Game of Life

Felicity waved ‘Hello’ to Pierre as she entered and let him know that she was heading straight down to the back table, he nodded and waved back. “Bring you some drinks?” he called.

Flick smiled back at him and nodded as she focused her attention on her target at the end of the room.

As she arrived at the table, Luc looked up and smiled. “Hey Felicity, I was hoping to run into you tonight.”

Flick responded, “Was starting to think I might have scared you off or something. Thought maybe I was just too good for you.” He laughed, “Nooooo, just REALLY busy at work the last few weeks… it’s just been Hell in the office.”

“Sounds terrible” she replied.

“So now it’s time to chill out and de-stress a little,” he concluded, “So let’s play!”

The next few games were a back and forth between the two players; Felicity let Luc get ahead in the first game, then reeled him in. The second game he surprised her with a few new shots and managed to get over the line and beat her. She realized that she was enjoying the challenge.

At the end of their third game, Felicity had almost lost the urge to beat Luc into submission, she was enjoying his company and enjoying just playing…it was refreshing.

Luc returned from the bar, “Playtime’s over, loser buys dinner.” He broke out into a smile and they both laughed. “Deal!” was all Flick said.

After a hearty dinner, the two returned to their table to play another round.

“In all seriousness,” she said, “we should make it a little more ‘interesting.”

Luc looked up from his task of racking the balls, “What did you have in mind?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she replied, “A small wager perhaps.”

Luc produced a wallet and checked the contents, “Best I can muster is fifty bucks.”

“Damn” she thought, “Played my hand too soon, can’t back out now.”

“OK,” she smiled, “Fifty it is!”

It was a quick game, and Felicity could not make a wrong move. Every shot went perfectly, every ball rolled exactly as she wanted it to, In the end, Luc stood defeated, and his fifty bucks was hers.

Luc stood at the end of the table, leaning on his cue, looking like a defeated man.

“Rake ‘em up!” was all he said.

Flick looked slightly puzzled, “I thought you only had fifty bucks on you?”

“I’m sure there are ‘other things’ we could play for” he said in a flirtatious manner that Flick understood exactly what he was suggesting.

She gave Luc her most seductive look and smiled, “Winner on the top!”.

The first few shots of the game did not go as Flick had planned; the balls just didn’t seem to roll as she wanted them to.

Luc on the other hand, was playing well. His shots had lined up well and although he hadn’t sunk anything yet, she knew he was about to strike.

He leaned over the table, “Seven, side pocket”

His cue stick connected with the white ball with a snap and it sailed across the table, rebounding off the end cushion, it skated around two other balls and impacted on the side cushion, then rebounded into the seven knocking it into the hole. Flick was amazed!

As she looked at Luc, the surprise evident on her face, she felt the buzzing of her phone vibrating in her pocket. She pulled it out and the name on the screen simply read “Mum.”

“Hang on a sec will you Luc, I must take this…. Nice shot by the way!”

Luc smiled and gestured to her to take the call mouthing the words “Your shot” as he did.

Flick studied the table as she answered the phone, “Hey Mum, what’s up.”

The tearful voice of Felicity’s mother filled her ear, “Oh Felicity Darling, I have some horrible news.”

Her concentration now fully on the call, Flick listened intently. “What is it, what’s wrong?” she asked.

Her mother sobbed, “It’s your stepbrother Jack, he was just killed in a car accident.”

The blood drained from Flick’s face; Jack was the closest thing to a real brother she’d ever had.

“Are you sure?” was all she could muster through the growing swell of tears.

Her mother continued crying, “Yes, the police have just left…he was on the highway when a tyre blew out, he lost control and hit the guard rail…police said he died on impact.” She broke into uncontrollable sobs.

By now the tears were flowing freely down her face as Felicity tried to calm her mum down, “Mum, breathe, take a deep breath, sit down and breathe…I’ll be right over.” And with that she hung up the call and returned the phone to her pocket.

“Problems?” Luc asked.

The tears still running down her face, Felicity looked across the table at him and told him what had just happened. “OMG,” he said, “That’s terrible…your shot!”

Felicity was somewhat dazed and confused by his attitude. The thought of playing on after such a tragic event just didn’t make sense, but for some reason she picked up her cue and took her shot, and of course missed.

Luc lined up his next shot as Flick started to break down her cue and got ready to leave.

“Six in the corner pocket!” he announced, and with a crack of the cue, sent the number six to meet its end in the corner pocket with a resounding THUNK.

Flick’s phone buzzed again, and she pulled it from her pocket, it was her Mum again.

“Mum I’m on my way now,” she said as she answered, “I’m just leaving.”

“Felicity.” said the male voice on the end of the phone, “It’s Robert.”

Her mind was racing at this stage, why was her stepfather calling her now? “Oh, hi Robert, tell Mum I’m leaving now” she said.

Robert’s somber voice came back, “Flick, I think your mum is dead…she took a turn when she hung up the phone from you, and collapsed on the floor. I’ve called the ambulance, but I’m fairly sure she’s gone. I can’t feel a pulse, she’s not breathing…she’s gone Flick, she gone!”

As he said the final words, the tears came flowing and he sobbed uncontrollably down the phone.

Unable to fully comprehend what Robert had just said, Flick just lowered the phone and slowly slid it back into her pocket. For a few moments she just stood there, the pool hall had disappeared, and she was in her own little world, trying to come to some sort of reasonable explanation of what had just happened. Slowly a voice started to enter her world, it was Luc.

“Flick...FLICK…are you ok?” he was asking.

In a fog of conflicting emotions, she answered him. “That was my stepdad… my mum just died.”

Luc shook his head and placed an arm around Felicity’s shoulder, “Wow, two in one day, that’s a REAL bummer…Your shot!”

Felicity forcefully removed his arm from her shoulder, “My god, what sort of a monster are you” she screamed, “Two of my family have just died and all you care about is this bloody stupid game?”

Luc stepped back, clearly, she was upset.

“To be fair, is there anything you can do to help them right now?” he asked.

Wiping tears from her eyes, Flick admitted, “No, there’s nothing I can do for THEM!”

“OK,” he continued, “And we have a game in progress, correct?”

Flick nodded in agreement.

“SO, let’s just finish the game.” He concluded.

Somehow what he said made sense, in a weird sort of way. If her mum was indeed dead, she couldn’t help her, and her stepfather had already rung the ambulance…so that was taken care of. Her dad would never let anything stand in the way of a game in progress, that much she knew for sure. Once he’d even played with a broken hand courtesy of a fight he’d just had in the car park. Maybe the best thing was to finish the game, get her mind off the sadness and then help Robert with a clear mind.

“Your shot!” Luc prompted.

Felicity eyed the table, checking out all the possible shots she could take, she stalked around like a leopard watching its prey, then when she saw the perfect shot, she took it and SLAM, sunk her first ball.

Luc moved up alongside her…” Nice shot, let’s hope you’ve got a few more of those in you.”

He moved around the table, checking out his options, and finally decided, “One ball, corner pocket” he announced with confidence, and with a deft stroke he sent the one ball into its pocket.

Felicity’s phone buzzed once again. She looked at the screen. ‘Mum’. “Must be Robert calling to find out where I am” she thought.

She flipped the phone open and answered, “Hey Robert, I’ll be there soon…has the ambulance arrived yet?” she asked.

The female voice that answered wasn’t Robert, and it wasn’t her mother either.

“Hello,” the woman said, “Is this Felicity?”

Somewhat confused she responded “Yes, this is me, who’s that?”

“Felicity this is Pinar Reacen, I’m one of the Paramedics responding to the emergency call for your mother.”

Suddenly Felicity had perfect clarity. “Yes, how is she? What’s happening?”

Pinar continued, “Well, I’m not sure how to explain this. We responded to the call from your stepfather, Robert, but when we arrived, we found them both dead on the floor. Seems Robert has had a heart attack while we were enroute to the location…I’m sorry, but they’re both gone.”

Felicity was numb, her whole extended family had been taken from her in the blinking of an eye. How was this possible, was this even possible?

A lone voice cut through the haze, “Flick, your shot!”

She shook her head, and the haze was gone, “NO, NO MORE GAME” was her only thought.

With fire in her eyes she looked at Luc; how could he be so heartless and uncaring at a time like this. Her world was falling apart and all he cared about was this stupid game, all he cared about was getting laid. ENOUGH!

She glared at Luc, “I don’t know what planet you’re from, but here on earth we have a thing called compassion. I’ve just lost my family and all you care about is this bloody game, well I’ve got bigger thing to think about.” She screamed, tears flowing freely as her sadness and anger grew.

“I’m leaving, and don’t try to stop me…you’re pathetic!

Luc watched calmly as she collected her things and headed towards the exit.

As she neared the front door, he stepped in front of her to block her way.

Felicity stopped, inches away from his face. “MOVE!” was all she said.

Luc smiled and spoke in a calm voice, “You could leave right now, but if you do, you forfeit the game.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing, he thought she’d be worried about their stupid bet.

“Holy Crap dude, do you think I really care about that stupid bet?” she screamed, “As if I’d sleep with you after the way you’ve treated me and the way you’ve reacted…I’ll be happy if I never see your smug face again!”

The two were standing nose to nose and Felicity delivered her final insult and pushed past Luc towards the exit.

Luc seemed confused, “Sleep with me, why would you be sleeping with me? That wasn’t the bet!”

Felicity stopped, mere inches from the exit and turned to face him once again.

“OK smart arse, what was the bet?” she asked.

Luc’s’ eyes took on a slightly redder tone than before as he straightened up and pulled his vest down at the front. “Shouldn’t you have asked that BEFORE we started to play.?”

Her dad had always said to her, “Make sure you know what the stakes are before you play the game, if it’s too high, cut your losses and walk away. There’s always another game!”

The realization dawned on Felicity that she’d just assumed she knew what Luc was talking about when they made the bet, she hadn’t confirmed the stakes. She had broken one of her dads’ golden rules.

“Yes, you’re right…I should have made sure, I just thought you were into me, and you were getting a bit ‘flirty,’ you know!” Her voice trailed off as she realized the mistake she’d made.

“Well,” said Luc, “let me clarify our little wager for you.”

He produced a notepad from his top pocket and turned over the top page.

“Never could stand those tablet thingy’s,” he said indicating his old-style notepad, “plus my batteries never run out!” He gave Flick a smile that revealed the evil within.

Flick stood, stunned as he ran his finger down the pages of his notebook. She could barely comprehend what was happening, it all seemed like some sort of bad dream.

Finally, Luc stopped…” OK, so I have listed here your brother, mother, and stepfather…those three I already have, now there’s a couple of Aunts, an uncle, a cousin or two…. OH YES, and our friend Pierre over here.” Luc turned and waved to Pierre behind the bar. Pierre cautiously waved back.

Felicity had had enough, “Look whoever you really are, cut the bullshit and get to the point, what’s so important about that game that you expect me to ignore my family when they need me?”

Luc leaned forward and lowered his voice, “My dear, you have no idea just how much they really need you right now,” and a sinister smile crossed his face as he continued, “This game, is everything, it’s a game for, as your dad would say, ‘All the marbles’!” He tucked his notepad back into his pocket as he continued to explain. “Right now, you can walk out that door and forfeit our game, you’re free to do that if you like. But know this, if you do, the lives of everyone on my list, excluding you, are forfeited too. You can continue with your wicked, wicked ways, but they will have paid the price, your choice!”

Flick was just now coming to terms with what she was hearing and realizing exactly who she’d been playing with.

“Lucifer” she whispered softly

Luc smiled back at her, “Come on…just call me Luc!”

“NOW,” he took Flick by the shoulder and steered her back towards the gaming table, “If you’d like to continue playing, and if you WIN…I’ll give them all back to you, and it will just be like a bad dream.”

“And if I lose…?” she asked, not really wanting to hear the answer.

“Ah,” said Luc, “If you lose, I get all of them, plus you. Isn’t that just delicious?”

By now they had made their way back to their table where it had sat untouched for the last few minutes, the balls all still in the same positions as before. As Felicity looked closer at each of the balls, she saw the faces of her family members coming into focus, a different person in each ball.

She retrieved her cue from her case and screwed the two halves together.

Chalking the end of her cue she took her shot and missed completely, her mind still in turmoil. She turned to Luc, pure hatred in her eyes and pure determination in her soul. “Ok Sunshine, your shot!”

Luc took his cue and circled the table, carefully assessing each variant of each shot as well as the faces of the people contained within each ball. “This should be fun,” he quipped as he took his next shot. And missed!

This was her chance, time to even the playing field!

Her next two shots were dead on perfect as she sunk two more balls, the game was back on an even footing.

“Nicely done,” complimented Luc, “Let’s just hope you don’t get too distracted during the rest of the game.”

Felicity wasn’t sure exactly what he meant by that remark, until he sunk another ball and her phone rang once again, telling her of another death in the family, this time her four-year-old cousin who’d had an asthma attack.

“So that’s how you’re playing it is it,” she spat at Luc, “Every ball down is going to be another phone call, another death?”

Luc looked at her mockingly, “Would you rather an email, or perhaps a text?” he smiled briefly and then became stone-faced once again, “Your shot!”

The game continued, shot for shot, each time Luc managed to sink a ball, Flick’s phone would go off. She got to the point where she didn’t even bother to look at it, much less answer it. She had to keep her focus, she had to win. For the sake of everyone she held near and dear, she had to play the game of her life.

Finally, it came down to one last shot, the two of them were on the eight ball, playing for the game.

“Your shot!” said Luc.

Felicity leaned into the table, all her concentration focused on the shot, she could hear her dad’s words in her head… ‘See the shot like you’ve already made it, see the ball where you want it, not where it is!’

Her eyes flicked from the cue ball to the eight ball, then over to the pocket.

As they did, she noticed a face starting to reflect in the surface of the eight ball. There hadn’t been a face in the eight before, so she watched as it formed…. was this another person he was going to try and steal from her? Slowly, the features came into focus and Felicity could see that she was staring into her own eyes.

She took a deep breath!

And she sent the cue ball on its way….

THE END