The Gambler(17)

"Come sit with me for a spell."

She looked back over her shoulder, looking for her angel.

"But … Angel, he's hurt." She started to cry as she looked around and  nothing looked familiar. The place was pretty enough, some type of  garden with a riot of colors. But she was sure she'd never been there  before.

"Your angel is fine, you protected him." She looked back at the woman  who was even prettier than the picture in her angel's room.

"Where am I?" She felt different in this place. Her thoughts weren't  jumbled and she didn't feel like she had to run to catch up to them. She  could actually take her time and speak too.

That's the reason she only spoke in short sentences, because her  thoughts were sometimes racing ahead of her tongue, and she found it was  easier to keep it short and sweet. But somehow in this magical place  she felt calmer.

She followed the lady, who led her by the hand to a small stream at the  edge of the garden, where there was a bench to sit. "You're doing very  well Jenna, I'm proud of you. But you've got to stop with the  chocolate." She smiled and squeezed her hand.

"What, but why? I like chocolate."

"I know you do, but you've been conditioned to ask for it whenever you  think you've done something good. Next time ask your angel to catch you a  butterfly." She had a winsome smile on her face as she gazed off.

"A butterfly?"

"Yes, he'll understand."

They sat in silence for a while, just taking in the calming ambience of their surroundings.

"Alice, how come I see you and nobody else can?"

"I don't know sweetie that's just the way these things happen I guess.  Thanks for taking care of him for me, he's … wounded, that's the word."

"Why, who hurt my angel?" Jenna was getting upset; she didn't like the  thought of anyone hurting her angel. It made her tummy hurt.

"No one hurt him exactly, it was … it was a long time ago. I was young and  naïve. Stefano always looked out for me like a big brother should, but  more." She smiled that winsome smile again in fond memory.

"He was always there whenever I needed him, tried to shield me from the  ugliness of the world. We shared a bond that nothing and no one could  break. When I was sixteen, he had just started university. It was the  first time we were apart. It was hard on both of us. There were these  guys in the neighborhood; they'd never bothered me before, because  everyone knew that Stefano would pound them into the ground if they even  tried."         

     



 





"One day, it was the day Stefano was due back from school, I don't know  how they knew but they did. One of them came through the garden gate  where I used to sit and look at the flowers and the birds and  butterflies. No one had ever really harmed me before, I didn't know the  difference, didn't understand the danger. So when he told me that my  brother was waiting for me I believed him.

I followed him … anyway; the others were waiting for us in the woods not  far from our home. I thought we were going to catch butterflies, that  Stefano was going to catch me butterflies. These boys, they … hurt me. No  Jenna don't cry that was a long time ago. I'm better now, but Stefano,  my brother." She shook her head as she felt the remembered sadness.

"He found me after, after they were done with me. All I kept asking him  was why? They'd hurt me something awful and something inside me broke I  guess … and now I'm here."

Jenna wiped the tears from her eyes, she didn't know how or why in this  place her understanding was different but it was. She didn't understand,  had no knowledge of that kind of ugliness, at least not in the world in  her head, but she knew.

"What happened to those boys? The ones who hurt you."

"He killed them, one by one, a year apart on the anniversary of my  death. I need you to take care of him now. He's not the same, he was  once a fun, smiling, happy boy, now he's angry and cold and lost, so  lost is my brother. He's calling for you now you'd better go back."





"Why is she crying?" Andros almost throttled the doctor when he came  back into the room to find a still sleeping Jenna, with tears running  down her face. Climbing onto the bed, he lifted her shoulders so he  could roll her into him. "She's dreaming I think, I don't think she's in  any pain."

"You better hope she isn't you fuck. Jenna, baby; wake up sweetheart."  He kept calling to her, kissing her cheek her forehead anywhere he could  reach. Willing her to wake up and tell him what was wrong. The tears  and sadness on her face were enough to break his heart. She twitched in  her sleep and her eyes flew open. He almost jumped off the bed in  surprise. Just then, for a split second, he could've sworn he was  looking into his sister's eyes.

"Let me get you some water baby." He eased her out of his arms and went to pour the water.

"Angel?"

"Yes sweetheart."

"Catch me a butterfly." The cup flew out of his hand as he took a step back.





He walked calmly towards her, his eyes never leaving hers. Just what in  the blue fuck was this shit? Had he finally lost it, had he cracked the  fuck up? There was no other explanation. When he reached the bed, he  knelt at its side, his hand going to her hair smoothing it down, more  for the needed contact than anything else. "Jenna, baby, where did you  hear that?" He kept his voice soft and even so as not to freak her out  anymore than he probably did when he dropped the cup. But when her eyes  strayed to the picture he kept on the dresser he almost lost his shit.

He was a man of action, a man of strategy and logistics. He didn't  believe in this hoo-hoo bullshit. But how the fuck could he explain what  was happening right in front of his eyes? He'd always known the ones he  called his treasures were endowed with a little extra something  special, but this? The fact that she could hear things, could break into  places and was good with numbers and computers was more readily  acceptable. But whether he accepted it or not the shit was real.

He wanted to ask her so many questions; there was so much he was dying  to know. His sister. Damn, just the thought of her made his heart ache  still. It had been so long ago, and yet it seems like yesterday. The old  anger was still there, it would never go away.

That one event had changed the course of his whole life. Until that day,  he'd thought he would follow in his late father's footsteps and become a  doctor of science. He'd looked forward to it his whole childhood. He  knew exactly what he wanted to do then too. He was going to spend his  life seeking to understand people like his sister. He'd never accepted  the norm; that there was something wrong, he believed it was quite the  opposite; still did.         

     



 

But that day everything had changed for him. The light had gone out of  his world and darkness set in. He'd approached gramps about letting him  into his business, he'd always known what the old man was up to; he'd  heard the whispers. Gramps had fought him all the way. He was his late  son's heir; neither of them had wanted this for him. But Andros had been  adamant, either the old man let him in or he'd go out on his own.

In the end they'd made a deal; he would finish school and then they  would revisit the issue. If he still felt the same then, so be it. He'd  pushed himself to finish ahead of time, shutting himself off from the  rest of the world had made that easy. Each year, he'd hunted down the  ones responsible and taken them out systematically. He had blood on his  hands; no way he could ever be a doctor now in good faith. The oath says  ‘First harm none'; he intended to harm plenty.





Now here he was all these years later, and he was finally crawling out  from under the cloud of darkness, under which he'd been living for so  long. She'd come into his life and changed everything. He wouldn't say  he was back to who he once was, but he didn't feel that stone cold hate  as deeply.

"Baby, did you see the girl in that picture today?" He was still  speaking to her like they were having a normal conversation and not  discussing her conversation with his dead sister.

"Alice." Her soft voice sliced through his gut, this was real, this was happening.

"How did she … " He couldn't go on, it was too much for now. Later he'll  take it out and think about it, for now she needed her rest and he  needed to get shit done.

"Where's her medicine doc?"

"It's right here."

"Give it to her and then you can sit downstairs with gramps in case she needs you when she wakes up.

"I have to … I'll be downstairs with your grandfather." What the fuck was  it with people today? That's the second time he had to glare the doc  into submission.

He poured her another glass of water and gave her the pill the other man  had given him. She took her medicine before curling herself around him  and holding on tight. He held her close to his heart and whispered  softly to her, until she drifted off again. "Sweet dreams my flower, I  love you." Shit, he hadn't said that to anyone in a million years. It  felt good, felt … clean.