Casino Night

  “I have an envelope for Lulu Williams,” I said, handing the envelope over the counter.

  “Please wait Sir, Mrs. Williams asked me to call her when you get here,” said the receptionist with a squint in his eyes.

  “I don’t have time to talk to Lulu now,” I said as I searched for the car keys in my pocket.

  “Just a moment please,” replied the receptionist holding the phone to his ear.

  “Mrs. Williams, this is reception, your envelope has arrived, however the gentleman is in a hurry.”  He handed me the phone.

I picked up the phone with a frown on my face.

  “Lulu, how are you?”

  “Hi Bruce, I want to see you, can we have a drink?  I will come down in a minute.”

  “I would love to see you but I have to run.  Let me know next time you are in town.”

  “Call me, I'm here until the weekend. I'm in a conference. I would love to have a drink with you and catch up.  How long has it been?”

  “Oh... I’ll call you.”

  “Many thanks for bringing the envelope, I hope to see you soon.”

I know Lulu since I was little, we used to spend the summers together with a bunch of kids our age.  She is single, extremely attractive and a successful business woman. Lulu was staying in the fanciest Hotel and Casino in town.

I had nothing to do that afternoon and I have this itch for gambling.  I snuck into the slot machine section, first making sure there was nobody I knew.  The noise of the bells, the smell of the new rugs, the machines, that particular scent of the gamble and the hum made me shiver.  I checked in my pockets, my wallet was not there.  “Damn it, I really wanted to play the slot machines!”

Later that day I had dinner with the kids and sat to watch TV.  When Leslie is away I have trouble sleeping.

 

The phone rang.

  “Hi Bruce, come, join me at the casino,” Lulu said.

  “Now? It’s midnight.”

  “Come on, don’t be a wuss!  I want to see you.   I’m all alone!” Lulu said with a bedroom voice.

I thought for a few seconds.  “OK... I’ll see you in twenty!” I replied.

The kids were sleeping, Lulu was an old friend, and nobody would care.

As I walked in the Hotel lobby, I saw Lulu waiting for me. She looked like a model from a cover of a magazine.

  “Hey Lulu!” I said giving her a tight hug.

  “It’s so good to see you Bruce!” she said with a look in her eyes that seemed to scan her surroundings with purpose.

She grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hall directly to the bar.

I glanced around the room and I was amused to see how many eyes were fixed on her.

  “Get us a bottle of Moet and Chandon Brut!” Lulu commanded the barman.

She didn’t wait for the barman to react and off she dragged me to the roulette.

Lulu was holding my hands like when we were kids.  The dim lights, the high ceilings and the noise were like magic to me.  We played a couple of round and she pull me back to the bar.

  “What are we toasting Bruce?” she said lifting her eyebrow.

  “How about the good old times and tonight!” I said puffing out my chest like if I have just won the lottery.  I look around and realized that the place was full of people that most likely would know Leslie.

  “Let’s go play Black Jack, I feel lucky tonight!” Lulu said grabbing my hand.

I let myself go, seduced by her nature.

  “Give me $1,000 in chips!” Lulu said to the dealer handing the money between her extended fingers.

  “Let’s make some money Bruce!” she said holding my hand under the table.

We played three rounds, Lulu played big, she didn’t stop looking at the dealer’s eyes and won every time.

  “I’m thirsty Bruce, let’s go for a sip?” she said grabbing the chips.

She stood up holding my hand and looked straight into my eyes.

  “I’m having so much fun,” she said with a glint in her eyes.

  “Me too!” I said with a tremor in my chest.

We sat at the bar and had a glass of champagne as we talked about work, life and old times.

  “Do you still smoke Bruce? Let’s go for a puff,” she said without waiting for my answer. She hugged me and we walked outside holding hands. I thought that she wanted to kiss me.

  “Tell me more about your work,” I asked in an effort to cool things down.

  “Oh... It’s just boring, I make money, that’s it.”

  “And you, do you have something spicy to tell me?” she said nudging up close to me.

  “Not much either, married life is boring too,” I said as I looked around.

We finished the smoke and went inside for a drink. 

  “Get us another bottle!” Lulu said to the barman.

  “What do you want to play now Bruce?”  she asked me rubbing her knees against my leg.

  “Whatever you like.”

The champagne was getting me.

  “Do you want to play doctor?” she said with a loud laugh.

  “Let’s get another drink.” She nodded at the barman.

We had two more glasses of champagne and we went to play roulette again. She won every time. The chips didn't fit in her purse any more.

Her blue eyes remind me of a windy day on the ocean. She reached out for her drink, bringing her surprisingly generous breasts into sight.

We went to the cashier to exchange the chips.

  “Put the money in my account,” she directed.

  “Certainly Mrs. Williams,” said the cashier.

Lulu turned around and hugged me around my neck, looking into my eyes again.

  “The kiss is coming!” I thought excitedly.  I didn’t know what to do.  The champagne rendered me helpless.  “But Leslie?” I thought.

  “Let’s go for more champagne,” she said with a smile grasping both my hands.

Nothing was missing. I had forgotten about time, wife, kids, work... all.

When we were on our third bottle, there were fewer people at the tables and the noise seemed to me father. I saw her yawning.  I checked the time…5:30 am.

  “Lulu, its 5:30, we should go!” I said with a shake.

   “To bed?” she said wide eyed.

  “Yea… I mean.”

  “Don’t be silly, go home, you're a married man.”

  “Yea...” I didn’t know what to say.

  “Is it going to be OK if I give you just one good night kiss?” she said examining me.

She didn’t wait for the answer.  Her sweet plump lips melted into mine.

  “Good night Bruce, I had a wonderful time.  We should do it more often.”

  “Me too Lulu. Good night.”

I arrived at home at 6:00 am I expected a call from Leslie anytime.

  “How long is it going to take the rats to tell Leslie that I was out last night?”

I jumped into bed and fell asleep right away still shaking from the excitement.

At 8:30 am the phone rang, it was Leslie.

  “I heard you were out and about with a blonde last night!”

A day of a hard Sailing!

  “What’s happening?”

  “We're going down Dad!” shouted Klaus.

  “Watch out!” I shouted without looking at Klaus while the boat was tipping on top of us.  “Fetch the boat!”

I swam behind the boat. The wind pushed the boat away from us.

I made an effort to swim as fast as I could.  The life jacket was getting in the way.

  “If I don’t catch it soon it’s going to be too late!” I thought.

I looked to the beach. “We are too far," I thought.  “Not good!” I thought.

I swam fast and grabbed onto the boat and pulled the main sail down in the water to slow down the boat.  I looked up to see how easy it was going to be to climb up the tilted boat from where I was and hop to the other side to get it back up.  I saw Klaus’s hands grabbing at the side of the deck and then I saw his face looking down at me in the water.

  “Pull the boat back!” I shouted.

Nothing happened. 

  “It may be too heavy for Klaus,” I thought. 

I lifted myself up, pulling hard with my arms, I sat on the side with one leg on each side and slowly put both of my feet on the centerboard close to the boat and let my body back.  Immediately the boat started coming up. 

  “Watch out Klaus!”

The wind tipped the boat on top of us again.

I have been in these situations before, I had to get the boat back up and start sailing again.  The day was sunny and the water was green, waves crashed around us with a silver shine. The water felt good on my body, refreshing.  It was familiar to me.  

 This time the bottom of the boat was facing the wind.  I climbed up holding onto the centerboard to the top and pulled back.  Klaus was on the other side.  The boat stood up gently this time.

  “Get on board Klaus!”

  He was up in no time.

  “Give me a hand!” The boat was catching speed and I had no strength left to climb by the side on my own.

  “Give me a hand!” I shouted again as I grabbed harder onto the side of the boat that was moving faster and faster.

Klaus stared at me. 

I had to do something different to get on board, Klaus was not reacting.  I slid to the back and pulled myself in.

  “Pull on the Jib!” I shouted. “Pull the jib now.” The flapping of the jib tangled the sheet.

Klaus was not reacting to my commands.  I pulled on the main sail sheet and the boat started flying, cutting through the water like a warm butter knife. I was having fun!

I didn’t look at Klaus’s face, I sensed that he was not enjoying the ride.  I focused on the boat, checked for damages caused by the flipping.  I checked the stays that hold the mast in place, everything looked fine.  The wind was gusty and I didn’t want to flip again. The beach was getting further and further away, fast.

  “We should go back!” shouted Klaus.

  “OK, watch out when we turn!”

We turned as slow as I could, got on the other side and pulled gently on the sheet.  The boat reacted like when you let go of the reins of a horse.  I gathered we were at 18 knots. 

  “Pull on the Jib! Pull the jib.”

Maybe he didn’t want to pull more because we could flip again.

  “Pull on the Jib! Pull the jib.”

Nothing.

I knew that I didn’t have much time to enjoy the speed, the feeling of when the boat wants to start flying on top, faster and faster, flowed through my body!

It was Saturday and we had decided the day before to come back to Puerto Aldea where the wind is always strong.  We arrived after lunch, as the day got sunny.  We took our time to prepare the boat.  We had troubles setting the mast since the wind was hard. Klaus warned me that it was too windy and perhaps we should abort the idea of sailing for the day.

After four legs, I thought it was prudent to go back to the beach.  Klaus was not having a good time. We got to the beach easy.  After we hauled the boat out of the water, we exchanged our thoughts.  We were exhausted.

La Feria

  “No se olviden que hoy hay Feria!” said Gustavo with a smile on his face.

  “Good idea,” I said.  “Is it going to be sunny today?” I asked.

  “Oh yeah, the sun is coming soon!” he assured as he squinted his racoon face with round brown eyes and dark tanned skin.  “There are nice big peaches, the skin peels off easy and they are delicious, also get the big chirimoyas, the ones with spikes, those are the best.  You can find clothes there too,” he said showing his white teeth.

  “We should check it out Dad!” Klaus agreed with Gustavo.

  “Let’s take the truck only, we can bring the groceries home and pick up the boat to go for lunch and sailing after."

 It was mid morning and the sun remained above the clouds.  The regular crash from the waves, the birds chirping, the bark of a dog in the distance, the smell of the moist and the dry dirt brought me back in time to La Herradura, a familiar environment.  I wasn’t cold, the fresh air hugged me gently.

  “It’s just a block from the police station!” he said waving at us.

  “Thank you again Gustavo,” Klaus said.

  “I’ve heard the chirimoyas are very good for you,” I said to Klaus as I jumped in the truck.

  “We need to get lots fruits and avocados Dad.”

  “I also want a bandana for my neck,” I said.

Tongoy is not a big place, it's a 4 hour drive north of Santaigo, and at this time of the year, only a few visitors are around.  In the summer, the visitors outnumber the locals.  Klaus has an ongoing safety concern.  Most of the people are poor and some of them look spooky.  The unusual number of cars parked together was a good indication of the Farmers Market.

  “Is this the farmers market?” I asked to one fellow that helps you park and watches your car.

  “The next street to your right Sir!” He shouted back pointing with his hand.

   “Are you sure that we can park here?” asked Klaus, concerned that I was parking the car on top of the sidewalk painted yellow, which means no parking.

  “Is it OK to park here?” I asked an older man who was watching this part of the street.

  “Certainly gentlemen,” he said smiling, his face was gently sculpted by age.  “I will take good care of your car!”

I wanted to do this fast, get the boat, have lunch and then to the beach and sail just in time for when the sun comes up.  Klaus is different, he is never in a hurry, and he likes to take his time. 

It surprised me as we entered into the Farmers Market the amount of clothing stands.  I expected to find more veggies and fruits.

  “Do you like these pants?” I asked Klaus pointing to hippie baggie pair with orange, light blue and yellow stripes made of a thick canvas.

  “Those are for women Dad!” he exclaimed.

  “I don’t mind, I would like to own a pair,” I said thinking about where could I use them.

  “Buy them if you want them...” he said.

In the next stand, they had bandanas. I looked for a color that appealed to me.  White, black, grey, light blue and pink.

  “Those are bandanas Dad!” Klaus pointed out.

  “Yes I know, this is what I want for my neck.”

  “You're not picking a pink bandana, are you Dad? What is with you and pink?”

  “I like pink, I always have!”

  “How much is it?” I asked the girl.

  “800,” she said with a smile.

I put the bandana on right away.  We walked the two blocks of market through the crowd to look around.  I enjoyed the symphony that the crowd made, the salespeople as they shouted their offers in their slang, the smell of cumin, strawberries, corn, cilantro, celery and an acrid smell of fish.  The market is a place to meet for the people here.  I can tell by their faces, what they are wearing, their speaking, who they are.

  “Corn, caserito... five for a Luca!”

 We picked cherries, strawberries, nectarines, mangoes, bananas, avocados, tomatos, garlic, green peppers, eggs.  Chirimoyas were green and no big peaches...December...too early in the season.  

 The yellow plastic bags with all our treasures were getting heavier and the thin plastic was hurting my hands. 

Cheap clothing too.

  

“Is Antonio around?” I asked the attendant when we got to the restaurant “La Ballena Azul.”

  “Antonio?” asked the attendant opening her eyes very wide.

  “Yes, the person who serves here,” I said.

  “Haaa...you mean Cheri?...”  “Cheri...” she called.  “The people for the sea urchins are here!” she shouted to the back.

Antonio showed up looking very well groomed as usual, I noticed his broken nose that might have been smashed by one ugly punch many years ago.

  “Where are the other two?” he asked.

  “We are all here,” I said counting one, two, three and four pointing at Klaus and me each time. He looked at me intrigued.

  “We are having two servings each,” I explained.

We sat by the water.  We have come for lunch most of the days.  Sea urchins are very rare.  When we arrived in Tongoy, I asked around and I told Antonio to phone me if he got them.

   “Why do they call you Cheri?” I asked.

  “Well...when I was a kid, I had a shield...you know?  Cowboys?” he explained.

  “Sheriff!” I said.

  “Yes, Cheri!” he said with a big smile lifting up his shoulders.

  “Who is the girl that was serving here last night?” I asked

  “That is my daughter Alicia.” He said with a squint.

I moved my eyes pointing to Klaus and back.  Few moments later, he arrived with Alicia.

  “Hi Alicia.” I said as I extended my hand.

  “Hi, jaja jaja,” she replied with a permanent smile while staring at Klaus.

  “Hi Alicia,” said Klaus extending his hand with a smile.

  “Hi... jaja jaja,” she said still smiling.

Then they turned around and left.

  “Should I have stood up to say hi?” Klaus asked.

  “I think you should have.” 

The sea urchins were delicious.  After that I was still not done lunch, I wanted to try the empanadas from La Pink. The place was packed and the service slow. The waiter wasn’t the smartest cookie in the cookie jar. We sat at a table that was not cleaned up.

  “What is the best to eat here?” I asked.

He stared at me lost.  “Everything is good,” he said slowly.

  “We will get one Crab-cheese and one shrimp-cheese please,” I said with a smile to see if that would make a difference.

A while later Klaus noticed that people were getting angry because of the slow service and some of them moved to the restaurant next door.

I went inside to find out about my order.  La Pink, a short older woman behind the food counter was shouting orders to Maruca, the woman on the deep fryer.  From what I gathered, the deep fryer woman was replacing the official one and she had troubles reading the orders from the new POS.  I waited to see more.

  “Where are my crab cheese and my shrimp cheese?” I asked.

  “I don’t have any of that!” Maruca said.

La Pink gave me a look and said, “What did you order?”

  “One crab-cheese and one shrimp-cheese please,” I said with a smile.

  “I’ll make them right away,” she said and the two empanadas came out from the fryer.

In less than a minute, I was walking to our table with my two empanadas.

People around escalated their anger.

The empanadas were light and delicious, quite different from the ones we had tried so far. We pack our own Aji Diaguitas hot sauce.  Klaus is always concerned when I arrive at restaurants with our water and hot sauce. After we ate, I went in and asked for another order, directly from La Pink.

The day was still cloudy so we headed to Puerto Aldea, at the South end of the beach for sailing. 

We drove along the beach as the sun started breaking through the clouds.  The wind was blowing hard.

  “Are we ready for sailing?” I asked.

  “Let’s wait for a bit Dad,” Klaus said.

I lay on the sand to get warm before the sail. My mind started wondering about the day.  Suddenly, I remembered we didn’t bring the main sail.

  “We forgot the main sail at home!” I shouted at Klaus who was still in the truck.

Should we go back to get it or we just have a beach day no sailing? The wind was blowing hard so beach was not that great.  “What can we do?”

  “Let’s take pictures with the pink bandana,” I said.

  “OK.”

We had so much fun that he even agreed to try on my Speedo and later on to facebook the pictures except the nude ones!

After that, I started walking around looking at the sand.  I found clam shells, and grabbed as many as I could hold in my hands and started throwing them into the water.  They fly smooth like a frisbee.  Soon Klaus joined me in throwing shells.  A flock of ducks were swimming not too far off the shore and I started aiming at the ducks.  One of the shells did it.  The ducks, contrary to logic started swimming towards us.  Fun!  My arm got sore after a while.

I found a sand bank.  I wanted to dig a tunnel.  I looked for a stick something to dig, nothing.  I chose a scallop shell.  I started digging and soon Klaus joined me.

  “Let's make a tunnel, you dig there and we connect at the end,” I suggested.

We must have spent an hour digging and finally we connected.  We made a wall and called it Fort Klaus.

So much for nothing to do!  It reminds me of my days at the beach, always busy doing something simple, trying out something else, it’s still there!

The first one: De Vancouver to Santiago

The first one: De Vancouver to Santiago: I felt butterflies in my stomach that Saturday morning. “Where is this coming from?” I asked myself. “I haven’t felt this way for ...

De Vancouver to Santiago

I felt butterflies in my stomach that Saturday morning.   

  “Where is this coming from?” I asked myself out loud.  “I haven’t felt this way for a while.”

The day went by fast as I ran the last errands before taking off to Chile the next morning.  I left packing my bags and double checked the weight to avoid troubles at check in time.

On Sunday morning there were few people at the airport. The lights were dimmed, as if it was too early in the morning, it was too early!

  “The recession!” I thought. “Maybe it's just too early...no, it’s not that!”

While in line for the check in, I observed the attendants.  I noticed one in particular, checking everybody’s luggage’s weight.  Her face was longer than the rest, like an olive, curly black hair with a pony tail, her almond eyes and long nose made me think of people I’ve met before, by the book!

  “Maybe she's having troubles at home and she is taking us on for a payoff,” I wondered.

My theory is that people alike do things alike. I hoped that she would not not be the one to check me in.

I like to look at the travelers, I check their faces, who are they traveling with, their clothes, their shoes, their bags and their carry on.  I make a picture of who they are, their families, their friends, why they are traveling and such.  I make stories and categorize them in sets.

  “Next please,” a Phillipino attendant called to me.

  “I got lucky!” I thought, it was not the nasty one. 

  “Good morning, where are you traveling today?” she asked.

    “Have a great flight,” she said with a broad smile.  "You need to go to Gate E 80."

Then to customs, waiting for the flight to LA and the flight was uneventful.   

Read, snooze, read and land.

The plane arrived in LA and I felt that it was breakfast time again.  I looked around the food court of the Alaska Airlines domestic terminal for something appealing.  A sweet smell of cinnamon flooded the terminal.   Burger King...no, Starbucks...no, I wanted something more meaningful after my four month stint of hard-core diet.  Gladstone’s was the only Restaurant.  I looked at the tables where people were already eating, for something that appealed to me.  Scramble eggs with sausage looked good.

The place was almost full.  I ordered immediately since my belly was calling for food fast. I looked around and noticed that everybody was doing something, nobody just wondering. I took my time, I had 5 hours to wait until my next flight.  I kept on making stories about the people around.  The day was beautiful in LA, I walked to the next terminal slowly enjoying the fresh morning breeze, the light smell of airplane fumes and the noise of the cars going by.

Time flew and before I knew it I was boarding the Lan Chile brand new Airbus 340. 

  “Only men flight attendants? “ I observed.  “That’s weird.”

  “The flight will be 10 hours and 40 minutes.”  They announced first in Spanish and then in a strong accent English.

  “They must be reading from a script,” I though.  “How do I sound? Perhaps the same...I don’t want to think so!”

The man sitting next to me in the other side of the isle started an animated chat with me. He told me that he is in telecommunications and that he was going to Chile, Argentina and Bolivia on this trip.  He told me about his family, the family business Man Tires, the house in Santa Barbara that has 40 rooms, the Mercedes he bought foro his only son for his 16^th birthday and then he dug for pictures, yes, and the old paper ones and showed me everything.

  “Wow, this is going to be entertaining!” I thought.

The plane was awesome, the best thing was that they had individual screens at each seat that you could watch your own movie, TV, play games and what not.  They supplied great earphones that didn't fall out when I went to sleep.

  Thanks to the recession, the plane is not full!

I can't remember which movies I watched, I slept through every one of them.