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Part IV: The Rolling River
Chapter 2: Aces Wild
The day of the poker game, everyone scurried about excitedly aboard the El Diablo. Jannie was busy preparing a feast for those attending, suggested by Emerald and spurred on by Roberto, who saw it as a good way for them to make some money. Since Emerald had never come up with the five thousand dollars, he'd stopped worrying about the game.
The players had deposited their ante with the town mayor, the attractive and charming Honorable Anderson D. Richards. And for some reason, Telamarine set her sights on the mayor. Perhaps, the others reasoned, it was because he resembled a certain no account Ricardo from Blackbeard's mansion.
Richards had hired Rusty and Josefina to guard the safe in the captain's cabin aboard the boat. And Widgit had offered to help, by setting the dishes and cutlery on the tables and primping the flowers, actions totally out of character for her.
Ursula stood back and watched them all, her arms crossed over her chest, a frown on her forehead. She saw the casino come alive and noted how the mariners all blended into their new backgrounds and worked together.
"What's the matter?" Miguel asked Ursula, wrapping his arms around her from behind and giving her a kiss on her ear.
"When things go this well, it worries me," she said. "I don't know what to expect. I can't see the enemy."
"Maybe there are no enemies," he said, turning her to face him. "Maybe there's just us."
His deep brown eyes smiled down on her, but she couldn't shake a sense of uneasiness. Then he gave her a gentle kiss on the lips and then headed off to run some errands of his own, but Ursula wasn't reassured. Too much was going too well for her peace of mind. Sighing, she joined the others.
__________
"Doesn't everything look beautiful?" Emerald said, cooing to Roberto as she carefully placed the napkins by each dish in the dining area. He smiled and nodded, then disappeared into the galley to see Jannie. Emerald hid a mischievous grin and kept working.
"How's it going in here?" Roberto asked, coming up behind Jannie as she stirred a great pot of gumbo. She was smiling from ear to ear. Her long, calico dress was covered by a large, white bib apron, and ringlets of her hair stuck to her forehead, damp from the steam.
"This was such a great idea," she said. "I can't believe Emerald came up with it. And I thought she hated me!"
"Maybe she got over it," he said, not believing his own words. "How are you feeling?"
"Better," she said. "It must have been a touch of the flu."
He kissed her on her neck and gave her a hug.
"At least we don't have to worry about Emerald trying to gamble for this ship," he said.
"Would that really have been so bad?" Jannie asked. Her feelings toward Emerald had mellowed quite a bit since they'd started working on this event. "After all, if she had the money, it would be hers to spend anyway she wanted."
"Even if she got killed over it?" he asked, surprised.
Jannie turned to face him, held the spoon to his lips and gave him a taste of the gumbo. He accepted the offer and nodded in appreciation.
"Of course not. That's not what I meant. I just.... It's her life, Roberto. Maybe we should stay out of it."
She poured some of the gumbo into a bowl for him to eat.
He kissed her long and deep on the mouth, then shook his head.
"You are an incorrigible romantic," he said with a smile, as he dug into the food.
From just outside the galley door, Emerald watched and waited, and when he was done eating, she slipped away, unnoticed.
Roberto left Jannie to her cooking and returned to the casino, to find Ursula standing in the middle of the room and looking confused.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
She shook her head.
"Something is wrong," she said. "I just haven't figured out what, yet."
"You're starting to sound like Emerald," he teased. "Hearing voices?"
"Make sure everyone is here, especially Josefina and Aphrodite," Ursula instructed. "I've got a bad feeling about this."
He nodded and took off.
__________
She found him in a cabin he was using during the event. Roberto had decided to rest for awhile, fighting a headache that had been bothering him since he'd left the galley. 'I must be catching that flu,' he thought, trying to keep the room from spinning. Then he felt the warmth of a woman nearby. At first he thought it was Jannie, but then he realized it couldn't have been. The smell was wrong. The shade. The coloring. He couldn't see real well. He knew he had to get up. Someone kissed him, and he forgot everything else.
The woman smiled to herself. 'Three times,' the witch queen had told her. 'You must lie with him three times. Each time he will love you, but only for awhile. The third time, he will love you forever.'
When he woke, he wondered what the dream meant.
__________
"Has everyone handed in their money?" Roberto asked Rusty, who was engaged in a card game of his own with Josefina, Oliver and Aphrodite, while keeping an eye on the cash.
"Not yet. We have one more contestant, a Mr. E., who hasn't shown up yet," he said.
"Let me know when he does," Roberto instructed. He was beginning to share Ursula's sense of foreboding.
"He has until the end of dinner," Aphrodite reminded him. Her reddish blonde hair was array and a small heart tattoo peaked over the bodice of her dress. Below the table, her bare feet curled up on a small rug. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't shake the wildness out of her heart.
"There may be trouble," Roberto said. "Keep a sharp eye out. And make sure you guys are around when the game starts."
"What can I do?" Oliver asked, looking up at Roberto with unbridled admiration.
"Nothing!" Rusty and Roberto said at once.
"Just stay someplace safe. I may need you to go for help," Roberto finished, then he returned to the casino, leaving Oliver crestfallen.
"Who is he kidding?" Josefina asked, after Roberto had left. "If trouble breaks out on this ship, no one is coming to help. They'll stay away until the dust settles, then they'll come to clean up the mess and loot the place."
"You are becoming a cynic," Rusty remarked.
"I'm being realistic. Now, how about a hand of strip poker?"
"What?" asked Oliver.
__________
"My part of the bargain is almost completed," Widgit whispered to Emerald as they served the food. "Don't forget, once the El Diablo is yours, you will convince Ursula to let me have the scepter. Got it?"
"I got it, I got it," Emerald replied, irritated. "How can I forget? I get the boat, Ursula gets to have Rosalita back, and you get the scepter."
"And you get Roberto," added Widgit.
Emerald smiled.
"And don't even think of double crossing me," Widgit warned.
Feeling insulted, Emerald turned on her heel and left.
As dinner wound down, the contestants stepped forward, and Rusty and Josefina retrieved the money for a public counting. As the cash was laid out in neat bundles across the main table, Emerald, now changed into an elegant black lace dress that accented her blonde hair, plopped a carpetbag into the middle of it all.
"What's this?" asked the mayor, looking up in surprise.
"It's my ante," Emerald said. "Five thousand dollars. Count it."
She held her breath, praying the illusion would work. Everyone looked stunned.
"You can't do that," said Ursula, a knot suddenly forming in her gut. "Everyone registered in advance."
"So did I," Emerald said, "As Mr. E. Now, here's my money, count it and let me play."
"Let the little lady play," one man yelled, wiping his ale from his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt. "Her money is as good as anyone else's!"
Others cheered him on.
Worried about stirring up trouble, the mayor ordered Rusty to open Emerald's bag and count the money. There it was: all five grand, counted and neatly stacked.
"Where'd you get it all?" Roberto asked, warily. He was still feeling a little lightheaded.
"I have backers," Emerald said, smiling sideways at Widgit.
"Let the games begin!" announced the mayor. Everyone found a seat.
'From the Chronicles of the Orb Nymph, by Mistress LaFitz':
Emerald played her hands with astuteness, discretion and a finesse I found surprising. She had been practicing for this day -- in cards and in acting. She won some hands, lost others, but always made sure her total winnings outnumbered her losses. She was polite and courteous and soft spoken with her opponents, smiling and blushing when they allowed a rough word or comment to slip their tongues. It unnerved them. It kept them on their edge. It made it easier for her to read them.
As the players fell by the side, some staying to watch and some leaving, Emerald worked her way to the top of the rung, and when the last round started, she was not the biggest winner at the table.
Former members of the Orb Nymph and La Beltranista surrounded the room, keeping an eye on the players and on the crowd, watching for trouble. In the end, when the last hand was played and Emerald revealed a royal flush, a gasp could be heard throughout the room.
Her opponent, a distinguished man of means and character, smiled bravely and gave her a slight bow before leaving. That made everyone more nervous, for no one knows what plots live in the mind of a composed enemy.
Emerald smiled politely, gathered up her chips, turned to the mayor and presented them to him.
"This ship is mine," she said.
And he agreed.
Three days later, the Mayor Richards and Telamarine were arrested for fraud when the bags of money, opened for counting at the bank, revealed a shortage of five thousand dollars and an abundance of bundles of blank, white paper.
__________
"What did you do and how did you do it?" Roberto demanded to know.
He had called a meeting of the mariners at the casino in the middle of the afternoon. Now, as he faced off against Emerald, he was demanding answers.
"What do you mean?" she asked, innocently. She had to fight the sudden bout of nausea that came with Roberto being angry at her.
As Roberto looked past Emerald, he could see Widgit standing in the background, grinning from ear to ear, enjoying her small revenge.
"You!" he yelled at Widgit. "You were behind this, weren't you?"
"I backed her, if that's what you mean," Widgit said. "There's nothing illegal in that."
"You knew about her powers. You knew she would win. You planned this little scam with her right down to the last shred of paper," he accused.
Widgit strolled forward and glowered back at him.
"So what if I did? She has the right to be happy, doesn't she? All she wanted was to play in the game, and you wouldn't let her!"
Rusty stepped forward, curious.
"But how did you swap the money for paper? When did you swap it?" he asked.
"I never swapped it," Widgit said. "It was never there."
"But I saw it," Rusty argued. "We all saw it. The mayor counted it, himself, in front of us."
"Well, that just goes to show you," Widgit countered, "you can't always trust what you see."
Roberto was silent, staring at her, trying to put the pieces together.
"You put a spell on us?" he asked, astounded. "On all of us?"
Widgit pulled a small jar from her pocket. Inside was a finely ground red powder.
"That's not too hard to do," she said. "A little seasoning in the gumbo, a little color in the drinks, a little suggestion, and people will believe what you want them to believe, and see what you want them to see."
"Get out!" Roberto yelled, pointing to the gangplank. He was furious. "Get out, now!"
"No!" countered Emerald, stepping between Roberto and Widgit.. "This is MY ship now, and Widgit stays!"
"Do you realize what you've done?" Roberto asked Emerald.
"I didn't do it alone," Emerald responded, trying to grin as anxiety wracked her body. "You're sweet little girlfriend helped."
"What?"
Roberto turned to face Jannie, who looked stunned.
"I didn't do anything! I swear!" Jannie objected.
"A little seasoning in the gumbo, a little color in the drinks...." said Widgit.
"I didn't do it! I didn't know! Roberto, you've got to believe me!"
"Why should he believe you and not me?" Emerald asked Jannie. "We're mistresses of the sea, remember? Pirates. Both of us. You can put on new clothes and a new identity, but you can't change who you are."
"Roberto." Jannie paled, her eyes fixed on his.
"It's alright," he said to her softly, taking her hand and squeezing it. "I believe you. You were tricked by them, just as we all were." He turned back to Emerald and Widgit. "We will simply have to raise the ,000 and pay back the bank. Then we'll have to report this to the authorities. It will be up to them, then."
"We can't do that!" said Rosalita Stone. She and Luis had been hanging in the back, listening. "They'll find out who we really are."
"They won't believe such nonsense," Roberto countered.
"Then they'll think we're all witches, or con artists, or worse," Stone responded. "Either way, we're all dead."
"She's right," said Luis. "This is a family matter -- this family, the Crow Island family. We handle it, here and now."
"No one is handling anything!" Emerald objected. "This is my boat, now. You want to play here, you play by my rules."
Roberto thought hard for a moment.
"Very well," he said. Then he took Jannie by the hand, and they left. Over half of the mariners went with them.
Emerald, her heart in her throat and tears burning her eyes, turned on Widgit.
"You said Roberto would love me. You said he'd break off with Jannie. What now?"
Widgit stepped back cautiously, not wanting to upset Emerald more.
"I said: three times you must lie with him. Three times. How many times have you? Tell me!" Widgit said.
"Once."
"Well, then, what do you expect? These things take time."
"But now he won't even let me near him!" Emerald complained.
"You were smart enough to pull off the card game and win the El Diablo," said Widgit. "Surely you're smart enough to get Roberto alone for ten minutes. And, in the meantime, you owe me. Don't forget."
"I need more of the potion."
"Here," Widgit said, pulling a small vial out of another pocket. "This is the second dose. It's stronger than the first one, and it's effects will last longer."
"When do I get the third dose?" Emerald asked.
"When I get the scepter!"
With that, Widgit turned and left.
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