I was wearing a very new, black suit with a kind of beige shirt and red tie. I thought I looked pretty sharp. Upon arriving at the hotel, I told the driver and the bellman to simply bring my bags to my room while I wandered the floor and gambled a bit. Something I’d only ever watched from the sidelines before, I sat alone at a high stakes Blackjack table and I was winning. I started off with $500 bets, and in no time I was betting $10,000 a hand. “You’re doing well,” the dealer told me. “I know. I’ve never played for this much before.” “Will you be taking the gold pieces, sir?” Gold pieces? What the hell was he talking about? Am I done? Am I cashing out? “Yes, I will.” The dealer collected my few, yet quite valuable chips, and handed over twelve heavy, new, very shiny gold coins. I stood up, tipped him one hundred dollars in cash, scooped the heavy coins in my hand, and walked away. Every corner I turned, every hallway I walked down, was blocked off by a constantly moving security team that seemed to have the ability to read my mind as to where I was going – making sure I never bumped into, or even had to contend with on any level, the regular vacationers that were winning and losing by the nickel for fun. I kept stacking and restacking the coins in my hands, from left to right, and then right to left. I let them fall through the extending fingers of one hand into the palm of the other, making a very distinct clickity-clank sound. I did this, over and over, just wandering the casino uninterrupted, contemplating all of life’s mysteries. I had one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in my hands, manifested in only twelve coins. That simple fact weighed heavy on my mind, for I don’t believe I’d ever held that much money in my hands before – yet here I was, wandering a casino with over one tenth of a million dollars in one hand as if it were just another day. I turned a corner, expecting a hallway, and I saw two, wide, red carpeted staircases; one going up and one going down. I looked at my coins and saw that they began to glow subtly, just ever so slightly yellow – as one would probably expect gold to glow. The reach of the light from the coins never went past my hands, but still it was an interesting site. I chose to go downstairs, passing a door or two on every landing, of which there were three or four, until I reached the bottom. At the bottom there were two grand doors, collectively at least four times wider that I am shoulder to shoulder, and at the very least three times as tall as I am. The wood in the doors were of a rich dark wood, with lions engraved all the way from the top to the bottom engaged in all kinds of activities. The very center of the door showed a lion in mid-leap, straight for me, half on one door, and half on the other – and each half craftily broken into six equally large segments - twelve pieces to make on exceptional whole. It made for a very impressive doorway. I looked in my hands, and saw my twelve glowing coins. I took a deep breath and opened the doors. Inside was the grandest of all grand ballrooms. One could barely see one end from the other, and in it was just about everyone I’d ever seen in my life. Mostly people I usually see at all the regular family and community functions, plus a few more. Everyone was dressed very, very well, and it seemed that everyone was waiting for me. Just like at any other banquet, I looked for the table that was obviously sat with those people I usually sit with. And sure enough, pretty much in the immediate center of the room, there was a round table. Sitting there was Lisa, dressed so amazingly fabulous it was as if she were a dream (funny that, especially seeing as how I was in a dream), and at the same table was Dave and Adina. The tables immediately next to them were populated with all our immediate families, and next to those tables, their families and friends, and outward it went, to the very edges of the room, friends of friends of friends of friends… I looked at the coins in my hand. When I opened my fingers to see my outstretched palm, they were stacked perfectly in one, cylindrical column of glowing gold. Upon revealing the coins, everyone in the room gasped and began to smile and nod and give each-other very pleasant knowing glances. Some applauded, some cried out of pure joy, and some just looked on in awe, completely dumbfounded in the unfolding events. I walked up to take my seat next to Lisa, but when I got there she stood up to kiss me. “I so proud of you,” she whispered in my ear. “For what,” I whispered back. She kissed me again. Everyone stood up. I had no idea what was going on. It was as if I was now at the very end of a very long test, as if everyone knew what I was going through and that now was the time to answer, somehow, the very last question, the meaning of which was beyond me. I opened my hand to reveal the coins again, the room went silent. I showed them, up close, to Lisa and then to Dave and Adina. I could tell that Dave was itchy to touch them. Adina looked at them, then looked at me, and just like she did on the day I got married she beamed her beautiful smile at me and started to cry. I looked back at Lisa, and she, too, was in joyous tears. I could see my father just past her, at the next table over, smiling with pride, my mother patting him on the back and shoulder to show her support. I was dizzy. I started to smile and feel all moved inside, as if I just did the one thing in the world that could make all these people happy. Just then my cousins’ sons ran up to me. One is three, the other is two, and they’re both as curious as curious could be. They wanted to see the coins. I knelt down next to them to show them, and they reached for them. Just before they were about to touch them, they were pulled back by their parents. Richie, my oldest cousin, stayed his son Andrew’s arm, and Laura, my second oldest cousin, kept her son Jacob from touching them. They looked at me with apologetic eyes, my cousins, and they gave me looks as if they understood the coins were mine to give to whomever – if I chose. I told them it was ok, because I love those two boys. I gave one to Jacob, and one to Andrew, and I gave them specific instructions to give them directly to their dads. And when I took one coin off the stack to give to Jacob, the remaining coins seemed to glow brighter. When I gave on to Andrew, the coins shone even brighter. I stood up, bringing the remaining coins up with me, and the room exploded into cheers and laughter and applause. Lisa hugged me and kissed me and wouldn’t let me go. She held onto me so tightly I thought she might hurt me, and she looked around the room telling everyone, “This is my husband!” Adina and Dave grabbed me and the four of us were in a group hug, making the coins not only glow brighter but give off the most comfortable heat. Wrapped up in the enthusiasm of the moment, I looked my sister in the eye, pulled her hand, palm up, towards me, and put five of the remaining coins in her hand. You’d thought I’d just given her the world. I turned towards Lisa, kissed her, and put the last five coins in her hand. Next thing you know, the whole room was engulfed in a brilliant golden glow, a glow that never died down. My father was crying out of respect for me, and my dream began to end with everyone in the room waiting in a patient, yet loud and happy line, to greet me, thank me, praise me, and tell me how proud they were of me. Dave thanked me over and over for giving five coins to Adina. Lisa’s parents stood by me in my little receiving line, thanking me and telling me how they never believed Lisa would ever get to even hold one of those coins, let alone own five. And just before some jackass started to lean on his horn outside the apartment to wake me up, my cousins from all around the world, and my uncles and aunts, from both the family I was born into and the family I married into, all came to greet me and hug me and then, just then, I felt myself begin to float. The end. |
