Fifth Draft

I glared across the table, straight into my opponent’s unfocused gaze. I watched a single bead of sweat glide down his cheek, stopping every other second to seep into an unseen pore on the man’s face. I watched him as he looked at his cards through the thick glasses, his hands shaking as he fanned out the cards to see which cards he had received. I grinned at my opponent, swinging my legs back and forth as they dangled there, too short to touch the ground. I rubbed my feet together, dropping my flats onto the floor to let my feet breathe. I looked away from his face with confidence, looking down at my own cards. The right corner of my mouth lifted up into a smirk as I looked ahead at my opponent before setting my cards down on the table, spread out in a fan-like shape. Who knew that I would be playing international poker just to see my former babysitter again?

It had all started six years ago when I was only ten. Yes, for a ten year old, I was quite the intelligent one. I had probably already read all the books that would normally be found in a typical public library. I was extremely short though. And childish. My parents were filthy rich and bought me whatever I desired but never gave a rat's ass whether or not I had wanted them at home. It wasn’t like they were ever home for me anyways. Then I met Kara.

She had come to my vacation home, looking for work at the time. My parents instantly took her in and told me that she would be my new babysitter. I just agreed and let them off to another country in the world. I liked Kara quite a bit, now that I think about it. She spent a whole lot of time with me. She didn't bother to spend money on me because I already had everything but she would always come up with some new way to play with the toys, normally extremely absurd ways but I always found them to be fun. Aside from that stuffed bunny that my granny got for me at the Build-A-Bear Workshop. It was the one thing that I had around the house that wasn’t bought with an unlimited credit card. A typical day was normally a trip to the supermarket and then a little game of go-fish. The winner would get another cheddar fish to eat, which meant the loser had to give one up.

“I win!” Kara grinned at me, taking one of my cheddar fishes. I whined as I watched her take a fish. “If you want it back, win.”

I pouted and then picked up my cards after she passed them to me. “Five.”

“Go-fish.” Kara looked over at me and then chuckled. “Lottie, don’t sit like that. Everyone’s going to see your panties.”

I cocked my head at what she said, then put them back on the ground and pulled the hem of my dress so that it covered my thighs. We went on to continue the game after she was satisfied with the way I was sitting.

Then the day came when she had decided to change. At the time, I knew that something was bothering her but I opted not to say anything until it was getting out of hand. She began to space out and making a mess everywhere she went. Don’t take it the wrong way, it was amusing to watch the maids make a fuss while cleaning up after her but I needed my own babysitter to pay attention to me.

I walked over to her when I found her in the kitchen and tugged on her sleeve, then yanking, trying to get her attention away from a slip of paper. “Hey… Why aren’t you playing with me..? I want to try making bread with the tiny cookie maker thing… Play with me!”

She just looked down at me and smiled meekly. I felt my spirit waver when I saw her smile like that. I frowned. I climbed up onto the stool next to the counter and snatched the paper away from Kara’s hands, throwing it to the side. I gave a sniffle and pulled my best innocent puppy look that I could possibly pull. I grabbed her shirt tightly, knowing that she’d have to drag me if she were going anywhere. The look in her eyes softened and the corners of my mouth pulled slightly upwards.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I won’t go anywhere. I love you.” Kara gave me her meek smile again before picking the note from the floor and disposing it.

“Why..?”

She looked at me, surprised as she was when she was instantly accepted into the family as my babysitter. “What do you mean, why?”

“You’re not permanently bound to us.”

“I just think you’re a sweetie, that’s all.”

“Huh..?” Kara picked me up into her arms and kissed my forehead.

A week later, I was tagging along with her on the plane, in the seat next to her while we were flying over some country I thought was in Africa.

“What is that, Egypt?” I looked up at her, a finger on the airplane window.

“No, sweetie, that’s not Egypt. It’s Saudi Arabia.”

“Oh… I was close.”

I tagged along with her mainly because I thought she was so lovable. Also that I would feel lonely at home if she weren’t there. Of course, bunny came with me, too.

I sat back down in my seat and looked around at the people who had boarded the plane with us. They all sat in pairs, each pair had a relatively older person next to a teen or what people would consider as young adults. I hadn’t really thought about what was going on that time, just that I was hungry. I jabbed the button that called for the flight attendant, jabbing it hard enough so that it lit up and made my finger sore. I waited for a few minutes for the flight attendant to reach Kara’s seat. She looked down at me and asked what she could help me with. I told her instantly that I was hungry.

“What would you like to eat, sweetie?” The flight attendant put on a sweet smile while talking to me, knowing that I would throw a fit if she tried to be mean. That last time she spoke in an unpleasant tone towards me, I kicked her in the face and Kara had to strap me down into my seat.

“I want a bowl of udon! With beef!” I grinned at her, knowing that she couldn’t do anything back to me. I knew I was being a brat but I didn’t care. It was fun. Towards her, at least.

“I’ll bring it to you as soon as I’m done making it.”

Kara watched as the flight attendant stomped away in a fit. She turned to look at me and chuckled. “Don’t you think you should be a little nicer? You already kicked her in the face. Now she has to cover her bruise by caking it with makeup. Have a little mercy there.”

“No! She started it. It’s not my fault she decided to take away my bag of pretzels. Those were my pretzels!” I closed my eyes as she pet me, combing my short hair back while doing so.

I waited next to Kara, staring intently into the screen in front of me. The plane had cable so I decided to flip through the vast number of channels until I found the channel that was having a Looney Tunes marathon. I loved those cartoons so much. I still do but then again, where the hell do you find them nowadays? Even after I received my udon from a different flight attendant and a pair of wooden chopsticks to eat the noodles with, I continued to watch the cartoon. I giggled at the silly things that were happening, all while I had udon noodles in my mouth. At one point during that small length of time, I remember I almost laughed so hard that the soup was going to come out my nose. Kara would lean over a few times to wipe my mouth and help feed me.

When we arrived at the destination, Kara put me on her back as we traveled in a pack towards what I believe to have been Tokyo Tower. When the entire group that was on the plane with us arrived at the observation room, there was a long discussion that I slept through and then a small trip away from Tokyo Tower that I remember only slightly. When I finally woke up, it was completely dark out and I was the only person in the room. I turned my head frantically, instantly panicking. As soon as I did so, I felt my tongue go numb and I just sat there dazed, both in pain and then not so much. After the whole ordeal was over, I noticed that bunny was lying next to me. I picked him up and started to head over to the door that I thought was non-existent at the time. I felt around the walls, wondering where in the hell was the doorknob. It wasn’t until about a whole five minutes later that I remembered that I was in Japan, hence the Tokyo Tower. I felt around once again, pulling at cracks in the wall until one wall slid to the side. I looked up at the “wall,” fascinated at how smoothly it slid open even though it was made of wood.

I wandered out into the dark hall and looked around, holding bunny against my chest. I walked through the halls, taking random turns every time there was a fork in the hall. As soon as I turned the third corner, I bumped into something that felt… poofy. I looked up and saw obaba’s face, thinking that it was some sort of ghost or something. Her face was covered in some sort of black face cream. She was holding a candle to her face, emphasizing her wrinkles and evil-looking, slanty eyes. I screamed at the top of my lungs and turned around instantly, sprinting away as fast as I could before slamming right into a rock solid wall. I fell to the ground and began crying, my elephant tears rolling down my cheeks as I lifted my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. The lights came on and I felt myself get picked up, bunny too. I felt bunny’s fur rub against my arm and grabbed bunny. I looked up at the person who had picked me up and instantly recognized Kara’s smiling face. She was laughing.

“What’s so funny..?” I asked while rubbing my eyes from the tears.

“You are.”

I just stared at her. I sniffled, snot running down my nose. “Huh..?”

“You bumped into obaba.”

I blinked, wondering what she was talking about. “Obaba..?”

“You’ll see.”

I just waited for her to carry me to wherever she was carrying me. She set me down in front of a lowered table, on top of a pillow. She left the room to get me some tissue, wiping my nose with it. Kara sat down next to me and looked at me with a stern gaze. “Lottie, you have to listen to me, ok? You remember that note that I got before, the one that I threw out? That was an invitation for me and you. We were invited to a huge event but you aren’t prepared to go yet.”

“Event..?”

“Yes, an event. It’s an international poker tournament. I am going to attend one but I have to leave you here to get ready for it. Obaba was my teacher and she will be your teacher now. Obaba?” I looked in the direction that Kara looked and saw an old woman step through the door. I squinted at the sight of her face before jumping a mile into the air. She was the one I saw in the dark.

“This is an important event that many people all over the world attend. You have to win, sweetie. You understand? Obaba will help you. I have to leave tomorrow morning for the preliminaries.”

Even though I whined and complained about this as much as I did, Kara did not stay. When I woke up, there was no trace of her left in the house except for a hint of her scent in my pillow, a pair of bunny earmuffs from her and a note that said “I love you.” The month after that were long, hot days that I was not fond of at all. The humid, Japanese heat clung to my skin and made me uncomfortably sticky. I was stuck playing mahjong with obaba and her other old hag friends during the weekends, then making dinner for everyone. I eventually graduated from mahjong and moved onto card games. Obaba told me that if I kept beating her friends at mahjong, they wouldn’t come back to play anymore. I laughed every time she said that since they always came back. Then again, I had to ask them to come back a few times.

Obaba taught me how to play many card games, some being blackjack and poker. Whenever I made a mistake, I didn’t get dinner. Or I didn’t get anything but a bowl of tasteless white rice. I kept thinking ‘is obaba teaching me how to gamble already?’ Occasionally, when both me and obaba was tired out from battling each other with the cards, we would turn to playing solitaire or go-fish.

I survived just about five and a half years of this before obaba allowed me to enter tournaments. I’m about to turn sixteen and I’m finally close to entering the preliminaries. I know I shouldn’t be taking the tournaments as a game, but I really was just breezing through the competitors and tournaments. Obaba watched nearly every single one of my games on my computer at home since she says that she doesn’t like traveling back and forth that much, that she’s too old for it. Yet, she has enough youth to chase me around the house with a broom or the wok. Whatever was the point? No matter how much I nag her to come with me and watch at the stadium, she would never go.

“Hey… Obaba… I haven’t seen Kara on the news lately. Do you know what’s been going on?”

“Kara is taking her break. This happens every time she finishes a huge tournament. She takes a large break right before the preliminaries to relax and take her mind off of things.”

I looked down at bunny and sighed. “Alright... I miss her though… When will I get to see her again?”

Obaba sighed and shrugged. “There’s no way of telling. Hopefully, you’ll see her during the international tournaments. She still wants you to be with her for the pair tournaments.”

“Alright…” I picked up my bunny and hugged it, getting up from the floor and walking to my room, sitting down in front of my desk and turning on my computer. I watched as the screen flickered as I opened my browser. Within a few clicks, I was playing Texas Hold’em poker on some application on Facebook from Zynga. I just stared at the screen, waiting for the other players to make a move already. I wondered why the hell they always took so long to make a move. It was ridiculous. Occasionally, obaba would come in while I was complaining and tell me that I was considered a professional compared to them.

The preliminaries began a month later. I stepped out of the car that came to pick me up at the airport, bringing me to my hotel. I thanked the driver for picking me up considering I had no damned clue where we were going. It was my first time anywhere in Europe, let alone Monaco. I walked over to the check-in counter and gave my name, got the keycard to my room and led obaba upstairs with me to our room. After we were unpacked and checked in, we left the hotel and headed for the tournament location. I found out that being in a foreign country meant trouble when traveling to the Monte Carlo. I gave up arguing with the driver and got out, calling the tournament’s agency that picked me up from the airport. I signed in at the tournament lobby while everyone stared at me. What the hell was there to stare about? I wasn’t that famous at all. I turned my head and glared right back at them while obaba picked up my ID from the service room.

“Obaba… Why do they always stare at me like that?”

“Because you’re a girl and you’re still younger than anyone here.” She plucked my ID from her pocket and jammed it into my already-messy messenger bag. “Don’t lose that.”

The next few weeks just flew by as if it were only a few hours. Whether or not I over-estimated my opponents during the tournament never even came across my mind. I just plowed through every single game like I was playing poker online. The week that the tournament was on hold, I wandered around the city with obaba, looking at the scenery there and getting lost. A few times, we just followed some natives that were watching the tournament and let them show us around. We ran into some trouble once and the one who ran the fastest was obaba yet she always says that she was too old for traveling.

I browsed through the tourist’s guide that I just bought from a gift shop as I chewed at the cone that held my two scoopfuls of chocolate and Oreo flavored gelato. I passed the booklet to obaba who was sipping at her coffee, pointing at a small article that was inside.

“Did you know that there was a highly recommended bakery near the Monte Carlo? I want to try the chocolate macaroons from there… I wonder if it’s really sweet… Can we go? Can we?” My mouth started to water at the thought of the mass of sweets that was probably there at the bakery.

“I got some just for you. I remember how much you like chocolate.”

My eyes widened at the sound of the voice. I turned my head around as fast as I could to see who it was, then instantly regretted it at my tongue started to go numb. My eyes started tearing up as I slammed my fist on the table. “Whiplath…”

I looked up at the source of the voice and my eyes starting tearing up again. “Kara!”

Kara looked down at me, beaming. “These are for you, sweetie. It’s been a while. You prepared for tomorrow?”

I opened the little box that she handed to me and picked up one of the little burger-looking sweets, instantly chomping down on it. “What do you mean by tomorrow? The finals?”

“Of course I do. Are you prepared?” Kara thanked the waitress who brought over the iced cappuccino and took a sip.

“Yeah but I don’t know who it is. Nobody told me.”

“Oh… Alright.” I watched as Kara took another sip of her cappuccino. I closed the box that was still filled with the macaroons and finished off my gelato, stuffing the rest of the cone into my mouth. “So where’s your bunny? You always carry it around no matter where you go.”

“Yeah… Bunny’s in the hotel room. I didn’t want to get him dirty while I traveled around. I don’t want to break bunny either… He’s getting old. I know obaba can fix him easily but I still don’t want to let him lose his stuffing…”

Kara smiled at me. “Is that so?” She sipped at her drink again.

“Yeah… Besides, traveling isn’t that scary… I think.” I looked around, feeling the tense atmosphere around me as Kara and I sat there silently.

“Lottie. Would you like me to show you around Monaco tonight? It’s beautiful out tonight and I have free time before tomorrow. We can spend a little time together.”

I felt myself start to burn up in front of Kara, the heat rising from my chest to my neck, then to my face and ears. “Um… No, it’s alright. I need to sleep early before the finals tomorrow.” I blinked once or twice, wondering why the hell I just said that. I mentally slammed my head against the table at my response.

“Aww… alright.” Kara got up and went over to the cashier, paying for her drink and a piece of chocolate cake before leaving the shop. “I’ll see you tomorrow, sweetheart. Let’s travel around with bunny afterwards.”

“Ok…” I watched Kara’s back as she left the street and turned a corner into a main street. “Wait… Tomorrow..?”

I looked over at obaba and watched as she turned her body away from my stare. My jaw dropped as soon as I realized what she meant.