Shelly's Second Chance (The Wish Granters, Book One) (7 page)

“He is your fiancé.”

“Oh yeah, my eternal fiancé.
We’ve been engaged for three years and it’s getting embarrassing. My friends
have stopped even asking when we’ll set a date. Well he finally agreed to our
engagement party. And then I . . .” she stopped suddenly.

“And?” Alanna prodded.

“Well I made a mistake. A big
mistake. I admit it. It’s not the end of the world, though. Still I shouldn’t
have done it. He says he won’t marry me as long as I have ‘the problem.’” She
made air quotes with her fingertips, her speech slightly slurred by now. “But I
don’t think I have a problem. In fact, I think I’m having the time of my life.”

Chapter Twelve

It was strange, to say the
least, this manifesting in and out. The next time Alanna was actually aware of
anything, she and Joe were standing on a slick marble floor in the opulent lobby
of the Bellagio, with an expansive ceiling made of blown glass flowers that
looked like an ocean of brightly colored jellyfish. Through throngs of people
moving around the lobby, all seeming to be on their way to somewhere very
important, they saw Shelly dwarfed by a mahogany and granite reception counter
long enough to serve a buffet supper for an army battalion.

She laughed and joked with
the receptionists as they presented her with a gigantic replica of her
Vegas
Chance
ticket and gathered around to make a fuss over the big winner. They
handed her a magnum of champagne, which she cradled like a baby in the crook of
her arm. Someone gave her a card key to her suite and a voucher for chips at
the casino and she squealed like a teenager who’s just spotted Justin Bieber.
She could hardly contain herself when two uniformed bellmen escorted her to the
elevator with her one tattered roller bag sitting all alone in the middle of a
gigantic, brass, hotel luggage cart.

Alanna motioned to Joe to
follow but there were too many people milling around the lobby and the elevator
doors shut before they could get in, which turned out not to matter because
they manifested outside her door sometime after the staff bellmen had left.
Supposedly they could have manifested inside the suite but Alanna thought
they’d better wait. After all, Shelly deserved some privacy, at least at the
start of this escapade.

*****

The minute Shelly was alone she
sank onto the bed, sighed and said to herself, “Now this is what I call a win.”

She lay there staring at the
ceiling, letting the thick feather comforter cushion her in luxury. She
imagined she was on her honeymoon. Finally. That the wedding had been beautiful,
that her friends and family were all happy for her, that Ben was proud of the
woman he’d chosen for a wife. She imagined all her troubles had simply melted
into the mist. Why couldn’t life be like that?

After her mind quieted, she
stood up to examine the suite more thoroughly. The bellman had shown her all
the amenities—fully stocked mini bar, gorgeous view, flat screen with anything
you wanted to watch, buttons to push for service of any kind—including an
in-room massage, something to think about for later—and of course the
California king bed, pillows plumped like puff pastries. Now she wandered to
the bathroom and eyed the Jacuzzi, which was big enough for six people.
Wouldn’t that be nice before hitting the casino? She decided to go for it.

When it was full, she sank
into the warm bubbly water and let it roll around her body. Her mind wandered
wherever it wanted to go. The image of Ben came to her. It was pleasant to
think back on that day they first met, when they’d been invited by a mutual
friend to a beach party right before the Fourth of July
.
Ben was fit and athletic
with a shock of curly dark hair and an easy grin. Everyone liked him,
especially the ladies. So when he took to Shelly, she was thrilled. It was one
of those relaxed days with volley ball and giant coolers filled with food and beer
, a perfect summer party
that lasted past dusk and into the night. A half moon
had come
up,
lighting a silver path across the ocean. They had walked far away from the
others, talking and when he took her hand in his, it was like they were meant
to be.

Everyone says their love
affairs are “meant to be” but Shelly and Ben
really
did seem to start out very—there was
no other word for it—lucky. For example, within minutes of talking they learned
that they were both off of work for the whole week. After that first week, it
was easy. He was on the road a lot but when he was in town they were
inseparable.

He worked hard. He’d grown up
poor. So had Shelly. He was determined never to let his family go without. They
both understood what it meant to endlessly want what you couldn’t have. To
measure yourself by
all
those
extras you had to give up just for the basics. And there was
something else. Ben’s father had been a drinker. Ben never used the word
alcoholic. He only referred to his father as “that poor slob.”

Shelly closed her eyes and
swirled water around herself. She could see Ben’s face the first time she asked
about his family. At first he looked guarded, like he didn’t trust her. Then he
looked sad and then he got so angry that Shelly had been frightened.

“Why do you want to know
about that poor slob?” he’d been agitated and his voice rose in a way that had
worried Shelly. She had told him to calm down, that it was a perfectly normal
question between two people who were in a relationship.

He did calm down. Months
later he brought it up again. “He was killed in a car accident when I was a
senior in college.”

Before Shelly could express
the regret that is expected in such cases, Ben held up his hand as if to say “No,
don’t say it.” Instead of letting her talk he said, in one short sentence that
was meant to close the topic forever, “He was drunk; at least he didn’t take
anyone with him.”

Thinking about it now, Shelly
could understand why Ben had insisted she go to GA. She let the water out of
the tub and, just as she slipped into a luxuriously thick robe that enveloped
her like a lover, her cell phone dinged. She picked it up and read a text from
Ben. It said:
calld
& calld u nvr pkd up need 2 talk.

Instead of answering, Shelly
walked to a large ornate desk where a gift basket had been placed. She now
poked around in it to see what they’d provided. Inside was a gift certificate
to the beauty salon for a hair styling and manicure. Just as she smiled and
looked down at her ragged nails there was a knock at her door.

Chapter Thirteen

Shelly answered the door cradling the champagne magnum the
hotel had given her, which was a Moet, at three fifty a bottle. They didn’t
scrimp on anything in Vegas, it seemed
. O
ne look at the suite they’d put Shelly in
confirmed that.

“Joe?” She looked stunned to
see him. “What are you doing here? This is weird. And how did you know which
was my room? And you again?” She pointed to Alanna with her free hand.

“Shelly, we have to talk,”
Joe began.

“We? Who is we?”

“This is Alanna. She and I
are … ” but Shelly didn’t let him finish.

“I know who she is. We got to
know each other real well on the plane.” This was only partly true since Shelly
had done all the talking.

“Well I don’t have time to talk.
I’ve got to clean up and change and get down to the casino. Have you seen it? I
haven’t
,
but
based on this suite they
gave me,
I bet it’s really great. Isn’t this gorgeous? I guess I should
thank you for all this. If you hadn’t made me buy that ticket with my last
dollar. And first I have to visit the beauty parlor. See?” She held up the
certificate, which was a deep pink, and finally took a breath.

Joe held up his hand to keep
her from starting again.

“There really are some things
we need to get straight about winning this lottery ticket, Shelly. Some things
you need to know. It’s not exactly what it seems. Can we come in?”

A suspicious look crossed
Shelly’s face and her shoulders slumped a bit. She let the champagne bottle
release from the crook of her arm and turned away from the door, allowing Joe
and Alanna to follow her. She stuck the champagne bottle in a bucket of ice the
bellmen had placed next to the bar and walked over to one of the floor to
ceiling glass panels that looked out to the dazzling view of the city and the
Bellagio fountain.

“I knew it was too good to be
true. I knew there had to be a catch.” She sighed and plunked down on a cushy
stuffed chair. “So what do I have to do? Entertain some bigwig?” She made her
classic air quotes as she said the word entertain. “Because I may be poor and
in debt but I don’t do that sort of thing. What do I owe you for the plane fare
and the car from the airport? I’ll pay it all back. It may take some time but I
will.”

“It’s nothing like that,”
Alanna assured her.

“Oh Lord, no,” said Joe.

“Well who are you people
then? How do you know each other and what do you want with me? I’m nobody. I
don’t have any money and I can’t do anything for you.” She pushed up from the
chair and stood uncertainly as if she didn’t know whether to walk out or stay
put. She felt a little embarrassed to be talking to them in a robe.

“I think you’d better sit
back down to hear what we have to tell you.” Alanna waved toward the chair and
sat down on another one facing her. She smiled and nodded to Joe to take a seat
as well but he stood where he was. The look on his face, still the defense
attorney, said: “Okay, make your case and make it good.”

“This is going to be hard for
you to accept,” Alanna began. “See, Joe and I,” she stopped. This was going to
be harder to explain than she’d thought but then Joe broke in.

“We’ve been assigned to give
you a special gift.” He stopped and looked from Shelly to Alanna. That hardly
covered the subject but it was a start.

“That’s right. A gift. And
we’re here to help you use that gift.” Alanna echoed.

“You’re going to help me
gamble?” Shelly’s tone said it all. “I already know how to do that.” She sat
quietly for a minute and then, just as Joe started to speak, she said, “Oh I
get it. I’m the patsy, huh? You guys have some kind of counting system and
you’ve been banned from the casinos so you need someone to lay bets for you.
Well you can forget it. I’ll do my own gambling with my own chips and keep all
the winnings. I don’t need any help from you and I’m not splitting anything
with you.” She stood up and brushed the wrinkles from the plush robe.

“What if you lose?” Alanna
asked quietly.

“Yes,” Joe echoed. “You seem
to lose pretty often. Matter of fact
,
most people do.”

“But this is different,”
Shelly shook her head. “
T
his time I’m going to win. I don’t need you
two for that.”

“And you don’t want to know
how you got that ticket and why we’re here? It has nothing to do with gambling.
Really,” Alanna said.

“So you don’t want a piece of
the action?”

Joe and Alanna both shook
their heads. Shelly looked from one to the other. They could see she was trying
to figure out what was going on but she couldn’t quite get her mind around the
situation.

“Where did you come from
anyway?” This was directed at Joe. “You weren’t on that plane.”

“Sit down, Shelly,” Joe told
her. And this time she did.

*****

Alanna thought they hadn’t
told Shelly enough. Joe thought they had explained just the right amount, that
it was too soon to give her more than the essential fact that she had been
granted a wish. Who, what, when, where, and how could come later.

“She’s going to start
thinking we’ll give her anything and everything she wants,” Alanna argued.

“She’ll find out soon enough.
Anyway we’re not even sure how much we can do for her, are we?”

They had manifested near a
fountain somewhere. It was inside but they had no idea if it was inside a hotel
or a promenade or part of a casino complex. Las Vegas was almost as confusing
as Transition.

“I wish we could just get set
down somewhere normal,” Alanna said. “I’ve never felt so off kilter.”

They sat down in chairs by
the fountain surrounded by potted trees and banks of flowers. The scent was
pleasant and the sound of the water soothing.

“Maybe after we grant enough
wishes, we’ll move on. But you want to get back to life.”

“Don’t you?” Joe sounded
surprised.

“I don’t know.”

At that moment a scrap of
littered paper blew against Joe’s foot and stuck there. He reached down
absently to pull it off but it stuck to his hand so he tried to get it loose by
flicking his hand. When it wouldn’t detach, Alanna reached out and pulled it
away.

“Look,” she handed it to Joe.
“Does this mean anything to you?”

It was a printed list of
names with the last one torn in half at the bottom of the paper scrap. Joe
studied it.