Called Shot

[Capistrano]

October 19, 2018
Redmond Clinic

The clinic had changed little in the years since Jay had worked there as an orderly. Sure, they had repainted the antiseptic white walls a baby blue shade and posted new signs warning doctors and nurses about protecting electronic medical records, but the building’s guts were the same. The same hallways with blinding white tiles, the same medical machines beeping in rhythm, the same doctors and nurses in anonymous scrubs that wouldn’t give Jay the time of day as an attendant. Walking down the patients’ wing, dressed in his Wrecking Crew uniform and accompanied by his old bodyguard Jameak, he felt like his hospital days had happened a lifetime ago and just yesterday.

They were headed to room 1104. Two weeks ago, someone from the Crew’s public relations department had called Jay and told him about Yalvaro. The kid had been in the same class as Maria Graziano’s oldest daughter, Adie, and Yalvaro had always taken Jay’s side against Maria in their hypothetical “Who would win?” conversations during recess. So when he suddenly stopped showing up for school, and the teacher mentioned that he was so sick he might not be back this school year, Adie knew it must be serious. An off-hand mention to Maria that it would sure be nice for Jay to visit Yalvaro in the hospital got passed along to the Crew’s public relations office, and from there they laid an epic guilt trip on Jay before he finally relented and agreed to see him.

Yalvaro’s illness, and the treatment for it, had left him bald and far skinnier than any 10-year-old should be. Still, it couldn’t take away the sheer joy in his smile when his favorite duelist walked in the door.

“Jay!”

“Hey, kiddo, how ya doing?” Jay smiled at Yalvaro, sparing a glance over at the woman sitting beside the bed. She smiled too, a bit weaker but with gratitude clearly showing in her tired hazel eyes. Jay tried to mirror her smile as she stood to shake his hand. “Hi, I’m Jay. This’s my friend Jameak, but you can call him Jamie.” Jamie leaned against the wall near the door, arms folded but with a grin hiding under his half-tusks.

“Gracias, Jay, Jamie. I’m Anna, Yalvaro’s mom. Thank you for coming to see him.”

“No problem. Hey, you look like you could use a break, yeah?” Before she could protest any further, Jay turned to Jameak. “Hey Jamie, can you take Anna down to the lobby and get some coffee? No, no, don’t worry,” he continued as he handed Jamie the coins, “It’s on us.” Anna murmured another “thank you” to Jay as she left the room with his bodyguard. Jay took the seat she had been occupying, flipped it around backwards, and sat with his arms folded over the back.

“You listenin’ to your mom? Doin’ all your chores and eatin’ all your vegetables?”

“Yeah, of course.” The early burst of energy that came with Yalvaro’s greeting had faded, leaving his voice weak and hoarse. He shut his eyes for just a moment, a moment that Jay used to take a sniff of the air. The lingering traces of Jameak’s cologne (heavy on the musk) and Anna’s perfume (grapefruit and nectarine giving way to sandalwood) were nearly overwhelmed by chemical cleaners. There was the bleach on the floors, the “unscented” laundry detergent and “Mountain Fresh Breeze” dryer sheets on the bed and pillow, ammonia wafting over from the bathroom. Hanging over it all, close to Yalvaro, was a pungent odor that Jay couldn’t quite place right away. It seemed familiar, but-

It’s disease. He’s sick. Weak.

It’s cancer. This’s what cancer smells like.

“Jay?”

“Uh, sorry, dude, I just got distracted for a second. What’s up?”

“What was it like to fight Ria?”

“Well…” Jay had to dig deep into the memory banks to remember his Madness match against Ria Graziano. “Wait. Were you even old enough to watch that?” Jay laughed, and so did Yalvaro, although his laughter was more careful, so as not to pull on the IV in his arm.

“I got it on video. ‘Wrecking Crew’s Greatest Hits, Volume III.’ It had all your Madness shut-outs, too.”

“Yeah, well…” Jay scratched his head, still chuckling.

“Did you and Maria ever face each other?”

“I don’t think so, but my memory’s kinda crappy, so who knows? But we used to spar all the time, and you know what?” Jay hopped off of the chair and knelt down beside Yalvaro’s head, so that he could whisper conspiratorially into his ear. “I beat her every time.”

“See! I told Adie you’d win!”

“Yeah, dude. But the Grazianos are tough.” Were, he caught himself thinking for a split-second.

“Why don’t you duel anymore?” Jay’s hand dug into the mattress, as he searched for a response.

“Well, uh, I kinda just got tired of it. It’s a lot of work and a lot of time, and I wanted to spend more time with my wife.”

“I see.” Yalvaro sighed, as much out of exhaustion as out of disappointment. “Do you think you could win?”

“Win what?”

“The Warlord tournament, duh. It’s coming up soon.”

Jay opened his mouth, about to give Yalvaro the honest answer, when he saw the look in his eyes. He peered over the kid, at the sunlight slicing through the window and tossing diagonals across the room. That look was all too familiar to Jay. He’d seen it in the hungry faces of the teenage Echyae Rebels he’d helped in Gluador. It had been there after the mud slides of Hoku-Ahi, on the desperate family members waiting hear if their son or daughter had been rescued. It was hope. A desperate desire to believe that everything would turn out alright in the end, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. How could he kill that tiny spark of hope?

“Hell yeah, I can.” Jay did his best Maria impression, and his smile only grew wider when Yalvaro laughed. “Kiddo, I’m gonna win this tourney for you.”

[Capistrano]

November 19, 2018
Redmond Clinic

It was time to pay the piper.

Jay didn’t have to go back to the hospital. The Wrecking Crew was already sending one of its public relations people over on Wednesday, with a big oversized check for 5,000 silvers. They had promised a thousand silvers for each point he scored, but ended up bumping it to an even 5K after his night ended early. He hadn’t read the local newspapers or sports blogs to see the final results; he left the Annex early, went back to the apartment the Crew rented for him, took care of Sami for a while, went to bed, and woke up to pack their things for Clovely. This was the last thing left on his to-do list, and although he itched to get back on the road again, he wanted to see Yalvaro in person again before heading home.

He guaranteed the kid a victory, even though he privately told Sami and several Crew staffers there was no way in hell he had a shot at winning. Absent a match with Xanth two weeks ago, he hadn’t set foot in a Swords ring in three years, and he’d been content with that. And nothing about the night made him feel any different now. He fought a blood monster and an undead abomination, and could still feel his skin crawling the day after. Only years of discipline, study, and meditation allowed him to keep his cool. That, and the fact that he didn’t have to fight the young girl who had also shown up. Although, in some ways, that might have been preferable -- at least there would have been less temptation to give in to his rage.

With a shake of his head, Jay pushed aside thoughts of the immediate past, forcing himself to take focused, deep breathes in and out as he walked down the clinic hallways. He came alone -- he figured it would feel less like a P.R. stunt and more genuine if he showed up without his usual bodyguard, even if he was good friends with Jameak. He stopped at room 1104, put on his best smile, and-

The room was empty. Jay sniffed at the air.

He was here recently.

Find him! An involuntary growl escaped Jay’s lips, before he shook his head rapidly. The room was empty, but only of Yalvaro. There were still personal items there: a serape blanket in various shades of blue, a hand-held video game system, a jersey signed by all the RhyDin-residing members of the Crew.

He’s still in the clinic.

Tear it apart!

Or we can just ask somebody. A little ways down the hall, near a bank of elevators, a nondescript doctor wearing white scrubs and a stethoscope stared intently at his clipboard. Jay walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. The man jumped, twice. Once, at the unexpected touch, and then again when he saw Jay’s claw-scarred face.

“C-can I help you?”

“Sorry to scare you, dude, but, uh, do you know what happened to the kid in Room 1104? Yalvaro?”

“Are you family?” With a few moments to catch his breath and calm down, the doctor now looked the casually dressed dueler over with undisguised suspicion.

“No, I’m, uh-”

“I can’t tell you anything about Redmond Clinic patients without a written release, unless you’re family. Which you said you’re not.”

“But-” Jay found himself talking to the doctor’s back as the elevator door opened and the man took the opportunity to exit the lobby quickly. The dueler took a step towards the closing door, nearly reaching out to block it, and then pulled his hand back. Instead, he shut his eyes and took stock of his body. Head - okay. Neck - okay. Shoulders - a bit sore, but okay. Chest -

“Jay?”

He opened his eyes, his focus somewhere between his rib cage and his belly button. Anna stood by a nearby stairwell, clutching a cup of coffee. She smiled at Jay as she walked over towards him.

“Hi, Anna.” Jay tipped his head back towards the hallway and the patients’ rooms. “Where’s Yalvaro?”

Her smile spread out further on her face, overwhelming the exhaustion in her eyes. “They found a donor! He’s up in surgery right now.”

“That’s awesome!” Jay mirrored her smile and crossed the floor to wrap her up in a big bear hug. “I’m so happy for you.”

“Thank you, Jay. Thank you, and the Wrecking Crew. We’ve-” Anna paused to wipe at the tears that had suddenly formed in her eyes. “-it’s been hard dealing with this, just me, and working too. It was- it was nice to see him happy for a change.”

“Yeah, definitely.”

“But what brings you here? You didn’t have to go to all that trouble. You’ve all done more than enough for us.”

“I wanted to apologize to Yalvaro.” Jay scratched his head and rubbed a shoe against the back of his leg.

“What for?”

“I didn’t win the tournament. In fact, I, uh, I kinda sucked. I just wanted to, I dunno, explain how that goes. That adults sometimes promise stuff they can’t always do.”

“Pobrecito, you don’t have to do that!” Laughter bubbled up and escaped from Anna, as she patted his shoulder. He might have felt insulted in the past, but today he just rolled with it, chuckling. “It means more to me that you came to see him, and he’ll remember that longer than he’ll remember how you did in some tournament.”

“Well, thanks. It means a lot to hear that.” Jay glanced up at the ceiling for a second or two, long enough for another discrete sniff at the air. “How long’s the surgery take?”

“It’s a couple of hours, but they keep him in isolation for a day or two afterwards to make sure he doesn’t get any infections.”

“I see,” Jay said, frowning. “Sami and I are leaving today, and then, y’know, the holidays…”

“Don’t worry, I understand. Thank you.”

“No worries. Look,” Jay pulled out his phone as he spoke, unlocking the screen and opening his contacts page. He scrolled through it as he continued. “You know you can always call the Crew if you need anything, but if they’re busy with some family feud or something and you can’t reach them, here’s my number.” He turned the screen towards Anna, so she could read his contact page. She nodded, retrieved her own phone, and began entering in his contact information. “I don’t have a lot of money, and I’m out of the realm a lot on deployments, but if you ever need anything going forward, call me or text me and I’ll do what I can.”

“You’ve done more than enough, Jay. Gracias.” She reached up to hug him, and he gladly returned the gesture. “And safe travels back home.”

“Thanks. Tell Yalvaro I said bye, too.” Anna nodded, then stepped past Jay with a smile to return to Yalvaro’s room. Jay allowed himself one last parting sniff before turning to head towards the lobby and the exit.