Road to 800 – 795 – The Bet

More than 5 years now and almost close to 800 posts, its been a long time. Now close to 800 posts, I try to continue with the tradition of inviting guest writers for charity. The response hasn’t been as expected but still some of them did respond.

Presenting a break from my travel blogs and something different

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Pragati write a story with surprising end. Her first venture on Full2 faltu.

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It was a nice summer afternoon with warm wind blowing outside while I sat in my home office and tried to focus on writing something meaningful for the upcoming issue of the “Happy life” magazine. I have to admit I could not decide upon what to write. There were topics ranging from living your life to the fullest by letting the readers know that death is like a prince riding on a white horse galloping closer to you every day or letting them know about the importance of healthy eating and exercise or how communication helps to rejuvenate your relationship with the near and dear ones. My wife was in the kitchen making me some hot cup of tea and a nice alfa alfa sandwich with pesto sauce. She has been awfully interested in cooking lately. Her taste buds seem to be on an overdrive lately.

Every day she comes up to me and asks me what is it that I want to eat and note this is for breakfast lunch and dinner. It is a different thing that I don’t always get whatever I want. I just end up getting whatever her taste buds want. So, after I had my hot cup of ginger tea and my sandwich which was very tasty by the way, I decided to take a short break and go to the wine and arts festival at downtown. This festival boasts of some of the finest wines from the nearby Napa valley and is an annual affair. The community folks get together and the locals have the opportunity to showcase their talents which ranges from middle aged women belly dancing, to young girls performing salsa numbers , to the crazy dragon march.

After I took a tour of the entire downtown I decided to sit outside a Mexican bistro and just watch people. It helps in my profession to just observe whatever is going around and making a mental note of the things.

It wasn’t long after I sat to do nothing that a man with cigars in his hands comes up to me and asks “can I sit here”. I said sure. I didn’t have a problem with that. He doesn’t look at me even once while sitting there and after five minutes says “the economy has taken up a bad shape, many people are losing their jobs these days. I guess I am really lucky to still have my job.” I said I was happy for him. He still didn’t look at me. He was looking at a teenager who was probably 18 or 19 years old sitting next to a brunette who also seemed to be his age. He was holding her chin trying to convince her of something while she was looking down fidgeting with her cell phone and once in a while looking disapprovingly at the young man’s face.

After sometime the young man started walking toward our direction. “Is he coming to this restaurant” the man asked me.

I said maybe. “Well I say he is not just gonna come to this restaurant but also sit next to us”.

I looked around and saw that the entire place was full and we had one extra chair. So as the man with the cigar predicted, the young chap sat right next to us with a disturbed look in his eyes. He took a pack of cigarette and a lighter that made sweet music when he lit it.

He looked up to us and said “this lighter always works. It is a ten out of ten lighter and has never ever disappointed me”. The man asked the young chap if he was sure about it and he replied “would bet my life on it”.

The man raised his eyebrows and bit his lower lip and said “you would not bet your life on it would you?” “Ofcourse I would it is the best lighter in the whole world”.

The man started tapping his foot loudly and took a deep puff of his cigar, kept it aside on the ash tray and said to the young chap “I wanna make a bet if you are willing to take it.” The young chap didn’t look interested so he just sat there without saying a word.

The man continued “I bet my new BMW if your lighter does ten rounds.” He knew he had got the attention of the young chap and said after a pause “and if it doesn’t then for every missed round I will take a finger of yours.”

“You are a crazy man and absolutely out of your mind” I shot back.

“Well I am not keeping a bet with you and if you want you can be the referee”. He said that while still staring at the young boy who looked horrified.

“I agree with the man you are crazy as hell. Jeez I can’t believe you just said that.”

“Well boy, if you are so sure of your lighter then what is the harm in taking the bet. You stand to gain in the end. You get a new BMW for just lighting your lighter” he said that with a scoff. I looked at the boy and he started to smile and he looked pretty convinced to take on the bet.

“You mean you are going to give me your BMW if I agree.”

“Sure, in fact why don’t we go and take a look at it. It’s parked right around the corner”.

It indeed was a beauty when we took a look at it. A blue beamer glistening and sparkling in the hot summer afternoon.

“Okay I accept the bet” the boy said without taking his eyes of the beauty.

“Then lets go to my apartment right across the street and carry on our sweet little deal”.

We climbed the creaky staircase and entered a room that was meticulously kept. Everything in the room was color coordinated, the pillows matched the curtain and the kettle matched the mugs. The room smelled of cigar smoke. The man went the kitchen and took out a knife from the drawer and kept it on the small circular dining table and sat on my right. The boy sat to my left. He took out the lighter with trembling hand and pressed the roller with his thumb, it lit and I said one. He continued again and I said two, three, four, five, six. Before the seventh round the boy wiped his hands with the dinner napkin kept on the table and drank some water directly from the pitcher. He then wiped his forehead and pressed the lighter again and I said seven. The boy looked at me and smiled. He went on to do the eighth round and suddenly the door flung open.

A black woman came screaming in,”So what do you think you are doing here you maniac! Are you bargaining of my car again” she said with clenched teeth. “And what do you think you guys are doing here, he is mentally disturbed and keeps betting cars for fingers.”

She opened the drawers next to the dining table and we were horrified to see fingers kept in ziploc bags with names written on labels.

“I have worked real hard to get back all my cars from this son of a bitch” she said pointing at the man with her index finger. It was then I noticed this was the only finger attached to the palm and the other hand had no fingers at all.