The cool man walked into the room and pushed the door smoothly and slowly closed behind him. The curtains were open and the window was full of orange and pinks and purples as the sun slid behind the world. The lights were off but the shape in the bed could be seen clearly enough. An old man sat inclined to a sitting position. "Well, D. Bet you didn't think you'd be seeing me again. I didn't expect to come again. But here I am."
"What brings you back? You just like seeing me this way?" The shadows from the fleeing sun and the advancing night kept the older man's face in shadow.
"No. No. You like this... It just makes me sad. Its why I don't come to see you more often. I would prefer to remember you in your prime. When you were a force to be reckoned with."
"Back before you ruined me you mean."
"Now that's harsh, D. I didn't do this to you. My mama did. Or Ginger, on her orders. Or the people he hired on her orders. Any of those folks are easier to blame than me - when you think about it."
"Thinking ain't so easy for me now. Easy to blame you though. You set it all to play."
The cool man sat down in the chair at the foot of the bed and he leaned back against the not quite soft enough cushions you only found in hospitals or old folks homes. The shadows now hid his face too. He smiled. "But we had our moment though, didn't we? We took every dime they had that night at my Mama's table. EVERY dime. And thanks to it looking like you won it all off of me, my mama never got around to making me give any of the cash back. That was my seed money, D. That was the big lump of cash that I have just kept growing. That was my first step out from under Mama's thumb. I owe you for that Diamond. I really do."
"Hahahahahahahaha. Your mama had to have figured something out or I wouldn't be sitting here like this. Drooling on myself."
"Yeah. Took her a while though. Don't get me wrong. She probably figured out that I had used you as a Judas goat. The minute Ginger told her that you had busted me - that must have smelled funny to her. And she probably appreciated how ballsy a play it had been. That would have tickled her. For a while. Buuuutttt...."
The cool man crossed his legs and shook his head. "But she must have started wondering. 'how could the boy have been sure Diamond would keep his part of the bargain,' That's like her. Even when everything is said and done, she has to know. How did this all fit together? How did a teenage boy get a grown man to play his part? How did a teenage boy get a grown man to give him an incredibly large sum of money? Unfortunately for you, she figured it out. Sorry for that."
"You ain't sorry for nothing. Not one little bit of it. Part of you wanted this to happen to me. Part of you hated yourself for what YOU did to get away from her." Drool dripped from the older man's chin.
The cool man smiled. "We do this every time I come here. Not why I came though," He watched the drool pool on the breast of the old man's pajama top. He made no move to wipe it up.
"The reason I am here is that its moving fast now. Real fast. Almost too fast. I found the Farfenelli girl. Married her. I know. But I think I actually love her."
"Found my brother. He is just as scary as I think Mama ever wanted him to be. Makes me nervous and I don't get nervous. But here is a wrinkle - he has found the twins. The Rusoff twins. They don't seem to know a thing about the money but... Its an unknown and they are incredibly intimidating too. My brother with those two working together would give my mother and Ginger pause. And then you throw in that red head that works for them. I can't tell if she is sleeping with my brother or just wants to be sleeping with him, but she makes the Rusoff twins... nervous, maybe. I don't think anything scares them exactly."
"A couple of more pieces have to be set up jussst right, and then... the dominoes will all fall. It is working out better than I could have hoped. And that is making me... nervous."
"So you come here to see me. Why? It is not like I am going to offer you any advice you haven't thought of already."
The cool man laughed. A little too loudly. A nurse walked in. "Sir, I'm sorry, but visiting hours ended a couple of hours ago."
"Oh, I know. I just like sitting here and keeping him company. Could I stay just a little while longer?"
The nurse looked at him in his nice suit and his perfectly tied tie. The laughter here of all places had offended her - it was so disrespectful. But he was a handsome man and as he leaned forward in the chair the last bit of orange sunlight caught the earnestness of his eyes. She was about to let him stay until she turned around and saw the drool on the patient's chin and chest. Who sits there laughing while a brain damaged old man drools on himself? "No sir. I am afraid you will need to leave."
The cool man stood and smiled at the nurse and nodded his goodbye to her. In his head he said, "So long D. It was good seeing you again."
"Go to hell," he imagined the silent old man saying.
End Chapter Thirteen
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