JJ was dreaming again of the desert. This time, he was Simon, the man in the circle.
JJ could feel the heat of the sun on his back; the ground under his feet was primarily small rocks and sand that ground together as he shifted his weight, waiting for Peter to finish his preparation.
“It’s getting warm, Peter,” Simon complained.
“I know, but you know how long it takes me to clear my head,” Peter said.
“Yes, that’s a lesson we need to go over again,” Simon said.
JJ, looking through Simon’s eyes, saw that Peter looked familiar. He couldn’t remember where he had seen him.
“If you don’t cast the spell soon, we will lose our opportunity,” Simon said.
“Almost ready,” Peter responded.
* * *
“Beep beep beep.” The sound of the alarm woke JJ.
“That was a weird dream,” JJ thought. He looked at his alarm clock and saw that it had gone off at the time he had set: 9 a.m.
“Hmm, I think a shower is in order,” JJ crawled out of bed and then did his occasional shower routine. After his shower, he got lucky and found a clean T-shirt that he had forgotten he had at the back of the closet. He finished getting dressed and was just about to head out the door when there was a knock.
“George, I’m your ride,” the voice accompanied the knock.
JJ opened the door to see a man dressed in a well-fitting black suit.
“I didn’t order a cab,” JJ said, seeing the man.
“Please … I am not a cab driver; I am a driver for a car service, " the man said.
“Well, I definitely didn’t order a car, and besides, my name is not George,” JJ said.
“This is the apartment I was instructed to go to,” the man said, looking again at a slip of paper in his hand and confirming that it was the same as the number on the door. Well, I’m here, and it's paid for. Where can I drive you?”
“I guess it’s my lucky day,” JJ said. “Could you drop me off at Rivera? I think I’ll have breakfast at their buffet.”
“Actually, I have a coupon for you to use for breakfast at the Mirage cafe. I was told it was for my passenger, " the driver said.
JJ just looked at the driver in disbelief. “Oh, ok, I guess I’ll have breakfast at the Mirage.”
JJ followed the driver down to the parking lot, where he stopped at a black Mercedes E-Class car.
“Wow, I’m worried I’ll dirty up your car,” JJ said.
“Not to worry, sir, you will soil the car. The seats are high-grade leather, and even the worse soiling will simply wipe up.” The driver said.
“So what do I call you besides Mr driver?” JJ asked.
“My name is Harry,” Harry said, “and I am the captain of this ves… I mean vehicle.”
“Nice to meet you, captain. I’m JJ.” JJ said.
“Well, let’s get you over to the Mirage,” Harry said as he opened the door for JJ.
“Ooohh, that’s nice,” JJ said when he sat down on the soft leather seat that wrapped itself around him. Harry briskly walked around to the driver’s side and got in, ready to pilot the vehicle.
“So what do you think about the new soon-to-be open Treasure Island? It’s going to be pirate-themed. I heard they will have nightly pirate battles like they do with the dragon and wizard over at Excalibur. I don’t know about you, but I’m extra excited to see pirate ships.” Harry said, trying to make small talk.
“I haven’t heard much about it,” JJ said, only half paying attention to the conversation. He was more interested in watching the scenery go by.
“You're not much for small talk, are you?” Harry asked.
“No, sorry,” JJ said, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs. “This has just been a very interesting and confusing few days. I spent a couple of days in a coma after getting shocked by a live electrical wire, and then I found out I lost my ability that I rely on for my livelihood,” JJ whined.
“What did you do?” Harry asked.
“I was a cooler,” JJ said.
“Hmm, that’s a shame,” Harry said. “But it’s probably better not helping greedy casinos make more money.”
“That’s what I thought until I really started to see why they would call me and all the people who rely on the casinos for their living. Even you, I’m sure, wouldn’t have a job except for the high rollers coming into town.” JJ said, arguing the opposite side of what he thought just a few days ago.
“I guess you’re right, but I still think the casinos are leeches sucking the life out of the gamblers,” Harry said.
They both became quiet for the rest of the drive.
“Welcome to the Mirage, sir,” a valet said as they opened the door. The valet’s face fell after seeing a guy in a cheap tourist t-shirt and jeans with holes in the knees.
“Thank you,” JJ said, standing up. He reached into his pocket to avoid shaking hands with the valet when he had no tip. His fingers touched a piece of paper. He pulled it out and found he was holding a twenty-dollar bill,
“That’s very generous,” the valet said, taking the bill from JJ. “Have a lucky day.”
JJ stood there for a moment, not quite realizing what was happening.
“The restaurant is through the conservatory,” Harry said through the open door of the Mercedes.
“Oh right, thank you, Captain,” JJ shut the door, and Harry pulled away.
“Why did I call him captain?” JJ asked himself. He just shook his head and walked into the resort.
The breakfast was the best he had eaten since he got into town.
“Can I get you anything else,” The waitress asked when she walked over to JJ’s table.
“No, thank you, I’ll just take the check,” JJ responded.
“It’s all taken care of; the casino manager’s voucher takes care of your breakfast.” She said.
“Ok, thank you,” JJ said.
“Have a good day,” the waitress said and then went on to her other tables.
JJ pulled out his wallet, and another twenty-dollar bill that had been next to his wallet fell onto the table.
“I don’t remember having any money in these jeans. Of course, I can’t remember when the last time I wore these jeans.” JJ said, trying to recall when he had worn them. “Well, I guess it’s time to head over to Arnie’s place,” JJ said to himself.
He walked out of the restaurant and looked around. In front of the front of the restaurant were a couple of slot machine banks with a walkway between them that led through a few other rows of machines and then to the table games. JJ walked up to the closest machines and watched the hypnotic spinning of the reels. The player was manically hitting the spin button. A few spins after JJ walked up to the machine, it won a small win. The wait for the machine to spew out coins seemed to annoy him. When the clink of the coins finally stopped, he went back to abusing the button. There were a couple more losses, and then the machine hit a small jackpot. The jackpot was big enough that a slot attendant would have to hand-pay the bulk of it. Seeing that he wouldn’t be able to continue to feed the machine until it was reset. He got up and went to the empty machine to his left. He was only able to play a couple of spins before that machine also hit a jackpot.
“Dammit,” The player yelled when he saw the second jackpot come up.
“That’s a strange reaction; that’s not how I would respond to a jackpot,” said the player on the right side of the machine, vomiting coins. The player was a young man that looked like he didn’t have the money to be playing at penny machines, let alone the quarter machines he was miserly feeding.
The older woman on the other side of the double jackpot machines just looked over and took a big drag off her cigarette, followed by a “Hmph.”
JJ walked over to stand behind the young man. He played the one quarter he had in his hand and then started searching his pockets for one last try. JJ shifted his weight and moved his foot to reveal a shiny quarter.
“I think you dropped one,” JJ said to the man, pointing down to the quarter on the floor.
“Wow, thanks, sir; maybe this will change my luck,” the man said.
He picked it up and held it above the coin slot. “Wish me luck,” the player said.
“Good Luck,” JJ said. Some of the lights at the other machines briefly lit up, and a few jackpot bells went off.
“Thanks, mister,” he said, dropping the quarter into the machine.
“Wait,” JJ said, stopping him from hitting the spin button, then reached into his pocket. “Here,” JJ handed him four quarters to make a max bet.
The player accepted the quarters and then slipped them into the machine.
He was about to hit the button again when JJ said, “Pull the handle; don’t push the button.”
The player reached up for the handle and rested his hand on the oversized knob at the end. He closed his eyes and then slowly pulled it down.
The reels started spinning with a click. They spun for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, the first reel stopped on a cartoon fireworks rocket exploding. A moment later, the second reel stopped on the same rocket symbol. The rest of the reels quickly clicked to a stop, all the same symbol. The jackpot bells started clanging to the accompaniment of the clack-clack of the quarters landing in the coin tray. The lights all over the machine were flashing. A siren started up because the bells and the coins were not loud enough.
“Wow, you won the big jackpot,” the slot attendant said as she stepped up next to JJ, bumping him to move him away from the winner.
“Yay!! yahoo!!” The player yelled and started jumping around. The jackpot total at the top of the machine said it was seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
JJ watched the show for a moment and then headed out to go to Arnie’s place.
* * *
“It’s just me,” JJ yelled to the back of the store, so Arnie wouldn’t have to do the whole Egyptian priest show.
“Get back here. I have something to show you,” Arnie yelled back to JJ.
JJ walked back to the room where he had slept. Arnie was on the floor with a big thick book bound in a deep brown leather open in front of him. On one of the pages were lots of line drawings. Interspersed among the drawings was lots of text in an alphabet that JJ didn’t recognize.
“Look at this,” Arnie said, pointing at the pages.
“I am, but I don’t understand what I am looking at. It’s a bunch of weird patterns, and what I’m guessing are letters in some unknown language,” JJ said.
“It was unknown to me also until Aku Aku told me the key. They said it was a form of ancient elvish spoken by the lowland elves in what is now called England. He said that it is a combination of elvish and Gaelic. Most of the words there are Gaelic words written with elvish characters. I was able to use this to begin to understand it. I got a Gaelic dictionary, and I am slowly translating the words. It’s slow work, but I already understand that this symbol is one for converting different magic and life energies to power spells. I think that I could eventually convert electricity into magic energy. If I can do that, I could sort of just plug spells into the wall,” Arnie said with growing excitement.
“So you have translated one symbol from the book full of, I guess, hundreds. Is it worth all that?” JJ asked.
“It’s just two pages that are written like that; the rest of the book is in other languages that I don’t know. Maybe eventually I will be able to get Aku Aku to help me read them,” Arnie said. “Well, I will have to continue this later; right now, I want to get you started learning magic,”
“Ok, I’m ready,” JJ said. “Wait, you said elves?”
“Yes, but I think that is just a figure of speech. I don’t think there are actually elves like some Tolkien book.” Arnie said.
“Ok,” JJ said, accepting the answer. “Well, where do we start with the lesson?”
“This is the first time I’ve ever tried to teach someone, but I think that we need to start with teaching you how to see magic; it’s a very simple process but can take lots of practice to be able to see into the magical realm,” Arnie said,
“Got it; I won’t see any success for a while,” JJ said.
“Ok, here, have a seat on the futon there,” Arnie said.
JJ walked over to the other side of the room, stepping around the book. Arnie bent down and picked up the book. He placed it on a shelf next to a few other books with unreadable titles.
“Ok, well, start with some breathing exercises. Close your eyes and just concentrate on your breath. Breathe in and out and just try to relax.” Arnie said.
JJ complied, closed his eyes, and then started to listen to his breath. Arnie let him do this for a few seconds and then continued, “Now open your eyes and then sit for a moment, still listening to your breath.”
JJ opened his eyes and breathed.
“Now, let your eyes go out of focus,” Arnie said.
JJ did that and then focused beyond the wall opposite of him.
“Now repeat this phrase, Otush reshash totum,” Arnie said.
“Otush reshash totum comptus,” JJ said.
“No, no, no, you added …” Arnie was interrupted by JJ jumping up and shouting, “What’s that?” There was an inconveniently placed shelf above the futon that he decided to test its construction with a sudden contact with the back of his head.
* * *
“Peter, grab some more of those white rocks,” Simon said,
“OK, there’s a nice pile over here,” Peter said as he bent over to grab some from a pile.
JJ again had a vision of the two men in the desert. This time, the two of them were just starting to lay out the circle,
* * *
“Ouch, my head, Peter. Can I get some aspirin,” JJ said, gaining consciousness.
“Peter, who’s Peter,” Arnie asked.
“What, who said, Peter?” JJ asked.
“You did. Here, one sec. I’ve got some aspirin in the break room. I’ll be right back,” Arnie said as he stepped out of the room,
JJ sat for a moment, trying to clear his head.
“Why am I having dreams of a desert,” JJ said to himself.
“What’s that about dessert?” Arnie asked as he walked back into the room with a bottle of over-the-counter painkillers in one hand and a glass of water in the other.
“I don’t know. I’ve had some dreams a couple of nights of two men in the desert. One was standing in a circle of white stones, and the other was outside.” JJ said.
“A circle?” Arnie asked.
“Yes, a circle of white stones. The man in the circle called the man outside Peter. I guess I got confused. While I was unconscious, I had a quick flash of the same desert, and the two men were just starting to make the circle.” JJ said.
“That is weird. Can you remember any other details about the dreams?” Arnie asked.
“Yes, the guy in the circle is named Simon, and he is telling Peter that he needs to cast the spell or otherwise he will find him,” JJ said.
“Who is he?” Arnie asked.
“Peter, weren’t you listening?” JJ said in frustration.
“Yes, I was listening. I understand it was Peter who needed to cast a spell. I meant, who will find the man in the circle?” Arnie asked.
“Simon,” JJ interjected.
“Yes, right, thank you. Who is the person that will find Simon if Peter doesn’t cast the spell?” Arnie asked
“I don’t know, neither of them have said a name,” JJ said.
“That is interesting; next time you have the dream, try to look around so we can figure out where and when this took place,” Arnie said.
“Ok, I’ll try,” JJ said.
“Now, back to the lesson, let’s start again with …” Arnie started and was interrupted by JJ saying the phrase again.
“Wait, you have to breathe, and you are saying something wrong at the end,” Arnie said.
“What am I supposed to see,” JJ said as he looked around the room.
“Well, when you finally are able to turn on your magical sight, you will see remnants of spells. In here, you might see some of the stronger protection spells that I have cast,” Arnie said.
“Uh huh,” JJ said as he got up and went to the door; he reached out and traced some pattern with his fingers. “Interesting protection spell. It has just one mistake, but you are getting better, Peter,”
“Who is Peter, and how do you know that I cast a protection spell on the door, and it’s perfect? There is nothing wrong with … “ Arnie was again interrupted by JJ.
“What are you saying?” JJ shook his head. “How did I get over here? What are all those pretty colored lights?”
“A second ago, you were critiquing my protection spell; that’s the colored lines you are seeing. How are you able to activate your magical vision with only one partial lesson?” Arnie asked.
“And what are these other things on the walls and the — wow — the ceiling,” JJ said, looking around the room with his mouth open.
“Those are all protection spells I’ve placed on the room; how are you seeing them all? I can’t see the oldest one on the ceiling. I’ve been meaning to redo that one; I thought it was too old to still be effective.” Arnie said. “Wait, did you say that one of the guys in the desert was named Peter,”
“Yeah,” JJ said, still looking at the walls and occasionally tracing some invisible line with his fingers.
“That’s interesting. A second ago, you called me Peter and said my protection spell was better but still had a flaw,” Arnie said.
“Uh huh,” JJ said, only half listening,
“What was the last word you said on the activation spell?” Arnie asked.
“Comptus,” JJ said.
“Why did you add that to the spell?” Arnie asked.
“I don’t know, it just came out like that's how you are supposed to say it,” JJ said.
Arnie just looked at JJ. After a moment, said the same longer activation spell,
“Ok, that is incredible; I can see so much more than I’ve ever seen. Oh, you aren’t completely blinding. It looks like you’ve used some of the luck,” Arnie said.
“Yeah, I said good luck …” Every magical spell line in the room got really bright.
“Woah, don’t say that again unless you mean it. You just recharged all my protection spells. They look stronger than they’ve ever been.” Arnie said.
“How do I shut this off?” JJ asked.
“Visi dinifi,” Arnie said.
JJ repeated the phrase. “Incredible.” JJ said, “All the pretty lights disappeared.” JJ looked around. JJ repeated the activation spell.
“That is incredible. Is it always like that?” JJ asked.
“No, this is a controlled and protected environment. If you try and activate it outside of this room before you’re ready, you might lose your mind,” Arnie said. “Promise me that you won’t activate it away from me.”
“I swear,” JJ said, deactivating the vision. “So why shouldn’t I say Good …”
“NO!!!!!” Arnie said, interrupting JJ.
“Why not? Everyone says it.” JJ asked.
“Yes, everyone says it, but not everyone is so charged with luck they could bankrupt Vegas multiple times over. When a normal person says it, they give the recipient a little of their luck. You are so charged that when you say it, they will be insanely lucky for a week or longer.” Arnie said.
“Ok, I won’t say it,” JJ said. “So, what else can you teach me?”
“I think that was enough for one day. I have to try and make a living sometimes. Besides, I’ve never seen anyone who can learn to see with one attempt. I have to adjust my lesson plan for you,” Arnie said. “How ‘bout this? We’ll do this every day at the same time for a few days. There are a few more things I can teach you before you will need to practice. I think we will go out together in a few days and have you look with your vision in an uncontrolled environment. That can be very dangerous. I have seen people go mad when they tried it when they were unprepared. Like I said, do not use your vision when I’m not there.”
“Ok, I get it, using my vision bad,” JJ said, then looked again at the walls with normal vision. “I think I’m going to go get some food and let you get back to your business; that is just amazing. I can’t see anything on the walls.” JJ said, shaking his head in amazement, and then walked out to find some lunch.
“Remember 11 am tomorrow,” Arnie said to JJ as he walked out.