She was going to Vegas.
Chapter Eleven
Alanna found herself manifested to an airplane seat. First class, judging by the wide armrests and plush cushions and that her knees weren’t pushed up to her nose. Shelly was seated beside her and evidently they’d been talking for some time based on the confidential way Shelly was leaning towards her, telling her life story complete with big looping arm gestures, prattling on about fate and how she believed that whatever happened was meant to be. Okay, so getting her to open up wouldn’t be a problem, Alanna figured. It didn’t hurt that Shelly had been drinking. Three empty wine glasses were lined up on her seatback tray and the plane hadn’t even left the ground.
It must be her first time flying first class, Alanna thought. The newbies are always dazzled by the free alcohol. She’d no sooner thought the thought than it shamed her. Maybe Joe was right, and she was used to money, but there was another clue hidden somewhere within that thought too, wasn’t there? Evidently in her previous life she’d not only flown first class, but frequently enough that it no longer impressed her. Alanna glanced around the cabin. God only knew how she’d gotten through security and onto the plane or what name her ticket was under. She was flying on a need-to-know basis and all she needed to know right now was that the powers that be had seated her beside Shelly who was so hyped up with the thrill of first class that she was spilling her guts and very nearly her cabernet. Alanna turned back toward Shelly and willed herself to concentrate more closely on the girl’s story.
“You see how he is. He doesn’t want me on this plane. He doesn’t want me buying Lotto tickets. He doesn’t want me in Vegas,” Shelly was saying. “No way. He agrees with everyone else at GA. I even asked him to come along to see for himself what I won. But there’s no way he would have taken three days off and come with me even before we had that awful fight. Workaholic.”
“Well, it’s good for a man to have ambition.”
“You think?” Shelly drained the wine glass and signaled to the flight attendant as if she were a waitress. They had to be close to take-off but the woman, with a slight, nearly invisible, shrug, turned back into the cabin to get Shelly another drink. It was probably long past when they should be handing out drinks but evidently the airline bent the rule for first class, especially on flights to Vegas. Shelly was hardly the only person in the cabin who’d begun to celebrate early.
“I mean yeah, you’re right,” she was saying. “Ambition’s good, but does he have to work all the time? He says it would take ten men working a hundred hours a week to keep me up in the manner I expect to live, but that’s not true. I’m not materialistic. I just like nice things, you know? I mean everyone likes nice things. Not that they’re essential all the time. I wish he would have come to Vegas. Just this once.”
“Hmmm . . .” Alanna murmured, leaning back so that the flight attendant could hand Shelly the new glass of wine and take the empties. It was all she could think of to say, but evidently all that was needed.
“It’s not even that I have to have nice things,” Shelly prattled on. “I mean, of course I like to shop and eat out, but who doesn’t? And of course I could get used to this.” She gestured around the cabin with another wide sweep of her arm, nearly sending the wine into Alanna’s lap. “ Oops,” Shelly giggled. “But it isn’t just about things for me. I want the rush of the win, but Ben would never understand that. Me, I like excitement. He likes security. Maybe we’re doomed, like Charles and Diana, opposites with nothing in common. But I do love him. Really I do. He takes care of everything and he wants to take care of me. I just can’t seem to give up on taking chances. I think he’s a bit of a gambler, too, taking a chance on me.”
Shelly reached over to squeeze Alanna’s arm, already on the brink of that sloppy sentimentality too much liquor can bring on, and Alanna wondered precisely how long this flight to Vegas would last. Still, there was something vulnerable and appealing about Shelly and how excited she was to have her big adventure.
“When you said you wanted the big wind . . .”
“Not big wind, silly, the big win. Slots are my game. You pull the handle and the whole world spins before your eyes and for a moment you feel—you feel bigger than you are, you know. You feel like a different person. Like anything’s possible. All my life people have been telling me what I can’t do. Why what I crave is impossible. Well that’s why I’m going to Vegas. I want to do the impossible for once. And screw GA.”
“And GA stands for . . .”
“Gambler’s Anonymous. Ben insisted on it the last time I ran up a few little debts. But I don’t have a problem, not really. I wasn’t like those other people, all those sad old people addicted to race tracks or hanging out at the bingo parlors every night.” Shelly gave a delicate shudder. Her hoop earrings bounced. “I only went a few times. You know where you fit and you know where you don’t, am I right?”
Shelly looked proudly around the first class cabin again, clearly sure this was the first step in the life she was truly destined to lead. Alanna nodded numbly. The plane had pulled back from the dock and onto the runway now and the engines beneath them were rumbling louder, takeoff only a few minutes away. The flight attendant bustled around collecting glasses, making sure trays were stowed, electronics off, everything buttoned up for liftoff.
“Ben doesn’t like it,” Shelly said again, more to herself than to Alanna. “But how much of an explanation do I even owe him?”
“He is your fiancé.”
“Oh yeah, my eternal fiancé. We’ve been engaged for three years and it’s getting embarrassing. My friends have stopped even asking when we’ll set a date. Well he finally agreed to our engagement party. And then I . . .” she stopped suddenly.
“And?” Alanna prodded.
“Well I made a mistake. A big mistake. I admit it. It’s not the end of the world, though. Still I shouldn’t have done it. He says he won’t marry me as long as I have ‘the problem.’” She made air quotes with her fingertips, her speech slightly slurred by now. “But I don’t think I have a problem. In fact, I think I’m having the time of my life.”
Chapter Twelve
It was strange, to say the least, this manifesting in and out. The next time Alanna was actually aware of anything, she and Joe were standing on a slick marble floor in the opulent lobby of the Bellagio, with an expansive ceiling made of blown glass flowers that looked like an ocean of brightly colored jellyfish. Through throngs of people moving around the lobby, all seeming to be on their way to somewhere very important, they saw Shelly dwarfed by a mahogany and granite reception counter long enough to serve a buffet supper for an army battalion.
She laughed and joked with the receptionists as they presented her with a gigantic replica of her Vegas Chance ticket and gathered around to make a fuss over the big winner. They handed her a magnum of champagne, which she cradled like a baby in the crook of her arm. Someone gave her a card key to her suite and a voucher for chips at the casino and she squealed like a teenager who’s just spotted Justin Bieber. She could hardly contain herself when two uniformed bellmen escorted her to the elevator with her one tattered roller bag sitting all alone in the middle of a gigantic, brass, hotel luggage cart.
Alanna motioned to Joe to follow but there were too many people milling around the lobby and the elevator doors shut before they could get in, which turned out not to matter because they manifested outside her door sometime after the staff bellmen had left. Supposedly they could have manifested inside the suite but Alanna thought they’d better wait. After all, Shelly deserved some privacy, at least at the start of this escapade.
*****
The minute Shelly was alone she sank onto the bed, sighed and said to herself, “Now this is what I call a win.”
She lay there staring at the ceiling, letting the thick feather comforter cushion her in luxury. She imagined she was on her honeymoon. Finally. That the wedding had been beautiful, that her friends and family were all happy for her, that Be
n was proud of the woman he’d chosen for a wife. She imagined all her troubles had simply melted into the mist. Why couldn’t life be like that?
After her mind quieted, she stood up to examine the suite more thoroughly. The bellman had shown her all the amenities—fully stocked mini bar, gorgeous view, flat screen with anything you wanted to watch, buttons to push for service of any kind—including an in-room massage, something to think about for later—and of course the California king bed, pillows plumped like puff pastries. Now she wandered to the bathroom and eyed the Jacuzzi, which was big enough for six people. Wouldn’t that be nice before hitting the casino? She decided to go for it.
When it was full, she sank into the warm bubbly water and let it roll around her body. Her mind wandered wherever it wanted to go. The image of Ben came to her. It was pleasant to think back on that day they first met, when they’d been invited by a mutual friend to a beach party right before the Fourth of July. Ben was fit and athletic with a shock of curly dark hair and an easy grin. Everyone liked him, especially the ladies. So when he took to Shelly, she was thrilled. It was one of those relaxed days with volley ball and giant coolers filled with food and beer, a perfect summer party that lasted past dusk and into the night. A half moon had come up, lighting a silver path across the ocean. They had walked far away from the others, talking and when he took her hand in his, it was like they were meant to be.
Everyone says their love affairs are “meant to be” but Shelly and Ben really did seem to start out very—there was no other word for it—lucky. For example, within minutes of talking they learned that they were both off of work for the whole week. After that first week, it was easy. He was on the road a lot but when he was in town they were inseparable.
He worked hard. He’d grown up poor. So had Shelly. He was determined never to let his family go without. They both understood what it meant to endlessly want what you couldn’t have. To measure yourself by all those extras you had to give up just for the basics. And there was something else. Ben’s father had been a drinker. Ben never used the word alcoholic. He only referred to his father as “that poor slob.”
Shelly closed her eyes and swirled water around herself. She could see Ben’s face the first time she asked about his family. At first he looked guarded, like he didn’t trust her. Then he looked sad and then he got so angry that Shelly had been frightened.
“Why do you want to know about that poor slob?” he’d been agitated and his voice rose in a way that had worried Shelly. She had told him to calm down, that it was a perfectly normal question between two people who were in a relationship.
He did calm down. Months later he brought it up again. “He was killed in a car accident when I was a senior in college.”
Before Shelly could express the regret that is expected in such cases, Ben held up his hand as if to say “No, don’t say it.” Instead of letting her talk he said, in one short sentence that was meant to close the topic forever, “He was drunk; at least he didn’t take anyone with him.”
Thinking about it now, Shelly could understand why Ben had insisted she go to GA. She let the water out of the tub and, just as she slipped into a luxuriously thick robe that enveloped her like a lover, her cell phone dinged. She picked it up and read a text from Ben. It said: calld & calld u nvr pkd up need 2 talk.
Instead of answering, Shelly walked to a large ornate desk where a gift basket had been placed. She now poked around in it to see what they’d provided. Inside was a gift certificate to the beauty salon for a hair styling and manicure. Just as she smiled and looked down at her ragged nails there was a knock at her door.
Chapter Thirteen
Shelly answered the door cradling the champagne magnum the hotel had given her, which was a Moet, at three fifty a bottle. They didn’t scrimp on anything in Vegas, it seemed. One look at the suite they’d put Shelly in confirmed that.
“Joe?” She looked stunned to see him. “What are you doing here? This is weird. And how did you know which was my room? And you again?” She pointed to Alanna with her free hand.
“Shelly, we have to talk,” Joe began.
“We? Who is we?”
“This is Alanna. She and I are … ” but Shelly didn’t let him finish.
“I know who she is. We got to know each other real well on the plane.” This was only partly true since Shelly had done all the talking.
“Well I don’t have time to talk. I’ve got to clean up and change and get down to the casino. Have you seen it? I haven’t, but based on this suite they gave me, I bet it’s really great. Isn’t this gorgeous? I guess I should thank you for all this. If you hadn’t made me buy that ticket with my last dollar. And first I have to visit the beauty parlor. See?” She held up the certificate, which was a deep pink, and finally took a breath.
Joe held up his hand to keep her from starting again.
“There really are some things we need to get straight about winning this lottery ticket, Shelly. Some things you need to know. It’s not exactly what it seems. Can we come in?”
A suspicious look crossed Shelly’s face and her shoulders slumped a bit. She let the champagne bottle release from the crook of her arm and turned away from the door, allowing Joe and Alanna to follow her. She stuck the champagne bottle in a bucket of ice the bellmen had placed next to the bar and walked over to one of the floor to ceiling glass panels that looked out to the dazzling view of the city and the Bellagio fountain.
“I knew it was too good to be true. I knew there had to be a catch.” She sighed and plunked down on a cushy stuffed chair. “So what do I have to do? Entertain some bigwig?” She made her classic air quotes as she said the word entertain. “Because I may be poor and in debt but I don’t do that sort of thing. What do I owe you for the plane fare and the car from the airport? I’ll pay it all back. It may take some time but I will.”
“It’s nothing like that,” Alanna assured her.
“Oh Lord, no,” said Joe.
“Well who are you people then? How do you know each other and what do you want with me? I’m nobody. I don’t have any money and I can’t do anything for you.” She pushed up from the chair and stood uncertainly as if she didn’t know whether to walk out or stay put. She felt a little embarrassed to be talking to them in a robe.
“I think you’d better sit back down to hear what we have to tell you.” Alanna waved toward the chair and sat down on another one facing her. She smiled and nodded to Joe to take a seat as well but he stood where he was. The look on his face, still the defense attorney, said: “Okay, make your case and make it good.”
“This is going to be hard for you to accept,” Alanna began. “See, Joe and I,” she stopped. This was going to be harder to explain than she’d thought but then Joe broke in.
“We’ve been assigned to give you a special gift.” He stopped and looked from Shelly to Alanna. That hardly covered the subject but it was a start.
“That’s right. A gift. And we’re here to help you use that gift.” Alanna echoed.
“You’re going to help me gamble?” Shelly’s tone said it all. “I already know how to do that.” She sat quietly for a minute and then, just as Joe started to speak, she said, “Oh I get it. I’m the patsy, huh? You guys have some kind of counting system and you’ve been banned from the casinos so you need someone to lay bets for you. Well you can forget it. I’ll do my own gambling with my own chips and keep all the winnings. I don’t need any help from you and I’m not splitting anything with you.” She stood up and brushed the wrinkles from the plush robe.
“What if you lose?” Alanna asked quietly.
“Yes,” Joe echoed. “You seem to lose pretty often. Matter of fact, most people do.”
“But this is different,” Shelly shook her head. “This time I’m going to win. I don’t need you two for that.”
“And you don’t want to know how you got that ticket and why we’re here? It has nothing to do with gambling. Really,” Alanna said.
“So you don’t
want a piece of the action?”
Joe and Alanna both shook their heads. Shelly looked from one to the other. They could see she was trying to figure out what was going on but she couldn’t quite get her mind around the situation.
“Where did you come from anyway?” This was directed at Joe. “You weren’t on that plane.”
“Sit down, Shelly,” Joe told her. And this time she did.
*****
Alanna thought they hadn’t told Shelly enough. Joe thought they had explained just the right amount, that it was too soon to give her more than the essential fact that she had been granted a wish. Who, what, when, where, and how could come later.
“She’s going to start thinking we’ll give her anything and everything she wants,” Alanna argued.
“She’ll find out soon enough. Anyway we’re not even sure how much we can do for her, are we?”
They had manifested near a fountain somewhere. It was inside but they had no idea if it was inside a hotel or a promenade or part of a casino complex. Las Vegas was almost as confusing as Transition.
“I wish we could just get set down somewhere normal,” Alanna said. “I’ve never felt so off kilter.”
They sat down in chairs by the fountain surrounded by potted trees and banks of flowers. The scent was pleasant and the sound of the water soothing.
“Maybe after we grant enough wishes, we’ll move on. But you want to get back to life.”
“Don’t you?” Joe sounded surprised.
“I don’t know.”
At that moment a scrap of littered paper blew against Joe’s foot and stuck there. He reached down absently to pull it off but it stuck to his hand so he tried to get it loose by flicking his hand. When it wouldn’t detach, Alanna reached out and pulled it away.
Shelly's Second Chance (The Wish Granters, Book One) Page 5