Clerical

Chapter Thirteen

Barry and Gabriel walk briskly into the Luciano Casino. Barry stops at the reception desk, and turns to an impeccably dressed concierge leaning over some paperwork.

"Alright, mate?" Barry asks.

The concierge breaks from his paperwork and looks up. Barry notices the gentleman's demeanor change from his probably forced pleasant smile, to one that demonstrates nervousness.

Barry's not particularly surprised, he's been awake for far too long at this point, and the bags under his eyes certainly give that away. Aside from that, his clothes haven't been changed for over 20 hours, and he's aware he probably stinks like a skip on a hot summers day.

He doesn't look like the ideal client to be showing up to a casino at this time of night.

"Can I help you?" The concierge says in his well-spoken English tongue.

Barry suspects he left out the ‘sir' at the end of that sentence.

"Yeah, kinda. Err. I got a call from security, something about my Grandad being nicked for cheating?" Barry says, too fed up to be embarrassed by the situation.

The concierge is left a little tongue tied with the openness of this lower-class lout in front of him. "hmm" he says, mouth closed. "Donald? Could you show this gentleman to his Grandfather?"

Barry turns around to see who the concierge was addressing to find what he initially thinks is a half-man half-hippo. This man is ginormous, very scary, wears an earwig, and has a name badge that simply says ‘Security'.

Barry, a little pissed off at his grandad, has a little thought of this giant bear like creature beating his poor fragile old family member up. He hopes it hasn't come to that, but isn't particularly put off by the idea.

Donald escorts Barry and Gabriel across the floor of the casino. It's an odd mix of patrons, most are well dressed and here for a good night of gambling and drinking, but there's a subsection around the slot machines and roulette tables who don't appear to be having much of a decent night. Their sour faces suggest that even at this hour, they simply can't leave. Barry shrugs it off as they continue their way across the casino.

They come to an area locked off behind a key card reader and a giant steel door. Donald swipes his keycard and holds the door for Barry and the Angel.

There is another desk, with another well-dressed security man behind it.

"They're here for the old man." Donald says to the other man.

"Room 4." The man replies.

Donald escorts the pair to Room 4 and they all enter.

The holding room is much like a police interview room. A small, cheap, metal desk sits in the middle of the room with three school desk chairs around it. Other than the desk, and the incredibly bright lights, there is nothing else of note about this room.

Behind the far side of the table sits Barry's Grandad and his girlfriend. Grandad has his arms crossed and seems rather inconvenienced by the matter. His girlfriend is asleep in her chair. On the other side is a middle-aged man with grey hair, who's nametag says ‘head of security'. He nods to Donald, who leaves the room and shuts the door behind him.

Barry doesn't know what to say. Thankfully, the man identified as the head of security starts with a bang. He holds up something that looks like a laptop charger and throws it on the metal table. The noise it makes when it hits the poor-quality metal is enough to wake an elephant; not grandads girlfriend, however.

"We caught him wearing this." The man says, raising an eyebrow.

"What is it?" Barry asks.

"A device used to help count cards." He replies.

"It's a hearing aid." Grandad shouts out.

"We found it in his trousers."

"Hearing technology these days-" Grandad says meekly.

The head of security scowls at the old man like he's been a naughty child. Grandad simply shakes his head, annoyed at the fuss that's being made.

"Card counting's not illegal in itself, but once you bring electronics strapped to your crotch, that changes the game a little bit. By all rights, I could call the police."

Barry doesn't know what to say; it's his grandad, he's not responsible for his actions like he's his parent. Gabriel, however, steps forward.

"How did you discover this device?" Gabriel asks.

The man shoots daggers at Grandad. "He was loudly bragging about it at a table."

"Bloody hell, Grandad." Barry responds.

"And then you strip searched him? A frail old man? Without the police present?" Gabriel counters sharply.

The head of security seems to realise he's been trapped, and stumbles over his response.

"Well, not exactly strip searched…"

Grandad twigs onto what Gabriel is getting at, at bursts into life.

"Oh it was ‘orrible Barry. Oh the humiliation they put me and Gwenny through, how awful it was."

"Not great for business I should imagine if it goes to the press." Barry adds.

The Security man sighs in defeat. Barry looks over at Gabriel with an approving nod, he's impressed with that.

The man looks back at forth, clearly trying to fashion some sort of response, but Barry beats him to it.

"How about, we just forget the whole affair, you keep the winnings for the house and everybody goes home a happy chappy."

Silence fills the room for a few moments as the man thinks.

"Fine. But I get to keep the gizmo, and that knife he tried to bring in."

"Hang on!" Grandad responds.

"Yeah, that's fine! Shut it Grandad."

With that, the man relents, and after waking Gwenny, the rag tag group get up and leave the unofficial prison of the casino.

*****

That night, Barry is allowed to have some rest. It's been a hell of a day, and the few hours' sleep he can muster is one of the greatest, most relaxing experiences any human being can wish for.

Perhaps there was something to that confession. He's not slept this soundly in years and years – for the first few hours of sleep anyway.

After a couple of hours, Barry's sound slumber is interrupted as he starts to dream.

In the dream he finds himself standing a beautiful and sunny park. The perfectly trimmed grass glistens in the powerful summer sunshine. It moves and sways as a gentle breeze brushes across the land to alleviate any feeling of overheating. Children play, couples picnic together, and old married folk walk hand in hand. Everybody is out enjoying the serenity of this picturesque day.

It's all very vivid, the colours, the sounds, the smell of the air, but something doesn't feel right. Barry knows he is dreaming, but it feels all too real. He moves himself around the park, walking and taking in the scene. He touches the bushes and the grass and says hello to those who are sharing the park with him on this day.

They don't respond.

As he continues round, the wind begins to pick up; the gentle breeze has turned into a wind, and it feels hotter.

The wind gets more and more powerful as clouds roll in to cover the blue sky. Nobody in the park seems to notice any change except for Barry, who watches in confusion and fear as the clouds turn a menacing red colour.

The wind gets stronger once again, and the sky finishes its transformation into a blood red.

With a crack thunder and lightning puncture what's left of the serenity. Trees begin to sway violently with the speed of the winds, blowing backwards and forwards at an angle reserved for pulling out a tooth. So, vicious is the wind, Barry assumes that the trees are about to become unrooted.

Barry is physically unaffected by what is happening, and so are the other people in the park. He continues along a pathway to find what he assumes is a children's play park. It's empty, however the swings move and the sound of children playing is very apparent.

Creeped out he jogs away from the playpark, and finds himself back where he started, this time however, all the people stand stationary with their backs turned to Barry. No matter what angle he views them from, no matter how he observes them, they have their backs to him.

The winds no longer get worse, they sit at a constant pace, pulling and pushing aggressively. The lightening seems to subside, but the sky stays red with the rolling storm clouds.

Barry watches the people in the park; the families, the couples, the elderly, they all stand perfectly still like time has stopped. He feels a breath on the back of his neck and snaps around to see who or what is doing it. His reaction is shock when he sees the woman he met outside the strip club behind him, dressed in the same clothes. However, before he can truly process what is happening she thrusts the palm of her hand onto his forehead. Pain shoots through him and a flash of bright white light ends his dream.

Barry jerks upright in his bed, rudely awoken by the palm of the mysterious lady in his dreams. He breathes heavily, scared, and sweating from his experience. It takes a few moments for him to calm himself down and assure himself that it was just a strange dream.

Now he's awake, he takes a look at the clock by his bedside: 06:57am he notes. It's been years since he's woken this early, usually having to work nights and all, but after that dream he knows it will be next to impossible to get back to sleep. Being woken up in that fashion is comparable to being punched awake: unwelcomed.

With that Barry opens his bedroom door to go clean himself up, unfortunately he is greeted with the sight of his Grandfather humping his Gwenny like an absolute animal. This, to Barry, is a scene straight out of his worst nightmares, 100 times worse than whatever dream he just experienced. For this is reality.

He audibly wretches at what he is witnessing, and quickly shields his eyes to prevent the need to bleach them later.

Grandad notices Barry, but like any good trooper, doesn't stop marching.

"Morning Son." He shouts between his breaths and Gwennys moans of pleasure.

"Jesus, f*****g, Christ, Grandad." Barry says. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nuthin' wrong with me, my boy. Won't be long."

Barry rushes into the bathroom. The sight of Gwennys wrinkled legs being held so high may stay with him for the rest of his life – all few days of it.

He splashes some water onto his face and stares into the mirror, taking everything in. He can still hear the muffled groans of his Grandads morning of passion, and cringes heavily when he hears the final whistle go to signify full time.

With a little sleep behind him, he finally starts to give thought to who that woman was, and what the significance of the dream meant, if indeed it meant anything at all. Why did she warn him about Gabriel? Is there something he's not telling him, or is this woman just a trick from the powers that be to move him away from the correct path? "Who knows" he thinks to himself.

With that, he turns on the shower, strips down from his nightwear, and prepares to wash all the filth off his body, and out of his mind.