Chapter 4. To Pleasure Island
The mission begins in earnest here. I'm giving an unofficial K+ Rating to this particular chapter as it depicts the rules of a popular 19th century gambling game called Faro and some might not consider gambling of any kind to be a fit subject to very young readers.
Gepetto's Workshop, Collodi, Tuscany, Italy, 1881:
Never before had Huey, Dewey and Louie ever experienced a more fear inspiring end of the school week as when the School of Collodi let out on the afternoon of Friday, October 28, 1881. Officially it was two days after the brewing Arizona gunfight that Roberto was egging them to tell about on their first day in the Collodi School. However tonight at midnight was the beginning of the duck boys' own personal O K Corral experience in a cursed amusement park called Pleasure Island. The Ace of Spades indeed seemed the appropriate playing card to be the ticket to this place for it meant the death of boys as boys and the beginning of their lives as beasts of burden for salt mines, circuses and even truant officers coaches.
Last minute plans were in formulation as the workshop of clocks each marched toward midnight. Pinocchio would let no one but Jiminy Cricket put out this final plan. The Cricket had worked as Pinocchio's conscience during his time as a puppet and a puppet donkey and had remained as an aid to his now real conscience and one of his best friends ever since. Needless to say Jiminy was not keen on Pinocchio going to that Island again, especially with Lampwick again even though Lampwick as a donkey best symbolized what would happen if Pinocchio blew it and fell for the Islands temptations again.
"Now remember." Jiminy told the four boys and the donkey. "We are going to the 8 Ball saloon and ONLY the 8 Ball Saloon. And no Pool, Faro, Poker, Wheels of Chance, smoking or drinking while you are there!"
"Yes, but the secret we are looking for might be buried on one of those gambling games." Huey said.
"When I was talking about those things I meant PLAYING them." Jiminy snapped back. "Listen Huey you have to treat Pleasure Island like a gun. IT'S ALWAYS LOADED. You may not turn into a donkey there but there are avians like ostriches that are rather stupid looking and have been used as beasts of burden. Whatever is on that island could conceivably turn you into an OSTRICH rather than a donkey even though the fairy says it is not possible. Even though it may not be possible you must always do your work there on the assumption that it is and not eat, drink, smoke or play ANYTHING in that place. Everything there is like a gun. ALWAYS LOADED!!!, understand?"
The Wishing Star was in the sky again and stayed there brightly even past ten o clock. It seemed that the fairy was looking after her boy agents to from her wormhole. The boys spent most of the afternoon napping to prepare for this middle of the night journey they were to partake for her.
Last minute preparations were being made as the clocks in Geppetto's workshop struck eleven. Pinnochio had provided a special place in his hat for Jiminy so he would not have to ride on one of the coach's boot bolts again like the last time and Jiminy took his place therein. Lampwick was going to be passed off as a family pet added to the other family pets of Cleo the goldfish and Figgero the kitten that was going to be presented to the Coachman as a gift for allowing Pinocchio to go the Island a second time.
"Now we all have it straight." Huey said. "We go to the crossroads, we wait for the coach, the coach departs at midnight.
"Got it." said Dewey,
"Got it." said Louie,
"Got it," said Pinocchio"
"Got it," said Jiminy form under Pinocchio's hat.
"Got it." said Lampwick but it would have sounded like a short bray to anyone not in the loop.
Actually the intersection known as "the Crossroads" was very close to Geppetto's workshop so the walk there was a short one and the duck boys, Pinocchio and Lampwick got there well before the coach at around eleven forty. There were twenty other boys there, some from other parts of Tuscany as they were unknown to Pinocchio. Roberto seemed to be the ringleader of the group. The time crept ever closer to midnight and suddenly the sleight sound of music was in the air. The music was an instrumental version of that Hi Diddle De De song that Fowlfellow sung to attract boys to this destination. It heralded the arrival of the coach and of the Coachman himself, the arch criminal in the boy disappearances of Tuscany.
This was the first time that Huey, Dewey and Louie met the man they were brought to this world to stop.
His obese red clad figure kind of reminded the duck boys of Santa Clause without a beard and with a short crowned top hat replacing the Santa Clause hat. However what this "Santa" was up to on Pleasure Island soon cut them loose of that image of the Coachman. The Coachman was accompanied in the coach's driver's seat by Fowlfellow and Gideon.
"Don't tell me that pair is coming." Dewey said.
"I think this will be their first time." Pinocchio said. "I don't remember them coming when I went to Pleasure Island the first time. They just simply put me in the coach's driver's seat with Lampwick and made a rather hasty departure."
"As I remember in our Junior Woodchucks Guidebook the fox creep banks and deals Faro." Huey said. "That means that his destination on Pleasure Island is probably the 8 Ball Saloon where all the gambling goes on too. Of all the rotten luck."
"Maybe not such bad luck." Dewey returned. "That means that duo of slime eels will be right where we can keep an eye on them. And not out collecting more boys."
"You do have a way of making lemonade out of lemons, Dewey" Louie interrupted. "Those two are bad news and there is no way around that."
"What bothers me even more that Fowlfellow and Gideon accompanying us is that nobody but us boys who received Aces of Spades and came to the Crossroads can seem to hear that music coming from the coach." Louie said. "I have a feeling that is a sign that we are under the curse even before we get to Pleasure Island itself."
"Just remember what I told Huey," said Jiminy from under Pinocchio's hat. "Just don't eat, drink, smoke or play anything on that Island and you will be okay. It is an absolute certainty that the curse requires bad behavior on the part of its victims to fully work and change them to donkeys or what ever you might change to as an Avian and all the games, rides, refreshments and attractions in that place have been re-designed to encourage that bad behavior."
When the coach came to a stop the collection of "stupid little boys" mounted it excitedly with Roberto being a little more deliberate in his seat selection getting one right behind the driver's seat occupied by the Coachman, fox man and cat man. and the duck boys and Pinocchio deliberately seated themselves on the same bench with Roberto. As a supposed "pet" Lampwick was also allowed to ride the coach rather than being secured to its pulling strut with the rest of the donkey boys used to pull it. Indeed the coachman knew that the Pinocchio's "pet" donkey was the boy "Lampwick" from the group he had sold two weeks ago. The Coachman always felt it was a mistake to sell Lampwick to the Truancy Authority. A little too close to the law for his comfort. Now once Pinocchio and those duck boys were changed by the curse Lampwick would join this newest consignment and be re sold to the salt mine, the circus or any other new master that would be considerably safer than his current one. A crack of the coachman's whip over donkeys that had once been boys and the coach way. The Hi Diddle De De music reached marching band level decibels now for anyone that could hear it.
The coach then started down the unused part of the Crossroads toward the sea. It passed through several tunnels and over at least one bridge before it stopped again at the port for Pleasure Island. There waiting was a single large steamboat on which boys picked up at earlier assigned times waited. Pleasure Island could seen as a mass of rock looking much like a naturally constructed castle in the waters ahead of the boat
About half an hour away from the mainland.
At the point of boarding the boat Roberto and the duck boys with Pinocchio, Jiminy and and Lampwick parted company, Largely because their reasons for being on Pleasure Island were one hundred and eighty degrees opposite those of Roberto and the rest of the boys on the boat. Fowlfellow and Gideon stayed on the top deck with the boys but the coachman went into the interior of the boat where no boy was allowed.
There Pleasure Island minions with their shadowy cloaks and glowing viper like eyes stoked up the furnaces of the boats steam engines. The Coachman called one of them from that duty and it accompanied him to a special cabin in the interior of the boat. On it was a pair of wooden boxes, one of which the Coachman gave to the minion. "You take this on ahead and put it in its special place so everything will be ready when me and the boys arrive, bloke." The coachman told the minion.
The minion seemed to be able to fly like the Blue Fairy and left the boat headed for Pleasure Island at high flight speed. Before a quarter of an hour passed searchlights and fireworks started lighting the night sky above the Pleasure Island. The curse was now active. "Now get 'er started and lets get going, blokes." the Coachman ordered to the minions that remained on the boat. After his order the Coachman went to the Captains bridge from a stairway in the special room. All of this from the view of the boys on the boat's deck merely meant that the high rocky shore of Pleasure Island simply got larger and larger as the boat steamed closer and closer to it.
The cave and its port causeway that constituted the entrance to Pleasure island could be seen, an even closet view brought the great oak doors to the park and the donkeys head plaque above them into view. These opened as the boat docked. Inside the first view of the carnival midway of Pleasure Island could be seen.
"Remember, the 8 Ball Saloon and no place else." Jiminy told Pinocchio. "Pass it on".
"The 8 Ball Saloon and no place else." Pinocchio passed it to Lampwick. "Pass it on".
"The 8 Ball Saloon and no place else." Lampwick passed it to Huey. "Pass it on."
"The 8 Ball Saloon and no place else." Huey passed it to Dewey. Pass it on."
"The 8 Ball Saloon and no place else." Dewey passed it to Louie. Now they were ready to go. They walked from the boat down its gangplank onto the square stones of the causeway.
Once inside Pleasure Island itself the Hi Diddle De De music was still present, this time sounding like it was coming from a combination of a carnival calliope and an old western saloon piano. On both sides of the midway were an assortment of amusement park rides, carnival games and ubiquitous junk food concessions where the wares were simply left for the boys to help themselves. "GO AHEAD!! STUFF YOYRSELVES!! BE A GLUTTON!! ITS ALL FREE BOYS!!! One of the parks also ubiquitous invisible barkers announced through the giant clown face statue that seemed to dominate this section of the park. Other Barkers announced that the rides were free and pushing and shoving for access was encouraged, the games were free and allowed cheating on the parts of the players and above all the junk food and drink were all free. The sound of other barkers were announcing child access to formerly adults only areas of the park. "TOBACCO ROW BOYS, COME TO TOBACCO ROW AND GET YOUR PIPES, CIGARS, CIGARETTES AND CHEWING TOBBACA' C'MON AND SMOKE YOUR HEADS OFF!!! THE ROUGH HOUSE, THE TOUGHEST PLACE YOU WILL EVER SEE!!! C'MON AND PICK A FIGHT WITH ANYONE IN OUR OFFICIAL RING BOYS!! THE 8 BALL SALOON, COME AND PLAY FARO, WHEEL OF CHANCE, POKER AND POOL, BEER AND CIGARS ARE ON THE HOUSE!!! FOR ALL VANDALS OUR MODEL HOME IS OPEN FOR DESTRUCTION AND ITS ALL YOURS BOYS!! The Barkers, rides, games and music combined with large helium balloons, the explosions of fireworks and the beams of searchlights to make an aura of confusion throughout the park designed to further break down a boy's resistance to its "attractions".
However the duck boys and Pinocchio were not taken in by any of this. Pinocchio had been here before and knew all too well what happened to those taken in. The duck boys were familiar with such "theme" parks in their own modern world and this was simply another "theme" park where the theme was bad, rude, crude and even criminal "jackass" behavior hopefully to the point where it would interact with the curse of the park to turn the participants onto one, LITERALLY for the Coachman to sell through his donkey brokering business.
The midway road ended in a fork of four more roads one leading to the Model Home Open for Destruction which uses to be the parks offices, one leading to Tobacco Row, one leading to the 8 Ball Saloon and the last leading to the Rough House. Pinocchio, Lampwick and the duck boys took the central one of these roads which simply led further down the midway directly to the 8 Ball Saloon. Pinocchio and Lampwick remembered the great pool ball shaped building well as it was their lives were changed seemingly forever.
Lampwick became a donkey there and Pinocchio almost did, however this was also where Pinocchio had also started on the straight and narrow path to becoming a real boy when he saw the full horror of Lampwick's conversion.
Everything was where it should be in Both Pinocchio's and Lampwick's memory. The pool table was at the right side of the building, this time free of the rips in the cloth that Pinocchio and Lampwick had put in it during their last game before the curse started to take hold of them on their first trip there. The blatent games of chance were at the left hand side of the building and were run by animatronic dealers similar to the Indians who passed out the smokes on Tobacco Row. Even Lampwick at first wondered what was the point of these blatant gambling games like Faro, Chuck A Luck and Wheel of Chance when everything was free and there was no money on Pleasure Island. He learned what the attraction was with the specdial sweeness of the candy chips that could only be won through these games or at the Poker tables that occupied the center of the building.
The duck boys and Pinocchio took seats at a poker table but NOT for poker once they had looked the 8 Ball Saloon over. One good thing about the 8 Ball Saloon was that it was quiet. The barkers, music and carnival attractions outside were well muffled by the saloon's round outer structure. Furthermore what the Fairy wanted them to find was in all probability somewhere in this saloon. Therefore their time was spent in drawing maps of the interior of the saloon so that they can inspect every part of it when the donkey curse started working and they had it to themselves.
Almost immediately Dewey's attention went to the gambling tables on the left side of the saloon. Two Faro tables were without animatronic dealers. One of these was to the left of the beer bar at the very rear of the saloon. The other was at the center left of the saloon.
All the sudden the whistle of a very familiar song was approaching the saloon.
"You know, I'm really beginning to HATE that song." Dewey said. "It's all I've heard music wise since coming to this world and it always has something with the odor of a rotting fish attached to it."
"Well here comes your rotting fish now." Huey said as the western style mini swinging doors swung open and John Worthington Fowfellow came into the saloon followed by Gideon and a parade of boys. His whistle broke into full song again.
Hi Diddle De De!!
A Faro game for me!!
Very soon we will all compete!!
For candy chips that are really sweet!!
Hi Diddle De De!!
A Faro game for me!!
If you want more you must be in!!
And it's from me that you must win!!
And now it's time for us to begin!!
A Faro game for me!!
This Procession stopped at the unoccupied Faro table at the center left of the saloon. Fowlfellow took the dealer's seat and Gideon the case keeper's seat for the game. This was followed. By Fowlfellow's shuffling the cards and placing them face up in the silver dealing box used in the game.
"Now Kiddies." Fowlfellow started. "The way we play this little game is that if you want to win more candy chips you bet one of the ones I already gave you on one or more of these cards on the C shaped card layout on the main Faro board. You can bet on one card by placing a candy chip directly on the card. You can bet on two cards by placing the chip so that it is in the green between two cards. You can bet the six, seven and eight, as a three card bet by placing the chip at the "curved end of the C shape which is occupied by those cards and finally you can make a four card bet by placing a chip in the green between the corners of the four cards wish to wager on. Now the way the basic way this this game works is that there are two card piles
into which cards go from this dealing box. The right hand pile contains the Soda which neither wins or loses because that is the top card of the deck and everybody knows what it is and the cards that are player or winner cards. The other pile contains the Bank or Loser cards and the hoch which is also a neutral card neither winning or losing, We will not be using calling the turn in this game because that is above the minds of little boys like you. What you are betting on is that the card or one of the cards you are wagering on will show up for the win pile before it shows up for the lose pile. You can reverse this and bet that the card or one of the cards you are betting on will show up in the lose pile before it shows up in the win pile by placing one of the copper tokens this table provides on your bet. Furthermore there is one more bet called High Card that is represented at the top of the layout. If you place a bet there and the highest card in a given turn
Is in the win pile uou win it. If you copper token that bet the lowest card of the turn wins.
"Ace of Spades, Soda. You may now place your bets kiddies."
"Roberto was in this game and placed his bet on the high card bar. Other bets were placed on the various cards as per Fowlfellow's instructions."
Once all the bets were placed Fowlfellow slid the ace of spades out of the dealing box revealing the three of hearts. "Three Loses" he announced and then slid off the three revealing the King of Spades. "King Wins".
Fowlfellow paid Roberto's bet on the High Card Bar and all bets associated with the king on the main board, and took all bets on or associated with the three. Roberto let his bet on the High Card Bar Ride and new bets were placed on the losing three.
When there were no more bets Fowlfellow put the winning king and the winning pile and announced the loser for the next turn. It was the Seven of diamonds. "Seven loses" He then slid the seven off and put it in the lose pile to reveal the Jack of clubs. "Jack Wins".
After Fowlfellow paid and took the appropriate bets for that turn Roberto had four candy chips for his original one. What Roberto did not know was that Fowlfellow was using a "brace" box and cheating to LOSE on the High Card Bar in order to keep him in particular in the game. This was a kid that the Coachman especially wanted to keep a winning, happy brat until the transformation to donkeys occurred as he appeared to be a ringleader for the other boys with the exception of the duck boys and Pinocchio who always seemed to keep to themselves in the 8 Ball saloon since their arrival drawing pictures of the place,
And on paper of all things, not directly on the poker tables themselves as they were encouraged to do on several occasions.
With the exception of more gambling, pool playing drinking and smoking on the part of ever more boys this was the way things went in the 8 Ball Saloon on pleasure island for most of the day. As the sun started to go down the first HEE HAWS!!! Started coming out of the latest consignment of boys on Pleasure Island. And the park outside the 8 Ball Saloon started to show its actual age and condition as the full force of the curse moved away from the preserving the park and onto the boys to change them to donkeys.
Soon the duck boys, Pinocchio and Lampwick would have the Saloon to themselves and they would be able to ferret out its and the Island's secrets.
Next, Pleasure Island's secret REVEALED!!!
