The last game

by Fernando Trujillo

  “No screaming.” The girl said suddenly. “Play, Zeta wants to play."

  “I´d calm down if I was you.” Alvaro warned Hector. “Or you know what’ll happen.”

  Hector looked through him as if he wasn´t there. “What, eh? What’s going to happen to me?”

  “Let him go.” Dante said as if he was enjoying himself. “We can watch how the girl puts the rag and bone man in his place. It´ll be the most fun I´ve had so far tonight.”

  “Just cool it.” Judith advised Hector. “The girl will kill you.”

  Hector pushed the chair back and stood up. Zeta blocked the path between him and the girl, the room reverberating with the sound of his growling. But Hector ignored the dog as if he wasn´t even there, and leaning on the table and looking straight at Judith, he said. “I´ve come here for this you fools. My only purpose is to leave with her.” He said nodding at the girl.

  * * * * *

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  That was the answer to the great mystery. Alvaro cursed himself for not having figured it out when Hector had told his story. He was bent on committing suicide, it all fell into place easily now. The imperturbable way that he´d done everything. He´d worked it all out before he´d come. The world meant nothing to him anymore.

  “Then, you weren’t bluffing before. You wanted to lose.” Alvaro said.

  “You should´ve been a detective.” Hector said disgusted, as he sat down again. “I should´ve told you straight to your face. I didn´t know you were such bad players. I´ve only played three games my whole life.”

  “If you want to give me my chips back, I´d be more than happy to take them off your hands.” Dante said.

  “I wouldn´t even give one of the days that´s left to me. You could have won them playing, but now you´ve put me in an uncomfortable position.”

  “And what position is that?” Judith asked. “If you want to kill yourself I don´t see what the problem is. I don´t know why you haven´t done it already.”

  Alvaro wanted to hear the answer to that question too.

  “I wanted to meet her first.” Hector explained looking at the girl. “To see her in this world before I go to hers. I thought by coming here I could give my time to someone who deserved it better. I was about to kill myself when the opportunity of coming here came up. It didn´t occur to me that death would come in the form of a girl. I suppose I was hoping to see something in her that would weaken my determination, bring back the old desire to live. But that hasn´t happened.”

  “And the uncomfortable position that you referred to before.” Alvaro enquired.

  “The chips.” Hector said. “I was trying to decide who to give them to, who deserves my two years the most. The only thing I´ve got clear is that evil old Dante here won´t even get a day.”

  “You´re not offending me, street bum.” Dante said with a cynical smile on his face. “I applaud your decision to end your disgusting life. Although being the filthy bum you are, I don´t know if the girl would want to take you with her. I wouldn´t if I was her.”

  “It should be you, Judith.” Hector said, ignoring Dante. “But the truth is that it horrifies me that a mother would sit down at this table in the first place If you lose you´ll die, and your son won´t ever see the light of day. I can see where you´re heading. You want these two years which will give you a total of eight. You could spend all of that with your son. The idea´s very noble, it´s probably the best reason why anyone would want to sit at this table. The only problem is that you´ve put your son´s life on the line by coming here.”

  “You don´t know anything about me or my son.” Judith replied, sobbing.

  Alvaro was the only one there who knew what she was talking about, but he didn´t say anything.

  “Then there´s the doctor.” Hector said, turning his attention to Alvaro. “He appears to be a great person who worries about everyone else. But I don´t swallow it. If it was like that, he wouldn´t be sitting at this table of death here fighting to rob a little more time from the life of a pregnant woman he fancies, what a joke that is. No, he´s up to something. And I don´t know what it is. And quite frankly, I don´t care either. Maybe, Dante´s guess was close to the bone.”

  Alvaro was about to reply but Dante beat him to it.

  “What a boring dissertation. Why don´t we split your chips and you throw yourself through the window? I´m sure that wouldn´t bother the girl.”

  “I´ll play it my way.” Hector said, staring at Dante. “Keep on talking like this old man. I couldn´t hate you any more than I already do.”

  “As if any of that matters now.” Dante said. “You all become mystics when the end´s near. But you´re nothing more than garbage, my friends. It´s easier for you to project your hate on me because of the four headlines you´ve read. It makes you feel better thinking I´m the devil and everybody else are angels. Thousands of people work for me. Those people´s families are all well fed. More than you can imagine. You´re a pitiful lot: a man bent on killing himself, a baby killer and a loser who´s failed in life and dragged his family down with him. Cancer was going to eat me away in two years, that´s why I hope to win and live six years longer. Or I´ll take you out so that you don´t have to rot anymore in your own miserable lives.”

  “You´re the one who deserves to die.” Judith pronounced. “If justice is served you´ll lose. The girl should throw you off this table."

  “But she won´t.” Dante observed. “Because your opinion doesn´t matter to her. Just in case you haven´t noticed, the only thing that matters here is the cards. Whoever wins the game wins another eight years of life. It´s got nothing to do with who you proclaim to be the most deserving."

  “That´s the first time I´ve agreed with this lunatic.” Hector said. “It´s very clear what the girl lets happen. Death is neutral, it doesn´t enter into assessments. If that was the case, whoever she wanted to live would, but it doesn´t work like that. We´ve been given the chance to play for time. She´s not going to intervene on anyone´s behalf. The cards decide who wins. Except in my case, I´ve made the decision myself.”

  No one said anything for a while. Alvaro thought what the two men had said through. Of course, the girl was neutral, he agreed with that. She´d even allowed cheating at the table. But what Judith had said disturbed him. He´d never considered that someone could deserve to win. It didn´t make him feel any better when he realized that he thought like Dante. It had nothing to do with good or evil. But he was wondering now if this was correct. Should the best person win, or the best player? He wasn´t sure. Either way he’d keep on cheating. It improved the odds of winning.

  “Do you like that?” the girl asked.

  She was looking at all of them with a big smile on her face, her ponytails bouncing on both sides of her head. On the table in front of her she´d built something extraordinary: a pyramid with a tennis ball perched on top, with a rectangular block on top of that and a star balancing on the summit.

  “Impressive.” Alvaro said. “Why doesn´t it fall? It should but it´s as solid as a rock.”

  “It´s the best balancing act I´ve ever seen.” Hector said, fascinated.

  Judith was the first to get its meaning.

  “She´s giving us the answer to our conversation: equilibrium! Death is going to take us and it isn´t going to alter its duration. Keeping everything aligned gives us a little margin to keep some things going and cut others back. That´s what her pyramid is telling us.

  “And she can´t say that?” Dante protested. “She speaks, we listen. What´s the point of this strange way of expressing herself?”

  “It´s death´s way of speaking.” Judith said. “We can´t understand why it´s like that. Just like we can´t know why she´s allowing us to play with the rest of our lives. But there must be a good reason. It´s just that we can´t see it.”

  “Of course, Dante for one can´t. That doesn´t surprise you, does it?” Hector said, looking at Judith.

  “Smart bastard.” Dante said. “
Why don´t you explain it then, if you´re so clever?”

  Hector scratched his chin. “I don´t know that I can do that exactly. But I think she´s looking to take short cuts. She wants to be more direct.”

  “I don´t follow you. Spit it out.”

  “We could have said that Death is only a question of equilibrium in any moment of a lucid conversation and maybe that observation would have simply been forgotten later on. But forming this pile of blocks in the way she has, grabbed our attention in a deeper way.”

  Alvaro felt a stab of pity for Hector. He was intelligent with a gift for seeing things from a different angle. But that counted for nothing in his own mind. He wanted to commit suicide!

  “You mean we´ll never forget the message she´s just sent us?”

  Hector nodded without looking at Alvaro. “Do you think you´ll ever forget that pyramid while you´re still alive?”

  “No, I won´t.” Alvaro agreed.

  “And the girl and her shadow? Or that demon of a dog of hers?”

  Alvaro nodded. “No, they’re locked into my memory bank, too.”

  Hector went on with more self-assurance. “If she´d put the message in words, the troglodyte over there would probably have understood. But he would have forgotten it, like us.”

  “What a load of crap!” Dante objected. “All this in the name of being original, is that it? You´re simplifying it too much. It´s all about being blunt. This girl named Death, won´t ever repeat this message again. You´re forgetting that we don’t have much longer to live. Or at least three of us don´t. Do you think all of this never-to-be-forgotten business makes any difference to those who already have one foot in the grave? Your theory´s far too elaborate. As far as I´m concerned it´d be a whole lot easier to put everything into words instead of sending fucking messages via that mutt over there.”

  Dante paused and looked at the dog than ran his eye around the table. Everyone was listening to him. “She´s got another reason for doing this. As far as I´m concerned she´s just having fun at our expense. It must be breaking her up inside, all the more so seeing the rubbish that’s been going on.”

  “It´s possible. We´ll never know for sure. And really it doesn´t matter. Nothing does.”

  Alvaro was going to refute that last sentence, but thought better of it. He couldn´t convince anyone who was determined to die, and for better or worse the time had come to finish all this. It was his turn to deal the cards and the moment he’d been preparing for had arrived. A chill ran up his spine.

  To achieve his aim he needed Judith to stay in the game, so he arranged the cards to give her an excellent hand: four kings. He gave Dante a lower set of four and Hector three of a kind. He didn´t want to leave him out, now that he wanted to lose. He distracted them with a comment about the girl and changed the pack of cards without them realizing it. Then he began to deal.

  “I´ll kick things off with a little week nothing more.” Dante said.

  Judith and Hector equaled the bet and Alvaro did the same. It was better to raise later on. They discarded as was to be expected. The preparation was perfect and everything was going well. It was all about not doing anything stupid and staying calm. He could pick the pace up later.

  “How about another week to heat things up a bit.” Dante said.

  “Make that a month.” Judith countered.

  Hector accepted the bet. The game was moving under its own steam. Alvaro decided to bet, but modestly. “Because it´s the first time the four of us have played a hand together I´ll raise it to two months.”

  “Very good, Doc.” Dante said approvingly. “You want us to feel comfortable, don´t you? There´s no need to sound so pleasant. The truth is you make me sick and it´s better to speak straight with those you’re trying to kill. I’ll see this miserable bet of yours and raise it six months. Let´s see if you sound so friendly the next time you open your mouth.”

  “It´s my turn first.” Judith interrupted. “And I´m going to accept that bet. I´d be more than happy to finish up with six of your months.”

  Alvaro would have preferred Judith to have raised the bet, but even with the hand he´d dealt her she was cautious. At least she was still in the game. It was impossible to fold with four kings.

  “I bet the lot.” Hector said. “There you´ve got everything I´ve got left. I don´t have any need for chips now.”

  He threw the cards down and leaned back on the chair. Alvaro studied him with curiosity. For someone who was determined to die he was as cool as a cucumber. But he´d put all he had down. That was unexpected. Now Alvaro’s straight flush would wipe them off the table and he´d be the winner, thanks to cheating. But who’s perfect?

  “Well, I´m not going to back down now. I´m in with the lot too.” Alvaro said.

  It was a certain bet that Dante would do the same. Alvaro had analyzed everything very well and knew the old businessman wouldn´t drop out now with four of a kind in his hand.

  “If you´re in, Doc, then so am I.” Dante confirmed. “There´s all my chips, losers. Now there´s only you left, princess.”

  Judith took her time. The hands that were holding her cards were shaking as she scrutinized her hand. “It looks like this is the last hand. I´ll see you too.”

  As soon as he heard those words Alvaro knew that it was too late. A fraction of a second before he was going to warn Judith not to bet. She´d come in quicker than he thought. Too quick. No words or looks had been exchanged between them and now she´d fallen into the trap just like the rest.

  “I don´t see any point in waiting.” She said, spreading her cards on the table. “Four kings.”

  Dante gasped. His stared ahead agape, tugging at the little hair left on his head. “That´s impossible. It´s got to be a mistake.” He shouted sweeping the cards off the table onto the floor.

  “Cool it, you glorified gangster.” Hector said. “Lose gracefully. Behave yourself, you imbecile! Or do you want the mutt to remind you of your table manners? That´d be a good show to finish all this off.”

  Dante leaned on the table. He looked dizzy. The dog was right beside him, staring.

  “That means there’s only the two of us left.” Judith said. “What’ve you got?”

  A stab of fear ran thought Alvaro. The room was spinning around him. Everything had finished, the only thing he had to do was show his cards. But he didn’t want to do that. He wanted something to happen, anything that could postpone the end of Judith’s life.

  He should have been feeling good. He’d prepared everything carefully, had practiced the sleight of hand relentlessly for weeks. Everything had gone perfectly. Now, he had won six more years of life. And his brother was rich. Everything had come to a beautiful end.

  The only thing he hadn’t allowed for, was feeling as low as he’d ever felt in his life. He didn’t want to take Judith’s life from her, or the baby she was carrying, either. What happened to Dante or Hector meant nothing to him, but Judith? He couldn’t look her in the eyes. She was the only one at the table who deserved to live. How could he take a pregnant woman’s life?

  He could feel the change inside him. How was he going to enjoy another eight years of living, knowing that he had to kill her first? He’d never forget Judith, her memory would haunt him for the rest of his life.

  “Congratulations, you’ve won!” He said, mixing his winning hand with the other cards on the table so that no one would see what he had.

  An enormous smile covered Judith’s face. Alvaro felt relieved, and even allowing for what was coming, happy. He didn’t know why, but a strange sense of satisfaction was running through his body. He’d done the right thing, there was no remorse. Without any shadow of a doubt, it was the best of all possible outcomes.

  “That’s all I needed to see” Dante said, dejectedly “You look happy. I knew you were an idiot, doctor. Well, what does that matter now? We’re all in the same boat. About to…"

  “Shut up, for once in your life!” Alvaro shouted. “I’m h
appy that she’s won. Yes, she’s going to be a mother and she deserves to keep on living.”

  “Look how stupid you are. You’re that happy that you’re almost drooling. She decided to play even though she’s pregnant. She could’ve just as easily stayed at home. She’s no different to anyone else here, leaving the stinkpot over there out, that is.”

  “That’s a lie I’m nothing like you; or Hector, who doesn’t care about anything or anyone.”

  Hector stared daggers at Alvaro.

  “That’s it. You think you’re better than us” Dante said amused “Isn’t that right doctor?”

  “Better than you? That wouldn’t be too hard.”

  “Well, I know that you’re not.” Hector said coldly.

  “What do you know about me?” Alvaro scoffed.

  “More than you think.” Hector replied. “You only think you’re better because of your sacrifice.”

  “What sacrifice?” Dante asked, suddenly interested.

  “You knew?” Alvaro asked, perplexed.

  “Knew what? Damn it!” Dante demanded to know looking at the other two men.

  Hector was nodding slowly. “From the first time you beat Dante.”

  Dante was getting desperate, he didn’t understand, and that was making him furious. “Why don’t you tell me what you’re talking about or I swear I’ll…”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” Alvaro asked Hector.

  “I told you that the game didn’t matter to me.”

  Dante slammed his fist down on the table. “Spit it out, you bastard!”

  “The doctor thinks he’s better than us because he gave the game to Judith on a plate. He’d already won it.”

  “And how did you know that, stinkpot?”

  “Because I saw him cheat”

  “What?” Dante snapped, his face a grotesque mask.

  Hector´s words had started a raging fire in his already cinder dry brain. “I don´t know which one of the two of you I detest the most? You, a filthy suicidal maniac, or this rotten cheat sitting across the table. What a joke, you giving me moral lectures. I can only hope I get to see you in hell, because you´ll get it all back then.”