46 - Poker

*Figure out what’s important, Jasper. Your grandmother is seeing dark shadows around you. That woman has never made a wrong prediction that I know about. – Zydeco*
Camille sat between Darkness’ legs on one of the large recliners in the basement. After he lost several games of Mario Kart, she took the controller and proceeded to beat his niece and nephews for the next few games. As she once again crossed the finish line, she let out a whoop and gave a fist pump in the air.
“How did you get so good?” Vin asked as he came in third.
“The musketeers,” she grinned. “Three of my best friends, Athos, Porthos and Aramis, love this game. While they would sleep, I would play and learn the cheats.”
“Will you teach us the cheats?” Marty asked as he turned to look at her from where he sat on the floor.
“Yeah,” Camille nodded.
Darkness watched as the smiles fell from all three kids’ faces as they looked behind her. Curious about what they saw, he started to turn to look over his shoulder. Jasper’s voice stopped his actions and answered his unasked questions.
“Amos, can we speak?”
Darkness turned Camille’s face to him with a knuckle under her chin and gave her a quick kiss. “Teach them how to beat me even worse.”
Chuckling, she gave him another kiss. “I don’t know if you can get any worse.”
“You doubt my ability to lose horribly at video games?”
“Not even a little,” she smirked.
With a soft chuckle of his own, he put the feet down and waited for her to stand up before he also stood and then moved to follow his brother up the stairs. Her voice followed them up the stairs as she was explaining something about a boost at the starting line.
Keisha’s extended family was gone, as was their own odd and hodge-podge family, and Darkness was grateful that the man cave was empty as they entered. Jasper got out two beers from the small refrigerator behind the bar. Twisting off the lid, Darkness snapped it between his fingers, watching it spin backwards a few inches before bouncing off his chest and dropping to the ground.
Smirking, he picked it up and found his older brother looking at him with confusion clearly written on his face. “You should see Cam snap the lid. She can send it across the room.”
Jasper nodded as he dropped his own lid into the trash before going and sitting at the poker table. Darkness tossed his own lid into the small can under the counter before joining his brother as the cards were shuffled. He wasn’t sure if the table was a distraction or a protection.
“Blue is one, white is five, red is ten, black is twenty and yellow is fifty.”
Darkness nodded and looked at the slots with the six different colored chips. “What’s green?”
“A hundred.” Jasper answered. “Tell me about her.”
“Why?” Darkness asked with a dry chuckle.
Sighing, Jasper started to deal the cards out. “You think she’s great, tell me why.”
“Why do you care?” Darkness countered as he looked at his cards.
“I worry about you.”
“Bullshit.”
Jasper looked up at him and froze under the hard glare.
“You haven’t given a damn about me our entire lives. Where were you when I graduated high school? Boot camp? When I got married? When we lost our baby? When we got divorced? When I got hurt in Iraq?”
“I was working, I have a family.” Jasper gritted out.
“You and everyone else in the fucking world.” Darkness snarled as he discarded two cards and motioned for them to be replaced. “And yet, others still found themselves able to come to my important events. To stand beside when I needed them. Support me when I was down and applaud me when I was up. Everyone but you.”
The older brother tossed out a few chips from his stacks in the rounded slots along the edge of the table. “I don’t need to be affiliated with the Cajuns.”
Chunking his own chips out before discarding another card, he scoffed. “Or me.”
“You have to admit that it’s not a good look for me,” Jasper discarded two cards and drew others before tossing out more chips.
“Heaven forbid you appear human,” Darkness shook his head and threw out more chips. “Call.”
Jasper laid out his cards as he looked at his younger brother, “Four of a kind.”
Looking at his brothers four eights and single five, he smirked and laid out his own, “Suicidal kings and red queens.”
Collecting his winning chips and the cards to shuffle them back into the deck, he looked at his younger brother. “What do you want me to say?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. But for years, I just wanted you to remember that I was around.”
Jasper scoffed. “How could I forget? We were constantly having to cater to you. I just wanted to go out to eat, but we couldn’t because you couldn’t go to a restaurant without having an episode.”
“Something about watching your parents being killed inside a restaurant kind of puts you off them. And I know that Zy took you out to eat. Don’t give me that bullshit.”
Hs flinched slightly at the reminder of their parents’ death. But he recovered quickly and dealt a new hand. “It was more than that.” Jasper sighed. “You and dad and Zy, you guys all clicked. I was always the odd man out.”
It was Darkness’ turn to scoff this time. “I may have been in the Navy, but damn it, Jasper, you are a *thoracic surgeon*.” He picked up his new cards, discarded three and tossed a few chips out into the center of the table. “I’m the kid that didn’t speak for two years, received therapy and benefits checks and has never slept a full night in my life.”
They each continued to discard and draw cards and toss out chips while they spoke.
“All of your survivor benefits were put into a savings account. Twelve years of checks, that’s a lot of money.”
“It’s all still there, I went to the Navy, not college. Call.”
Jasper laid out three fours and two sevens. “Are you sure that she’s not using you for your money?”
Shaking his head, Darkness laid out his cards one at a time, using them to make an emphasis on what he was saying.
Ten of clubs. “She skipped a grade and graduated a year early.”
Jack of clubs. “She graduated in the top ten of her class.”
Queen of clubs. “She’s on full scholarship for dive.”
King of clubs. “She has a 3.8 grade point average.”
Ace of clubs. “She’s a fifty percent owner of a public relations and marketing company.”
Jasper looked at the Royal Flush and then looked at his brother as he tossed out a blue chip.
“That bike out there of hers? She bought it, herself.” A white chip clinked against the other. “She also has a Jeep Wrangler that she bought.”
“Anyone can get financing thee days.” Jasper sneered.
A red chip landed on the others. “Bought it herself, no financing, no cosigner.”
“You believe this?”
“I’ve seen the paperwork.” He tossed out a black chip. “She has a trust fund that fifty percent of what she makes goes into and she can’t touch it until after she graduates.”
With a little too much force, he tossed a yellow chip out and it bounced across the table forcing Jasper to grab it before it fell off the table. “Her bring home averages sixty thousand a year.”
“Sixty thousand? For public relations?”
“And marketing. And she codes.” Darkness slapped a green chip on the table. “Despite how horribly you and that bitch of a wife treated her, she’s still hoping that you like you. Because she thinks that you’re important to me.”
Darkness stood up, forcing his brother to crane his head backwards to look up at his younger brother. “I’m not sure if you are important to me anymore. We’ll be leaving tomorrow.”
Leaving the untouched beer where it was, Darkness pushed his chair back and headed for the door.
“Amos…” jasper called but the other man did not stop.