“You got a bigger heart.” – Valentin to Jim.
Jim put up a good front, he thought, though all he wanted to do was collapse in a bed. He trudged up the stairs, heading into his hotel room. He shut the door and lumbered over the few steps across the room to the queen sized bed and collapsed face-first onto it.
His muscles almost sighed in relief. What Val had done to him, with him last night, was unbelievable. Part of him couldn’t think of doing it again, but another part, the more risque part, said to him, “Let’s have another go ’round again!”
He moaned at that voice in his mind, whispering, “You’re crazy.” He heard the phone ring on the nightstand. “Oh, hell, go away…” He moved slowly, tipping the phone off the cradle and fumbling for it. “Hello,” he moaned.
“There’s a man down here to see you,” said the woman at the desk.
Nobody knew he was here except Val. He rested his head against the cool pillow, his head turned to look at the clock. He had dozed off, and it was after dinner time. Val was still working. So who could it be?
“Who is it?”
He heard muffling as the question was asked, and the answer, “He says you’d know him if you saw him.”
Jim exhaled sharply, “I’ll be right down,” he moaned, and replaced the phone on the cradle. He rolled over, muscles creaking, and hoisted himself up using the headboard. He figured he’d have to go get something to eat anyway, so he gathered his wallet and vest and went back outside.
He could hear some jazz wafting along the wind as he headed across the balconies, down the wooden stairs to the main lobby. He opened the door and he stopped short, upon seeing a ghost.
The man was tall and thin, with slicked back hair in a tasteful pony tail and a soul patch on his chin. Everything about him was thin and white, from his bony hands and face to the crisp white suit he wore.
“Well, well, The Amazing Aster,” said the man, his Southern drawl dragging out the vowels.
“Old Nick,” said Jim. The woman behind the counter stared, her attention away from the TV for once.
“You do me a disservice, sir,” said the man. “I’m sorry we parted under such harsh circumstances.” The man smiled, white and bright – and creepy.
“What do you want?”
“Why, sir, to see what you are up to – the rumor was that you retired.”
“Not quite,” Jim said.
“Let me take you to dinner, sir, and we can discuss this further.”
“That depends – do I have to sign for it?”
Nick laughed, a deep bellow from such a thin man. “It’s all on me, Aster.” Nick moved to the door and opened it for Jim. “After you, sir.”
After Nick stepped out into the air, Jim crossed the busy street to the restaurant across the way. It was more bar and grill than restaurant, but he wanted a noisy busy place to be, a place full of people so that Nick wouldn’t get any ideas.
However, even though the bar had a lot of people, they made way for Nick and Jim as they headed to a booth in the back. The music here was low key jazz, noise as far as Jim was concerned, but not very loud. He frowned, and sat in the booth across from Nick, wincing.
“Are you all right?”
“First time I used the gym,” Jim said. “I pulled a few muscles.”
“I can teach you something for that – ”
“I’m fine,” Jim snapped. “What do you really want?”
“Your happiness and welfare is, of course, my concern,” said Nick. “Are you looking for work here?”
“Maybe.”
Nick leaned forward. “You do not have to be hedgey with me, Aster. I know your wishes.”
Jim leaned back, his arms crossed. “I don’t think you do anymore. Because if you did, you know I would have signed on that dotted line those three months ago.”
“What do you expect to find here in Vibora Bay?”
“Soul.”
Nick leaned back, and again laughed, “Because you’re missing it?”
“Because I haven’t had it in so long.” This time, he leaned forward. “I know what is. I know where it is. I know how to get it, too. And your way isn’t the way to get it.”
“You’re returning your gifts? You can’t do that.”
“Oh, I’m aware of that, you told me that the first day I met you. I’m just saying, Old Nick, that there’s more to life than success and fame and the big car and nice house.” He smiled, “Sometimes, it’s the simple things that can make a man happy.”
“You, simple?”
“I’ve changed since you made me that offer. I thought long and hard about it. I’m still refusing.”
“For now, but the first time a trick goes wrong, that a trick is beyond you and you want to learn it, you’ll think twice.”
“You’ve given me these gifts of your own free will,” said Jim. “You even said that there were no strings, no payments, nothing more than my own success, you said. I hold you to that, Old Nick.”
Suddenly, the man’s eyes twinkled and he said, “Are you sure you should?”
Jim leaned back and the waitress arrived. Nick ordered the house white, while Jim’s stomach had suddenly flipped and he flustered an order of water with lime. Jim waited for the waitress to walk away before he hissed, “You lied?”
Nick chuckled, low and deep.
Jim’s muscles protested mightily as he slid out of the booth.
“Sit, please – ”
“No. No. You leave me alone, stay out of my life. I have what I have and I’m happy with that.”
“I didn’t lie to you.”
“What’s to say you’re not lying now!”
Jim wanted people around in case Nick was going to cause a scene. Instead, he was. “Stay. Out. Of. My. Life,” Jim said, almost snarling, getting closer to the man.
The man reached up and straightened Jim’s collar as Jim stood over him. “You want to learn new tricks? You’ll have to go through me sometime.”
Jim jerked away. He was happy with what he had, wasn’t he? He could saw a lady in half, pull rabbits out of hats, release doves from silk scarves – do all the things a stage magician could do, and he could do it well. He didn’t need any more, did he?
“The simple things,” Jim said, and turned on his heel, walking out.