Playing the Cards

Everett, Seattle

April 9, 2059

9:30 pm

Night is eternally dark. It blankets the Earth in peaceful slumber. The world is set to rest after the trying day. The night brings the rest so that the world may heal. This is how it was for thousands of years. Until people discovered how to bring the day into night.

Bright lights and brilliant signs flash wildly on streets. They give the illusion of day in the darkness. People act as though the sun never set. Life carries on uninterrupted in its path. This is no time for rest that the night of old brought.

Many people perceive the sprawl blanketed in everlasting darkness. This is not so. Instead the horrors of the day have been allowed to stay into the night.

No where in Seattle is it more apparent than on Casino Corner. This small strip in the endless concrete jungle has changed little over the years. Establishments advertising gambling line the street. Bets are placed on a wide variety of games. These include the classical card games and roulette tables that are so common to the casinos. Stakes are also high in organized boxing matches that have been gaining in popularity. Some bets placed by wealthy players are in the six figure range.

Somewhere in the last decade someone had the idea that adult entertainment ran a close second to gambling. Soon club popped up next to the casinos. A man could win a fortune in a casino and spend it all on one joygirl.

Other vendors sprung up along the street. They seek to get the dollar that the Casinos or clubs miss. These vendors sell trinkets of every size and description. Some make a living by offering to tell the gamblers fortune. It has become stylish to have a fortune told so the gambler will know what numbers to play for the night. Wrong numbers have caused a disgruntled gambler to seek revenge on a fortune teller more than once.

Main traffic on the street is blocked during peak hours. People knot the street during this time like it was Mardi Gras. The sea of humanity can get so thick that a man could walk from one end of the Corner to the other without his feet ever touching asphalt.

Fortunately for Lenny the busiest time of the night, around eleven, has not come. Otherwise he would find it difficult to get around. He walks calmly down the sidewalk with his hands buried in his coat pockets. He keeps his eyes forward, not letting his attention waver in the least bit.

This is his home. He lives in this neighborhood. At the same time he doesn't know a soul who lives here with him. After all, he didn't choose to live here because he wanted to be sociable. He decided to purchase an apartment here for very different reasons.

One was people. Not just the faceless masses who came to fondle money either. Several Casino owners bribed Lone Star forces in to taking a blind eye at this neighborhood. A lack of Lone Star patrols was a plus in Lenny's business.

The faceless masses had their uses too. Sometimes the best place to hide was right in the middle of everything. One man out on a street can be spotted easily. That man becomes invisible if he is put in a crowd of a hundred. The constant knot of people during most of the night hours also makes commuting impossible for most of the night. To get anywhere during that time one must wade through the crowd on foot. It is easier for a man to get pushed into a Casino or Club than it is for him to get were he's going.

"Read your fortune, mister? Only one yen."

Lenny stopped in his tracks and glanced at the voice that had called him. He saw a young girl in her early teens sitting near the mouth of an alley. Her face was dirty and full of grim. The clothes that she wore were rags and torn in several places. The shoes on her feet looked like they were being held together with tap. Her left shoe had a hole in it where her little toes stuck out. She was sitting behind a small crate and had a deck of cards in her hands. She looked malnourished. She was probably living off what she could find in the dumpsters of the city.

Lenny regard the girl for a second. Then he shook his head. "Maybe some other time." He said and walked off.

The girl dropped her head. She looked frozen and starving. "Hot sex for a dollar." She said calmly.

Lenny came to an abrupt halt. He glanced back and the girls big, round eyes. What he she in them were shame and fear. She was starving and had no money. If she did not get some decent food she would probably die in a few short weeks. Life on the streets of Seattle was harsh for those who fell between the cracks.

He took a few steps back to her. The girl dropped her eyes as he fumbled for a set of bills from his coat. The girl looked away as he dropped the bills on her table.

"Here's two dollars." Lenny said as he dropped the nuyen notes in front of her. "Tell me about my fortune."

The girl looked up and a smile crossed her lips. She took the bills and put them in her pocket. "Please sit."

Lenny crouched in front of the little crate as the girl asked. Lenny did not expect the her to tell him anything about his future, but he knew that the girl had to do something to make money. Telling fortunes on the streets was by far the better of her choices.

She took her deck of cards and shuffled them briefly. Then she fanned them out with both of her hands. "Please pick ten cards, sir."

Lenny did as he was told. He pulled the first card out and started to turn it over to see what it was.

"Oh, no." The girl stopped him, fumbling the rest of the cards into one hand. "You can't turn it over yet." She took the card from his hand and put it in the center of the crate top.

"Oh." Lenny shrugged as he continued to pick the rest of the cards. "Sorry."

Each card that Lenny picked the girl put in a specific location in the spread she was making. The first card was in the center. The second card went across the first one. Then the third was placed above it and the fourth below. The fifth and sixth cards were placed on either side of the first. Then, on the girls right-hand side, she placed the seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth. All the cards were left face down.

"Are you ready to know your fortune?" The girl asked.

"Sure." Lenny said. "Tell me about my future."

The girl picked up the first card that Lenny drew and turned over the first one that was beneath it. She placed the second card back over it. The picture on the card was a little obscured by the second card, but there were words at the top. The words read: Two of Pentacles.

"This is you." The girl said as she pointed at the card. "It's what you stand for. Your a hard worker who has to invent new things to succeed in your life. What you do has a lot of materialistic gains too. You also just completed a task you were given and you were successful at it."

Lenny nodded. He was seemingly uninterested because he did not believe that the cards held his future. It was more for entertainment and to see a happy face that he submitted himself to the girls talk. However, some of what the girl had said fit into his life. It was odd that way, but Lenny dismissed it. The girl had a way with words, but she wasn't specific with anything. That let his mind put the pieces together instead of the fortune teller.

The girl turned over the card that was laid across the first one. It had a picture of a man that was buried under several torches. The man had his head in his hands and carried an exhausted look on his face. The words at the top of the card read: Ten of Wands.

"Hard times are coming for you, mister. You will be overburdened and oppressed by having taken own more than you can deal with. Risks have been taken that you will lose. This is what will cross your path. That's what this card means."

The girl turned over the card that was sitting above the first two. She called this one the "Crowning Card" and it held the image of a young boy holding a small plate in his hands. In the background were lush farming fields full of corn and grain. Over the boys head was a clear blue sky that seemed to be the picture of tranquility. This card read: The Page of Pentacles.

"Here is how the view of your fortune presents itself." The girl explained. Her voice was shallow and quiet. A lot of things will gather together, but it will be very slow. It will not appear threatening or dangerous. Instead it will appear harmless and peaceful."

She turned over the card that was below the first two. This one was labeled The World and had an intricate picture with it. There was the picture of a two headed being. One head was that of a woman and the other was that of a man. Both of them held sticks in their hands. They were surrounded by a golden ring that was made by a snake swallowing its tail. In each of the four corners of the card there was a object. One corner held a pentacle, one a sword, one a cup, and one a burning torch.

"These are the people who are behind your fate. They are united and strong with many resources to call upon. Their goal is to achieve something and make it their own. It's not really evil or good. It's just what they decided to do." The girl explained.

She turned over the fifth card that Lenny laid down. It was to the right of the first two.

"This is what happened in your past that pushed you to where you are now." The girl explained as she pointed at the card of past influences. It was labeled The Four of Cups and hit the picture of three women sitting beneath a roman-like arc. The women wore white, red, and black dresses. Four golden cups were placed at their feet. "You had a woman once that you loved deeply. Something happened that was so horrible that she was taken away from you. That even left you with only one road to travel. You took that road knowing that it was the memory of her that would drive you at first."

Lenny sat up. A woman? Immediately his mind traced back to Serena Flailstaff, the one woman that he had ever cared about. The Yakuza had killed her for his own foolishness. That was how he fell into the shadows. Revenge bit at his heels, demanding that he do something about the fate that Serena had been forced to suffer. Lenny shoved the thoughts aside. How could simple cards have known that? He had not told a soul in years. Only a handful of people knew about it.

The girl turned over the sixth card which was to the left of the first two. "This is the card of things to come." She explained. The card pictured a group of men fighting each other with torches. One group of men had red robes and wore crowns. The other group of men looked like farmers wearing rags. The words at the top of the card read: Seven of Wands.

The image on the card conjured up pictures of conflict in Lenny's mind.

"Hate, anger, all bad karma are coming. There will be a great conflict in which only one group will survive. Stiff competition is ahead."

Lenny did not like the sound of that. He tried to dismiss it. After all, it was only a bunch of silly cards. They couldn't tell the future. The only thing that kept him from ignoring the girls words were how accurate that she had been with Serena.

The girl turned over the first of a series of cards in a straight line. There were four cards in this line. The bottom was the Five of Swords. On which there was a image of a tall angel handing down five swords to a young boy. In the background was a desolate wasteland were nothing lived.

"Not long ago you were pushed to your limits. You had nothing left to give even though it looked like the world wanted more. Fate was with you and you were able to survive, but only just. You have left knowing the confines of your abilities, what you can and cannot handle."

The second card in the row of four was turned over. It held the image of a man wrestling with a lion. The card was named Strength.

"Other people see you as a source of strength and ability. You are a strong leader whose confidence spreads out to those around you. People look to you for answers even if you don't have them. They put their trust in you knowing that you will do your best to protect them."

Lenny thought about those words. Was that how people saw him? Was he the only ray of hope that they had when things got tough? Certainly that situation had arose recently. Maybe the others did view him as their source of salvation.

The girl turned over the third card in the row. On the card was a beautiful woman in a field full of flowers. A crown of earth was on her brow and she held a handful of corn stalks. The card was called The Empress.

"You hope to find peace through your life, but at the same time you are afraid of it. You want to settle down and begin a normal life, but you don't know if you can adjust to it. There is great uncertainty it what you want because you fear you will not be able to adjust to it if you achieve it."

The girl turned over the last card on the crate. "This is the final outcome, how things will end for you." The girl said.

The card she turned over was disturbing in Lenny's eyes. It was called The Hanged Man. On it was the picture of a dead man with a rope around his neck and ravens overhead. What made it disturbing to him was that the man's eyes were still open. It made it look like that man was looking at him.

"You must make a sacrifice, but it will be for the greater good. There is no way to avoid it or substitute something in its place."

Lenny looked at her. "What to I sacrifice?" It was the first time that he had asked a question since he had chosen his cards. He felt threatened at the prospect of losing something, or someone. He did not want to see it happen. Still, he couldn't dismiss the fact that the cards were just a game. That they weren't real. Ten minutes ago he would have thought little of it. Now his mind seemed changed.

The little girl smiled. "You'll have to find out for yourself. The future is not a set path." She pointed at the cards. "But it you follow these choices this will be your result. Change your choices back here and this might be replaced." She pointed at the last card again.

Lenny looked at the card and thought about it. He couldn't believe that he was so concerned about it. He picked up the last card he had drawn and put it in his pocket. Then he stood, thumbing through a wade of bills. He lay fifty nuyen on the girls crate.

"Thanks for the reading, kid." He turned and walked away.