nugget casino for $500 million. It’s more than four times the $120 million you originally paid for it!’

  “Mmm that’s a profit of 300%...not half bad for a week’s work,” Vivienne replied.

  “Much better than I could ever have done if I’d stuck around for 6 months trying to earn an extra dollar here and there!”

  “Yes, but you haven’t honored the deal we had. You were supposed to stick around for 6 months to prove to me that you are able to keep the bloodhounds off your back in a cutthroat business like the Golden Nugget.”

  “And since when is honor more important than a $380 million profit?” I asked.

  “Good point, my boy, very good point,” Vivienne laughed, “I guess you have proven yourself in some kind of way and there will always be more opportunities to show me what you can do. Now be sure to come home and see you poor old grandmother before the grave swallows me up!”

  “I will do that,” I said, “just make sure the house is spotless, I’m bringing a lady friend along with me.”

  “Now you’re talking like a real Du Bois,” Vivienne said and I could tell she was as excited to meet Jenny as I was to take her home with me.

  I ended the call and drove my Ferrari around the corner. There she stood waiting for me. Jenny Blake; the most incredible and unforgettable card counter the casinos in Las Vegas ever had the misfortune of hosting at their Blackjack tables.

  I stopped right in front of the Golden Nugget and gave the casino a final glance before I watched with great satisfaction and excitement as Jenny Blake jumped into the passenger seat right next to me.

  It had been the greatest risk I’d ever taken in my entire life, but Jenny and I had both turned out as winners in this incredible game of chance.

  I’m almost certain that the good fortune will not always be in our favor but if I am sure only of one thing then that our love will win against any odds.

  THE END

 
Indomitable

  Chapter 1

  Rosie was making dinner when the news came on. She had never really been one for the depressing, constant violence that news broadcasters couldn’t seem to get enough of – she certainly got enough of it in her day job as an anger management therapist. But, about a year ago, Angelo had, for some unknown reason, decided that the evening news was the most interesting thing he’d ever seen. And Rosie had never been able to say no to her son’s big brown eyes. So they’d struck a compromise: as long as it didn’t involve guns or nudity Angelo could watch the news. This meant that, for the most part, all he saw was the sports, weather, and local scandals, but the seven-year old didn’t seem to mind.

  Usually, Angelo was happy enough to watch the news alone, occasionally adding his own (generally adorable) insight to the reports. Tonight, however, as Rosie was grating carrots into the salad, he began calling her name impatiently. “Mom! Mom! Look! It’s Lewis! It’s Lewis!” he shouted, pointing excitedly at the TV screen.