This story was inspired by a song from Juliane Werding „Das Würfelspiel" game of dice. I once heard she wrote that song for a friend of her´s that truly experienced something just like that. So you can consider this story to be based on a real occurrence.
Disclaimer: I don´t own Psych or Juliane Werding.
Game of dice
It was a cold and rainy evening. And even rainy was too less to describe it. It was hailing and not less. Juliet had had to duck her head when she ran to the station and damn had she been released to finally reach the dry shelter of the place, deserted as it was at this late hour. She had put her car in for a service last week and it wasn´t back yet, so she had been forced to go by train to this meeting in San Diego. Wouldn´t be that much of a big deal if it wouldn´t be for that miserable weather. Why by all the forces in the world, had it to hail on the one day when she came to San Diego? Not enough that she had had to bear taking part in that boring meeting where it went on and on about nothing but budget – she had been flattered by the trust chief Vick had put into her, by sending her to do this but that had been before the hail – now she was also literally dry-drowning on the streets. And that only if she didn´t suffer a concussion first because these hailstones were damn big. Try to deny the climatic change, Carlton, she thought, but here you almost had the first official victim of it.
Behind her the door to the station fell shut and caused a loud echo in the big hall. Juliet took the file down, she had used as a shield against the hailstones and shook it. A whole bunch of half melted ice pieces as big as sugar cubes fell down to the ground. Juliet tried to force back a groan and then wondered for who in the world.
„Oh, for goddamns sake." she cursed out loud. „If I ever go on a trip like this again than only in a tank. I don´t believe it. Crap!"
She had been convinced to be the only person in the waiting area but in that moment, when she let off the steam of her frustration, she got startled by a gentle chuckling. She looked up, her heart thudding as if she had been caught by doing something illegal, and faced the tanned and wrinkled face of an old man, sitting on the last bench. He was smiling widely at her and his eyes were soft and friendly.
Juliet smiled back at him in an utterly apologetic way. She hadn´t meant to curse but obviously this old fella didn´t seem to mind too much.
„Stormy night, isn´t it?" he called over to her, still smiling this wide smile of his.
„Yeah." Juliet replied blushing a little.
„Hasn´t hailed like that in ten years, I can tell you that." he told her while she walked over to him – not because she wanted to talk to him, but because the timetable was on the wall next to his bench.
„Yeah." she said again with a polite smile. „Its pretty bad."
„Oh, it could be worse, believe me." he replied. „Nothing what I would call the storm of the century."
„No." she agreed, taking turns in looking at him and the timetable. „But its enough for me already."
He chuckled again and she focused on the timetable again. „The train to Santa Barbara goes in twenty minutes." he told her. „But it is delayed. Ten minutes I believe."
She looked at him completely taken aback. „How do you know I´m heading for …?" she asked but he had pointed at the file in her hand and she realized that it of course showed the symbol of the S.B.P.D. on it. And for a moment she had truly believed that the old man was a psychic like Shawn. She exhaled and laughed about her own foolishness.
„There are many things that seem only mysterious as long as we don´t look too closely." the old man said with a smile.
„Yeah, I guess so." she said and took a seat next to him. The train wouldn´t be here for another thirty minutes and her legs were shaking with cold and exhaustion. And that since she hadn´t walked so much today. Maybe it was the shock his little trick had played on her, she mused. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath to relax her mind as well as her body.
Next to her she heard a rattling sound. She opened her eyes and looked at the old man. He was holding a dice cup in his hand, shaking it and looking over its rim at her like a drinker in a bar. His eyes were twinkling, what was somehow cute but also a little disturbing. She smiled and shook her head.
„I don´t gamble." she said.
„Oh, but this is a special game." he said still smiling this mysterious wise man smile. „There is a lot at stake. Oh, I tell you, young lady." he grinned and shook the cup. „There is a lot in the pot tonight." His way of talking like a folk festival announcer made her smile again. „Do you want to know what the game is about?" he asked still letting the dices rattle. „Do you?"
„I already told you, I don´t gamble." she said politely. „By the way, I don´t have any money on me."
„Oh, its not about money." he said.
Juliet gave it up and decided to let him have it his way. It couldn´t hurt to have a little talk, no matter how weird it was. Old men could be weird sometimes but that made them so cute, didn´t it? „All right." she said. „When it´s no money, then what is in the pot?"
„It´s you." he said, still smiling and brighter than before.
„Excuse me?" she asked startled.
„Life is a game, young lady." he said with a brief but dreamy look upwards. „We all have to roll the dice and no one can tell how it falls. Nothing happens without a reason, you know."
Juliet gave him a wide smile, but she couldn´t deny that his talking made her feel a little uncomfortable. „Certainly." she agreed obediently. „But I still don´t gamble."
He just shrugged. „Well. I guess I´ll have to play all by myself then." he said and threw the dice cup down on the seat. He let it stand there for a moment, as if to raise the tension, then shook it a little. Juliet tried to pretend a lack of interest but she couldn´t help but watched the excitement of the old man. When he rose the cup and she could see the result of his throw, she frowned in astonishment.
There were four dices and all of them showed six pips. She just couldn´t believe it.
„How did you …?" she asked and looked into two amused twinkling eyes. „Lucky strike." she said.
„You think so?" he asked.
„Except those were fakes." she said. His gaze was as amused as before and she wasn´t sure how to interprete his look. She reached for one of the dices and looked it over. But it was a usual dice, with all six sites that had to be there. No fake.
„You really don´t trust very much do you?" he asked.
„No." she cried. „I just … you made it look like … Do it again." she then demanded. „I bet you can´t repeat that."
„So you´re in the game?" he asked.
Juliet rolled her eyes. „Oh, well. Whatever. Yeah, I´m in the game. But I have no money."
„I already told you. It isn´t about money."
„I also don´t play truth or dare." she told him.
He made a sound of devaluation. „Neither do I." he said. „I always lost at this when I was younger."
This made her smile again and she watched him do his thing again. He shook the cup with the dices and then brought it down on the bench. Again he waited a moment before he rose it up to reveal the result. Juliet was ready to tell him she had known it would be that, when she realized that he had indeed thrown six pips again on each dice. Her eyes went wide.
„Well, look at this." he said. „Who would have guessed that?"
„How did you …?" she stuttered but he just smiled and shrugged.
„You want to try it?" he asked and offered her the cup.
Juliet looked down on it hesitantly. „There is a trick, isn´t there?" she guessed. „What is it?"
„No trick." he assured her. „You might examine the cup if you like but you wont find anything."
„Then it is some legerdemain." she said. „Did you …?" He offered her the cup and she took it. She looked it up and down but there was nothing out of the ordinary at it. „You kept holding it down after setting it down." she recalled. „Is it that?"
He just shrugged.
„Do it again." she demanded and gave him the cup back. „But this time you let them roll instead of setting the cup down."
The old man sighed and refilled the cup with the dices. „The young folks always need to doubt." he said to himself. Then he shook the cup again. Juliet watched him closely. He turned the cup over on the bench and let the dices roll. They rolled over the seat – Juliet skipped back a little to give them space – bounced off the backrest and came to a stop. They showed a one, a two, a three and a four, in the order they came to a rest. Juliet stared at the old man in disbelieve.
„Guess you were right." he said. „It must have been a trick after all."
For a moment she just didn´t know what to say. Then she recollected herself and said: „Seriously. How are you doing this?"
„I´m not doing anything, my dear." he claimed. „You see, we just throw the dices. How they land … no one can tell."
„So you want to tell me that this was just coincidence?" she asked.
„I didn´t say that."
„But …" now she was lack of words.
Again he offered her the cup. „You want to try it?" he asked.
Juliet looked into those challenging eyes, that had the warm color of amber and took the cup. Now she just had to make a throw herself. She filled the dices in and shook the cup under the contend and smiling gaze of the old man. Then she threw. Her dices danced over the seat of the bench and then came to rest. A three, a four and two twos.
„Not bad for a first try." he praised. „But you need to throw more out of your wrist. Like this."
He showed her what he meant and his dices rolled over the bench, landing on two fives and two sixes. Again Juliet was close to doubt her own eyes.
Now her sense of challenge was awake and she took the cup from him again. She tried to do what she had seen him doing before. Her dices showed a five a four and two trees.
„You´re getting better." he praised. „But I´m sure you can do better than that. Look at this."
He threw again and this time he had three sixes and a five.
„Seriously. How are you doing this?" she wanted to know.
„Its just a matter of practice." he claimed.
„Didn´t you say before that no one can predict how the dices will fall?" she recalled challenging him.
„So you did listen to what I said." he replied. Juliet gave him a face but he just handed her the cup again. She took it and made another throw. A two, a three and two fours. She bit her tongue to not to curse. He smiled as if he knew exactly what she had wanted to say. Again he took the cup and made his throw. Three sixes – of course – and a four.
The turns between them went on for a while. Juliet became better after a while but it still didn´t matter. He was better. If she would throw a six in one throw, he would have at least two. If she had two, he would have three and a five. It was as if he decided what he wanted to throw after he saw what she managed to get, just to mock her. Only that this couldn´t be. She saw him throwing the dices and there was just no way for him to manipulate them. And even if there were tricks to manipulate the rolling of dices (and she was sure that there were such things in the world of gambling) how the hell could he always have exactly one point more than she had? This was impossible.
She was so engaged in the game and in the mystery of the old man´s technique that she had forgotten everything around her. Her wet cloths, her tired legs, the time. All that seemed to matter was how to get her dices to land on a higher number than his. It just wouldn´t happen. But she was far from giving up. She was just shaking the cup again for her next throw. This time she intended to do it the way he had done it at the beginning, by throwing the whole cup down on the bench. This time it would work. It had to. She was determined to crack his system.
In this moment she noticed the loud noise in the background. She had heard it for some minutes but just hadn´t payed attention to it. Now she realized that it was a train she heard there. Her train.
With a gasp she jumped up. How could this happen? Why hadn´t she heard that before?
„My train." she cried and started to run for the platform. Her bag was slapping against her legs with every second step. Then she finally reached the platform … but too late. The train started to move right when she reached it. Her hand reached out for the door but it was no use. The train was leaving. Without her.
For at least a minute she couldn´t do anything but standing there and staring after it. That had been the last train for hours. What a messy day was that? Seriously, this couldn´t get any worse, could it? Grumbling and more tired than ever, she went back to the waiting area. This was officially the worst day of her year. She reached the bench where she and the old man had played this stupid little game of dices. That game that had made her miss her train home. Now that she was back, the old man was gone. Just the cup with the dices in it was still standing there. Juliet looked around but she couldn´t spot him anywhere. Maybe he was in the restroom.
She took out her cell phone and called herself a taxi. She would spend the night in a hotel and take the first train in the morning. She stayed near the bench for a few minutes without the old man showing up again. Then the taxi arrived and she had to leave. There was no sign of the old man and she didn´t think that he was still around. The weirder it was that he had left the dice cup behind. It was as if he had left it as a message for her.
The driver honked and she jumped, being dragged out of her thoughts so suddenly. She shook her head and then hurried to get out. She let the driver bring her to the next best hotel and got herself a room for the night. She called home to tell the sergeant on duty that she was delayed and wouldn´t be back for tomorrow morning and then took a shower, what she had needed really desperately. When she came back out, she switched on the radio for some music but instead of some smoothing songs she got an excited newscaster that talked about a big accident that had cost at least ten lives so far.
„As far as we know there was a tree that got blown down by the storm and fell right on the tracks." he said. „The train, that was on the late route from San Diego to Santa Barbara, hit this treetrunk full speed just a few miles from the city limits. Fortunately there were no buildings in the area so the inhabits of the train remain the only victims so far."
Juliet stood there in front of the radio, struck and unable to move, only listening to the voice from the radio that was literally telling her how close she had come to dying tonight. She should have been in that train. If it hadn´t been for this old man and his game of dices, she would have been in that train. Her legs started to shake and she backed up until she fell down on the bed. Its not about money, he´d said. Its about you. No one can ever know how the dices will land, he´d said. But he had known. Every time. And also this last time.
Juliet felt ice cold. She was shaking. The voice of the newscaster had been replaced by music already but she heard it as less as she had heard the words before. The only thing she heard was the voice in her head. The voice of the old man, that said: „We all have to roll the dice and no one can tell how it falls. Nothing happens without a reason."
Now she knew why she had to roll the dices tonight.