Heaven Painted as a Poker Chip

by Smith, Dean Wesley

  Jewel nodded and sat back, doing her best to remember her classes on the nerves and the brain. After a moment she nodded. “I’m going to need to test it.”

  She motioned for Tommy to come with her.

  “Stand guard for us,” Tommy said to K.J. and he nodded, looking puzzled.

  She and Tommy both climbed inside a middle-aged man two booths over. She instantly knew his name was Hank and his wife’s name was Bobbie and they had been married for thirty-five years since high school. He loved her and she clearly loved him, but their sex life had pretty much vanished. Right now he was excited about getting to the slot machines.

  She said to Tommy, “Can you hear me?” Even though they were both inside another person, she felt like that might be easier if he could hear her.

  “I can,” his words came back strong and surprised.

  “Get small and follow me into dear Hank’s brain here,” she said.

  She felt like she was in a bad science fiction movie, moving up through Stan’s neck and into his head. She then described to Tommy in as clear a non-medical language as she could an area of Hank’s brain.

  “I see it,” he said.

  “I’m going to try to change Hank’s thinking,” Jewel said, “that Bobbie is looking hot and he wants to make mad love to her before hitting the slot machines.”

  “And that needs to be focused into that area?”

  “It does,” she said. “I’m going to make Hank here think of intense desire while in Vegas for Bobbie.”

  She focused at the area of Hank’s mind, commanding over and over that he find Bobbie a sex goddess.

  Suddenly thoughts of Bobbie naked poured through Hank’s mind, memories, lustful moments of Bobbie riding Hank like he was a bucking bull in a bar.

  Thirty years of sexual images poured to the surface of Hank’s mind and he found himself dropping the fork and panting slightly

  “Oh, my,” Tommy said, laughing. “Let’s get out of here.”

  They both left as Bobbie looked worriedly at Hank. “Are you all right, dear?”

  “Just thinking you are really hot-looking right now,” Hank said. “Remember that time in the back of the Chrysler?”

  Bobbie blushed and said, “Hush.”

  “How about we head back to the room after breakfast and see if we can pretend we’re in that back seat again.”

  “I don’t know,” Bobbie said.

  “Let me see if I can help the situation along a little,” Tommy said.

  He vanished inside of Bobbie.

  “How about we pretend we are in that tent on the desert, remember the tent?” Hank said. “We could pile up the blankets and pretend it’s a tent.”

  Suddenly Bobbie smiled and looked at Hank as Tommy appeared out of her. “You done with that breakfast yet?”

  “Totally done,” Hank said, tossing his napkin onto the table and moving over and kissing Bobbie like they were on a first date.

  And she kissed him back.

  “So what was the point of all that?” K.J. asked as she and Tommy slid into the booth, both laughing.

  “I’m going to plant in the senator’s mind thoughts that will cause extreme pain,” Tommy said, smiling at K.J., “every time the senator even thinks of ever having sex again. With anyone.”

  “And you could put it in his mind that if he even thinks about a young girl or boy,” Jewel said, smiling at Tommy, “his penis will feel like it’s on fire. You could even make him believe his penis is always dripping pus, even though it wouldn’t be.”

  “Perfect,” K.J. said, laughing. “Remind me to never let you two in my mind.”

  “Sorry you have to go back into the senator’s mind again,” Jewel said, looking at Tommy.

  He nodded. “I don’t mind to do something like this.”

  Then Jewel turned to K.J. “Can you tell if other Brigade members have arrived in town.”

  “I can,” K.J. said. “And you two are shielded perfectly so they would never find you again if they did show up.”

  “Just keep watch,” Jewel said.

  “It’s nine in the morning,” K.J. said. “We have eight hours, since the senator is supposed to be found dead with the girl around six, and she is supposed to have the meeting with him at five.”

  “I’ve got a plan,” Jewel said, “and I think we need to get moving on it to make sure the event doesn’t come close to happening.”

  There was no way on this earth, or in this ghost realm, that she was going to let that girl get near the senator in that suite.

  Period.

  FORTY-TWO

  ONE HOUR LATER, Tommy walked into a meeting in a fancy ballroom in the convention area of the Golden Nugget. The center was on the second and third floors in the older wing of the hotel, but the place looked completely remodeled with deep carpets, high ceilings, lots of mirrors and glittering walls, and roman-like pillars along halls.

  The meeting the senator was sitting in had nine people, four women, five men, around a large oak table with deep leather chairs. A ring of people sat in chairs against the wall behind each person at the table, clearly assistants taking notes.

  Tommy really didn’t want to go into the man’s head again, but at this point, he had no choice if they were going to save young girls’ lives. He had to stop this monster.

  Jewel had headed to the middle school to find Connie Benz. Jewel was going to climb inside her. K.J. was going to signal Tommy when Jewel was securely in place with Connie.

  Tommy stood out of the way, listening but not caring as a couple of the people in the meeting droned on about something.

  Suddenly K.J. appeared near Tommy.

  “Jewel is in place with Connie. Not sure how she’s going to handle being with a middle school young girl.”

  “She used to be one,” Tommy said, smiling. “She should do fine.”

  “And there are two Brigade soldiers heading this way from LA,” K.J. said. “They will be here in two hours.”

  Tommy took a deep breath. “This had better be long done by then.”

  “Agree,” K.J. said. “Good luck in that cesspool of a mind.”

  “Thanks,” Tommy said, taking a deep breath and heading for the senator.

  He merged into him and again found himself almost too disgusted to think. K.J had been right, this was like wading into a cesspool.

  And as far as this meeting was concerned, the only important thing to the Senator was who could pay him the most under the table.

  Tommy went into the senator’s mind and then focused on the area Jewel had shown him in Hank’s brain.

  Tommy focused the idea that any sexual thought would cause extreme pain in his groin. Stinging pain.

  And then he focused the idea that with even the slightest bit of sexual thought about anyone, his penis would feel like it was dripping hot, acid pus far worse than any urinary tract infection.

  Tommy found that the senator had had two of those, and took those thoughts and magnified them, over and over.

  And just looking at a young girl made it even worse.

  He put the image in the senator’s mind that just by looking at a young woman, pus would drip down his legs and stain his pants.

  After five minutes, Tommy felt like he had the images and feelings planted firmly, but he needed to test it just a little.

  He made the senator look at one of the woman sitting at the table.

  Extreme pain doubled the senator over and he coughed, trying to catch his breath.

  That stopped the meeting as the senator’s aides ran to his side and the man next to the senator offered him a glass of water from the table.

  Tommy watched as the pain cleared and the senator nodded. “I’m fine.”

  He sat sipping on the water, worried about what had just happened to him.

  Tommy went back to work, giving the senator the idea that he needed to go to the middle school to talk with students in one hour. The same middle school Connie Benz, his intended victim was at.


  Jewel’s idea was that instead of the senator cancelling the meeting, or having Connie get sick and not be able to go, it would be better to watch the senator get sick. That way the young girl would have a reason why a powerful senator didn’t meet with her and others her age, even though there were to be no others.

  She would be disappointed, but she would take the positive from it that she had been picked, not ever knowing how close she had come to having her entire life destroyed by a monster.

  So Tommy planted the seeds of the coming meeting.

  Then Tommy left the senator’s mind and went into the mind of the young man who clearly was his assistant.

  The guy’s name was Fig and he was gay and hated the senator, but had ambitions in Washington. He was a good guy who had looked the other way a few too many times. He had no idea the senator was a pedophile and might have killed the senator himself if he discovered.

  Tommy planted in his mind that the senator had the don’t-miss appointment at the school to drop in and talk with Connie Benz’s class in one hour.

  Then Tommy left and moved over beside K.J.

  “You all right?” K.J. asked.

  Tommy nodded. He would be better as soon as a bunch of the senator’s memories faded.

  “We need to test this again,” Tommy said. “We can’t let this pedophile near kids unless he is fully under control.”

  “Agree,” K.J. said. “That first test was damn funny if you ask me.”

  “The pain was very, very real to the senator.”

  “Good,” K.J. said. Then he pointed to a very young assistant to one side of the room in a short skirt. “How about I have her flash her underwear at the senator, see what happens.”

  Tommy nodded. “I’d love to watch this from the outside.”

  K.J. walked around the table and then blended into the young girl. After a moment she shifted so that her legs were facing the senator.

  And then, as he looked up at her as he was taking a drink of water, she opened her legs for just a little too long before crossing them.

  The reaction was spectacular as far as Tommy was concerned. And he wished Jewel were here to see it.

  The senator spit water all over the table, grabbed his crotch and shouted and screamed in pain.

  That brought everyone in the room to their feet and backing away.

  The senator’s two assistants grabbed him by the arms and moved him, bent over and holding his crotch, toward the door quickly.

  K.J. appeared beside Tommy, watching as the senator left. “Looks like you have just made the rest of the senator’s life a very painful and sex-less experience.”

  Tommy just nodded. It was the least he could do to that monster.

  Pain.

  Lots and lots of pain was exactly what the senator deserved, considering the pain he had inflicted on young girls over the years.

  FORTY-THREE

  JEWEL HAD DECIDED that staying inside Connie Benz’s head for too long was just too dangerous to Connie. Jewel was afraid she might plant a stray thought or emotion that would change Connie’s life.

  Besides, she remembered being a young teenage girl just out of puberty. She didn’t want to go back there. So she had dipped into Connie’s head for a few minutes, then got out.

  She stood near the back wall of the classroom, listening and watching the reactions of the kids in the room to the lesson. Some were bored and paying no attention at all to the math lesson, others were taking notes. Connie, who had on a bright blue skirt, a white blouse, and matching blue shoes was taking notes.

  Jewel had no idea that in very few years, Connie was going to be stunning looking, with pure white skin, long brown hair, and a blossoming figure.

  For the short few minutes that Jewel had been inside Connie’s head, she saw just how excited she was that the senator had invited her to the special meeting. Her parents were going to go with her and wait in the buffet until the meeting was over.

  From everything Connie and her parents had been told, two teachers and six students would be meeting with the senator from different schools around the town to ask him questions about being a senator and about living a life in politics.

  On the surface it sounded wonderful for a selected group of young kids. Connie and her parents had no idea that a true evil monster was lurking, waiting for her.

  Jewel had seen her share of abused children when working in Seattle. It was never pretty or easy. And every one of them had torn her heart out.

  One of the older doctors noticed how distraught Jewel had been about one young girl pulled from an abusive household and brought to the hospital for treatment of injuries. The doctor had said to Jewel. “It never gets easier. And you never grow hardened to it, unlike some things around here.”

  “Good,” was all Jewel could say.

  After almost an hour of watching, K.J. appeared beside Jewel.

  “How did it go?” she asked.

  K.J. smiled. “Spectacular. Tommy will tell you all about it later. Right now I have two things to tell you.”

  Jewel turned to look at K.J., now suddenly worried.

  “Two more Brigade men are on their way from LA and will be here in just over an hour.”

  She didn’t like the sound of that at all.

  “The second thing is that the senator is on his way here. About ten minutes out. From what I understand about what Tommy did to the senator, he’ll be in the hospital by the time he leaves here.”

  “I like the sounds of that,” Jewel said. “Where’s Tommy?”

  “Riding with the senator and his assistants, making sure they keep this appointment,” K.J. said. “I’m going back to help him now.”

  K.J. vanished.

  Jewel stood, making herself breathe evenly, clearing her mind of as many worries and thoughts as she could.

  Then she moved over and went back inside Connie Benz, making herself very small and only seeing and hearing and thinking what Connie thought.

  Two minutes later there was a commotion at the door and the principal of the school, a balding man of about fifty in a button-down brown sweater walked in, followed by the senator and his two aides.

  The senator was keeping his eye on the principal while the principal went on about how honored they were for the senator to be there.

  Jewel could tell that Connie was so excited, she could hardly breathe. A real US senator was standing in their classroom.

  Finally the introduction was over and the senator, with a smile in his pasty-white faced turned to look at the class.

  Jewel kept her mind contained, not letting any thought leak out to the young girl she was inside.

  The senator looked at a couple of the kids. Then he started to speak as his face got whiter and whiter.

  Jewel stepped quickly out of Connie. She was in no danger now.

  “Over here,” Tommy said.

  He and K.J. were standing in the back of the room. She moved over to stand beside Tommy and hold his hand.

  “Watch this,” Tommy said.

  Then the senator just stopped speaking.

  The room was deathly silent as every child waited for the senator to start talking again.

  He looked around at the classroom full of children, and then bent over and screamed, before grabbing his crotch and passing out on the floor.

  “Call 911,” one of the assistants said.

  “Everyone, file out the back door of the classroom please,” the teacher’s voice came in strong and commanding over the commotion.

  The children did as they were told and Connie was with them.

  “We need to watch her for the rest of the day,” Jewel said. “Just to make sure.”

  “Agree,” Tommy said, smiling and laughing.

  “So besides what we talked about,” Jewel said, facing Tommy, “what else did you do to the senator?”

  Tommy laughed. “You mean besides the extreme pain in the groin and feeling like he has the world’s worst urinary tract infection that is dripping
pus every time he thinks about sex?”

  “Yeah?” she asked. “What more did you do?”

  “Made it so that every time he looked at anyone under 18, period, boy or girl, he would see a skeleton face.”

  “So he was looking at a classroom of skeleton faces?” K.J. asked.

  Tommy nodded.

  “I really love you two,” K.J. said before breaking into laughter so hard, Jewel was afraid the poor little guy would hurt himself.

  Jewel loved that Tommy had thought of that. Perfect and wonderful, just what a monster deserved for the rest of his life.

  She moved over and kissed Tommy. “I like how you think.”

  “And I like what that kiss does to me,” Tommy said, giving her that smile that could melt her in half before kissing her back.

  “You heterosexuals make it clear why the population is overcrowded,” K.J. said, shaking his head. “I’m going to go talk with Aeon, see if this event, this mission is over.”

  “We’ll keep an eye on Connie,” Jewel said. “Just in case.”

  K.J. nodded and vanished.

  In the front of the now empty classroom, the senator was moaning and holding his crotch. And from what Jewel could tell, he had peed himself.

  Outside, the sirens of an ambulance could be heard. Jewel just hoped the senator got some really attractive and sexy nurses.

  It would serve the bastard right.

  FORTY-FOUR

  JEWEL AND TOMMY stuck with Connie for the next hour, standing in the back of a classroom as a teacher discussed with the kids what had happened, that senators were human as well, and that they fell ill just as everyone did at times.

  Tommy was glad the teacher was putting it that way, making leaders real people to this group of kids. A good lesson to have.

  Jewel ducked inside of Connie just for a moment, then reported back to him that Connie was all right, just disappointed.

  “This will be a great memory of the day the senator passed out in her school,” Jewel said.

  Tommy was glad to hear that.

  “All clear and your first mission is a complete success,” K.J. said, popping in. “The bosses above me are impressed.”