Power of the Cards

 I've been dealing my whole life. 

Dealing with people, places, things, situations, experiences. Just everything. 

But tonight was a type of deal that I wasn't expecting so late into my life. 

Let me set the scene for ya. 

    My name is -and I swear on my mother's grave, it is my real name- Jester Lester. My family thought it would be funny to give the middle child a ridiculous name. So yeah, that's my name. I'm the middle child of five, coming from a long line of gamblers and manipulators of gamblers. All of my family works within the casino industry for the majority of their life, starting at a young age. If we weren't able to run a table or collect the cash and chips, we were helping fix the slots or making sure the old hag at the buffet had everything she needed to keep her there. My younger siblings just graduated -well, that's a horrible but funny way to word it- into working the slots and collecting the money. My older siblings help my parents run the casinos all along the west half of the main street here. It's funny to have so much business that you run an entire part of city. But business is going well. 

    Me? Well, I run the poker tables some days, and other days I do some security work. Sometimes both. It's easy to do when your hands can do all of the labor and your mind gets to just watch people.

    Oh, and one other thing. Because of a particular genetic quirk in our family's bloodline, the middle children of a set of siblings -usually one, but sometimes it can be three of them depending on the size of the group- gain some supernatural abilities. As the middle child of five, I'm the only one who got this quirk. From what my dad told me, it's been passed down in our family ever since a king told a local witch person to curse us. But that "curse" has worked through so many centuries of our family that it is more neutral than harmful. And sometimes, it can actually be helpful.

Now that we've got that covered, let me tell you about last night.

   

    Last night, I had a full table, which is pretty normal. Most of it was the same old folk who show up every night for at least ten games. The rest were the tourist crowds that come in to see what is going on over here. Like I said, pretty normal. But as I was playing my role as the dealer and the house when I noticed a woman walk in with a bunch of suits behind her. It didn't look like the undercover suits that I see every night around 9pm when they come to make sure everyone who deserves to be roaming is roaming around. No, no. These guys were in luxury business suits with the cuff links and the watches and the chain necklaces. It didn't take long for their girl boss to saddle up to my table with a whole bag full of chips. Had to be a least a couple hundred grand in there. She waits for the game to finish before tapping in on the next one as I gather the deck and prepare the new deck. She studies all the old cronies around us. A couple of them were part of a tourist group that came in a couple hours ago; the rest were all regulars using their SSI as a nice bonus after their retirement check came in to pay the bills and feed their wives. She couldn't have been more than 30. She was dressed as if she was going to a noir-themed theater show: black strapless dress with the slit, black faux fur around her shoulders, cigar holder with a ... a Black N' Mild. I shake my head. What is with kids and Black N' Mild cigars these days?

    Anyway, she tapped in, so I dealt her a hand. She looked fairly amused with her starting hand. Not that I know why; new deck, obviously. Gotta keep things looking a little more fair. So I let my usuals place their bets. She throws down at least three times the largest bet on the table before her. All of my regulars give her the old man side glare. You know, the one that would mean, "Oh, look at this young hotshot of a whipper snapper. Probably using daddy's money." That look. But I shrug and let her lose it anyway. 

    But she doesn't lose it. In fact, she wins the hand. So we give her the bet money and go for another hand. She stays put and leans back to talk to one of the men behind her as I deal a new hand from a new deck. The same cycle. Bets, triple, win, chips. This goes on for a good hour. All of the regulars are all full of chuckles and "beginner's luck" comments. The tourists head back to their hotels for the night. Then the pattern went on for another hour. The regulars were all giving me the looks they give whenever they think someone is playing for the house. Mind you, no one ever plays for the house; that's just some joke that got passed around when my older siblings were dealing and the regulars would lose all their chips to one person. Then another hour passed and this girl had so many chips that she sent one of her little buddies to trade the chips back into cash. That's when I was getting suspicious myself. I waited until I was shuffling a new deck to whistle for one of my dad's buddies to come over. He works as a hand to the staff; pretty decent dude, despite working in a casino. 

    "What's going on?" He asks in my ear. I noticed my regulars laugh, but our winner giving me a narrow glance. 

    "Kinda sus about the girl. Can you go grab me my deck and maybe cover for me when she gets up to leave with her friends here?" I ask back. 

    He just nods and flashes one of his winning smiles at the girl. The girl smiles back. Man's got some sort of magic of his own. "Hey miss, you and your boys need a drink? Our dealer was just asking for one himself, but I couldn't let a little lady like you go without yourself."

    "I'll take one. My men like your house-brewed lager if you still have some." She laughs. It's that mix of a California airhead laugh and a "I am the power"/"girl boss" chuckle. I roll my eyes and deal out the hand. The regulars all start giving my guy a hard time for offering the lady but not their old wrinkly butts a drink. He jokes back and asks if they want seltzer water so they can leave without a trip in the ambulance, which always gets a good belly laugh. The girl doesn't seem as amused, but she's focused on the game now. My regulars throw some of their small stacks in. She sends in about six times the bigger bet this time. Nothing compared to the stack she's won, but definitely enough to make all the guys perk up and cough like someone just knocked a little air out of them. 

    The house finally bites back; the hand is won by one of my regulars. The girl sits up in alarm and concern, but grins as she slides her bet over to him with a classic "don't spend it all in once place" jokes. The guy laughs, but the rest are too busy celebrating with the arriving tray of drinks. The first thing he does is pass me my deck and my drink. I see the girl give me a suspicious look. She asks what I just got handed. Before my guy and I could even get a word out, one of the regulars says its my cigarette case and mentions I'll probably need to go on break soon. It's my classic lie; my card case looks like a cigarette case anyway. I slide the deck into my pocket and just nod while mentioning it might be a while before I need one. She asks if she could borrow one, but the table gives her trouble for smoking Black N' Mild before I can give an answer. She shuts up and takes her hand the moment I deal it. Another hour passes, this time with a more even fight for a win between the girl and the regulars. She doesn't have to pull any more chips though. She plays that entire hour and just keeps putting out a triple high bet. But in that time the regulars decide to get up and leave. She taps out as well and nods to her men to grab her chips. She thanks me for dealing her for the night. I nod back and tap my buddy in to deal for a while to his favorite group of late night regulars that usually come in too drunk to hold their cards right. 

    I use the back instead of the front path to follow her out of the tables and into the main lobby. I purposefully pass by her while pretending to fumble for my case. She notices and smiles at me. Her men are giving me that suspicious look. I nod back with my classic "just one of the crowd" shrugs while I motion with my case to the street outside. I stride out with a bit of a swaggering step as I let a card fall to the floor in an invisible space between two cashier windows. Most people walk by those windows on their way out; it's the perfect spot for laying down my special cards. I turn to the right toward a little smoking area decorated to look like an old-fashioned royal garden from across the water. Roses and hedges everywhere. A little sitting area with fancy stiff metal chairs and a few tables with the ashtrays in the middle. I sit down and wait while I pull a cigarette out from my inner shirt pocket and light it. 

    The information comes in pretty quickly on the inner screen of my card deck. The card I used -Six of Diamonds- gives me a good idea of who I'm working with. Not a name, but a mental notation: "House of Thorn and Speer." I laugh and kick my feet up on the table in the empty garden area. Of course it would be one of our competitors from the other side of town. Usually, they come to gamble at one of the more neutral casinos on our side when they need to talk to my parents. But this one isn't one of those. The one I'm working tonight is our most high-end, slightly devious ones. The folk that come here usually just want to waste money while looking good in suits; after all, suits are highly encouraged here to give the casino the air of old 1900s celebrity casino. So it's a little odd that someone from a competitor would just-

    The next bit of information nearly sends me crashing to the ground. It wasn't just anyone from House of Thorn and Speer; it was the eldest daughter and her bodyguards that were at my table. I wipe the ash off my sleeve after I snap back to real time. What the heck was she doing here? I get that sometimes the kids like to go out and cause trouble, but this was more than trouble. This was outright chaos. The kids of the Houses usually get told to stay out of the other territories unless they went out with a protective fake identity. But this chick was just out in the open;  it was obvious from how she dressed her bodyguards. I didn't want to call it out earlier. That would have caused a lot more trouble than I could handle on my own, curse or not. 

    "I thought you were just coming out for a cigarette." I hear a female voice say behind me. This time, I did fall out of my chair. I fake a stumble to fall and get back up. Now I get why the garden area was empty. 

    "I was. I just dragged it a little too long. Got ashed for my stupor." I laugh as I wipe my sleeve again.

    "No. You knew what I meant." She states while she glances down at my case. Was she right behind me the whole time? "You could have just asked me who I was. I would have told you."

    "And you would have scared everyone in the area." I come back, "Well, either scared or aroused. Or both. A lot of those old folks are-"

    "Let's not talk about that." She says. I look around for her bodyguards. Sure enough, their about two feet behind her, having a cigar themselves. "The thought of old people giving me lusty eyes make me want to vom."

    "Don't say I blame you." I rock on my heels and put my hands behind my back. This calls the card back into my case invisibly and lets me put my deck back into my vest so it can move back to its usually spot on my sleeve. Thank goodness this case also has it's own magic; Mom made sure of that.

    "But you." She gets up. "You I wouldn't mind seeing a gaze of desire from." She walks closer to me. Now I can smell her perfume; strong, musky, and definitely worth more money than it should be. "What's your name, dealer?"

    "Heh." I laugh while I run my hand through my hair. "That's not something I can just tell you, ma'am. I'm not supposed to-"

    "Call me ma'am again and you're going to get a heel to the nuts." She growls. I flatten my expression and shift my stance a little. "What?"

    "You know better than to come on competitor turf and threaten staff." I huff back. "You've got some nerve to talk like this is your part of town."

    "And you've got the nerve to act like I give a fuck." She fires at me. "I'm the eldest daughter. You know that from your little snooping around."

    "That doesn't mean anything here. Unless you are the actual competitive owner." I lean close. "And knowing how both families work, you're probably more of the going-to-spend-all-daddy's-money daughter. Since your brothers are probably working." She kicks her feet up to hit me, but I slide back so she can kick the air instead. She grumbles and I laugh. She goes to kick again, but I catch her leg on top of my arm instead. I didn't want to grab her, but I didn't want to let her have her way either. She staggers a little and one of the guys looks up to see me. He taps his buddy. They're definitely watching me now. "Now, if you don't mind, I only wanted one cigarette. I need to get back in." I drop her foot down and use my arm to stabilize her. The bodyguards come up to her and check to make sure I didn't grab her. "Don't worry, gentlemen. I didn't grab her. Just helped her stay on her feet. Well, foot first." I see her scowl. I give a melodramatic bow. "Now, I must say my farewell. As I said, I need to return to my table."

    "You didn't tell me your name, dealer." The girl crosses her arms.

    Seeing that her bodyguards would probably like to watch me indulge her, I decide to play a game and not let her win so easily. "Case. My name is Case."

    "Case. Interesting." She straightens up and holds out her hand for me to shake. "I am Ada. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you for hosting me." 

    I straighten up and put my hands together in another bow. "Forgive me, but I don't shake hands. I need to wash them after my little mess. But the pleasure was all mine, Ada. Thank you for coming by."

    She buys the bait and curtsies to me instead. "That's fair. I hope to see you around."

    "I hope so too." I lie. I wait for them to leave the area entirely before I pull the King of Spades from my deck and pass it through a slot in the door. I hear the communicator in my ear bring me what I need. "We have a problem, Dad."

    "So I noticed. Ada from the competitor's house decided to pay you a visit. Nice fibbing, by the way." I hear my dad from the other side of the earpiece. "I'll let her father know.  She knows better than to be showing up here without some sort of forewarning. Don't worry about getting to the table right away. Come back and let me scan you for any trackers or tappers."

    "Will do." I put the King of Spades back into my deck and weave away from my usual table and to the back. 

What a night for the cards to be on my side.