The last game (9 page)

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?
W
e
’
re
all
in the same boat. About to…"

“
Shut up, for once in your life!” Alvaro
shouted. “I’m happy 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.”

“
It´s true I´m not perfect.” Alvaro
admitted. ”I´ve cheated, but it was for a good case. I´ve helped my
brother and a pregnant woman.”

Dante´s rage continued. “You´ve robbed us,
you dirty cheat. And don´t forget you only helped your brother
because you got him into trouble in the first place.”

“I´m still a thousand times better than you,
Dante. How many lives have you ruined?”

“And how many have I helped?” he asked with a
malevolent smile on his face. “You´ll regret what you´ve done here.
I´ll make you pay tenfold on the other side.”

It was a threat no one could take seriously,
least of all Alvaro. What was done, was done. They were all going
to die. But he still felt he´d done the right thing. And that
feeling was going to stay with him.

“Finished.” The girl said, standing up on the
table.

Everyone looked at her as she took some tiny
little steps across the felt and stopped in front of Judith. “You
win. Well played. A little kiss?”

The girl reached her arms out and looked at
the winner with a dazzling glow in her eyes. Judith leaned forward
and kissed her on the cheek, and when her lips touched the girl´s
skin, Judith´s shadow turned the other way.

Alvaro suddenly felt weak, all desire to
move, disappearing. He watched Dante return tamely to his seat and
understood instinctively that it was a trick of the girl, that was
manipulating them so that they´d stay quiet while they paid their
debt. The end was near.

“Judith.” Alvaro said, wanting to fare well
her while he could. “I´m happy that you´ve won. Use those eight
years well.”

“Don´t worry, I will.”

“
I . . . I won´t forget you.”

“And I won´t forget you.” She said, as she
put her hand under her flowing dress and made a strange movement,
before pulling downward.

Alvaro´s heart nearly stopped as he saw a
Velcro mould fall to the floor. Judith kicked it away, the
silhouette of a slim woman standing before them.

Alvaro, on the verge of death, had seen the
world he´d lived in collapse around him.

“What a vixen!” Dante said. “How do you feel
now, Doc? Are you happy you helped this bitch win?”

Alvaro didn´t hear him. His mind had
imploded on seeing Judith as she really was, incomprehensible
images and sounds storming through his mind. The last thing that
his brain recorded was the face of the girl coming close to his
mouth and whispering. “A little kiss?”

* * * * *

Albert’s knee has been painful for more than
ten years. He walked slowly, with a walking stick, and the first
Wednesday of every month, he went to the bank without fail, to
collect his pension. He took his time normally, enjoying the
pleasant stroll under a warm sun. Sometimes, he stopped in the park
and sat on a bench for a long while to rest his tired bones.

That Wednesday was a beautiful day, the
sky clear, a gentle breeze cooling him. But he went past the bench
in the park, walking quickly. He was nervous and in a hurry. It was
the first time, in the eight years since he’d retired, that Albert
hadn’t strolled to the bank.

He entered the building with a wrinkled smile
on his face. He’d been waiting for this moment for a long time. So
long, in fact, that it had made him nervous. He sat down at a desk,
with a single computer on top. And a young face appeared from
behind its screen. “Good morning, Albert, everything ok?”

Albert rested his cane carefully between his
legs, careful not to knock his painful right knee. “I feel great.
It’s a magnificent day.”

The young cashier nodded, then sighed.
“Better to be out there in the sun, than trapped in here.”

“Work’s good for you, lad. At your age I
worked from dawn to dusk and was grateful for the work.”

“I believe you.” The cashier said. “That’s
because you’re a strong man. Look how well you look now.”

Albert liked the boy. He always showed his
elders respect. And many Wednesdays he stayed on to chat with him
if there weren’t too many customers to attend to. But today was
different. He had something urgent to attend to.

“Well, I’m sure you know what I’ve come
for.”

“To collect your pension, like every month.
Are you sure you don’t want to try using an automatic teller? A man
like you shouldn’t be afraid of a little machine.”

“You’ll never convince me to do that, and you
know it. I don’t like those holes in the wall, besides if I did do
that we’d have to give up our monthly chat.”

“That’s true.” The cashier agreed. “I hadn’t
thought of that.”

The boy excused himself and left the table,
coming back a few seconds later with an orange envelope, with the
stamp of the bank on it.

“Thanks, son.” Albert said, lifting himself
up.

The cashier stopped him. “One second, Albert.
You have to sign the receipt. You look like you’re in a hurry,
today.”

“I am. I didn’t know it was so obvious.”

The boy ran his fingers quickly over the
keyboard, punched the print button, and a few seconds later the
receipt slid out. Albert picked up a pen on the desk and signed
it.

The cashier was watching him carefully, noted
his trembling hand. “Is your wife all right?”

“As beautiful as the first day I saw her.”
The old man answered, pushing the receipt forward. “I’m going to
take her on a surprise trip. I’ve been saving up for the last three
years to go on a cruise. It’s the dream of a lifetime. This was the
last payment I needed to pay for the trip.”

“That’ll do you a lot of good.” The boy said
approvingly, understanding now why the old man was so excited. “I’d
like to see the look on your wife’s face when she sees the cruise
tickets.”

Albert wanted to see that look too. He’d been
careful to keep the whole thing a secret. And it hadn’t been easy
doing that. It was difficult to believe, with the modest pension he
received, that he’d been able to pay for the trip. But he’d put his
mind on the job and now it had come true. It was going to be one of
the biggest surprises of his wife’s life.

“
I’ll let you know how it went down next
time I see you.” Albert said, smiling. “We all need surprises from
time to time.”

The cashier nodded, the smile leaving his
face. “You should’ve told me about this before, Albert. I could’ve
arranged a credit so that you wouldn’t have had to wait so
long.”

“No way I would have done that. Everything
tastes better when it’s the from the fruit of your own effort.
Remember that, it’s good advice.”

“I won’t forget it.”

Albert got up with the aid of his walking
stick.

“I’ll see you next month.”

“Don’t forget that you’ve promised to tell me
what happened.”

He put the envelope in his coat pocket and
left the bank, walking along a broad footpath until he reached a
zebra crossing. The traffic light was red, so he waited patiently
in a large crowd, for the light to turn green.

While he was waiting he heard a rhythmic
sound behind his back, and turning around saw a blind woman
approaching him. She was slim, wearing sun glasses, tapping a fine
white cane on the ground as she walked. When she was nearly to the
crossing she stumbled into a garbage bin and lost her balance.

Albert rushed across to help her, grabbing
her by the arm. “Let me help you.”

The woman shook her head, not knowing where
she was.

“Thank you very much. Can you help me across
the street?”

“Of course.”

Albert offered his arm to the woman but she
couldn’t see it. He felt very clumsy suddenly and didn’t know what
he should do next.

“You’re a real gentlemen.” The blind woman
said.

“Nonsense.” He said. “Who wouldn’t help a
beautiful young woman like you? Take my arm and we’ll be the envy
of everyone crossing the street.”

Albert placed her hand on his forearm and
they walked to the traffic light.

“
It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” She
said.

“That it is.” Albert confirmed. “They should
all be like this.”

The light turned green and the pedestrians
started to cross the street.

“Let’s go.” She said.

He went at her pace across the street, close
together, surrounded by the surge of humanity bent on getting to
the other side as soon as possible.

“You have to eat more.” Albert said,
observing her thin arm. “A young women as beautiful as you are
shouldn’t be so thin.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”