Chapter 5: Vision

James had never been drawn into a game of Monopoly since arriving in Derry and everyone playing that night had quickly realised that they would be in no rush to have him play again. One by one they'd fallen to his tactical masterclass. Aunt Sarah had been the easiest, quickly coming to the conclusion that she would not win anyway and retreating off to bed. Joe and Gerry were so busy in their own private battle that neither saw the trap that James set for them and it wasn't long before they were both caught in it and eliminated. Gerry had worked out James's strategy and spoke his admiration for what he had done, without explaining it to Joe, who insisted James must have had some form of advantage with the streets being in London. 'Limey cheat' had been thrown James's way a couple of times by Joe but the Englishman let it go, focused on the game. Joe himself followed Sarah's example and marched off to bed, still protesting about the English bias from the top of the stairs. Gerry did not go to bed straight away, instead going off in search of all the covers and blankets he could find for James's night on the sofa.

That left three: James, Orla and Erin

James's plan to eliminate Joe and Gerry from the game had allowed the other two to work away quietly to challenge him but with all James's focus now on beating them, there was nowhere left to hide. Orla had unluckily found herself in jail, but it had worked in her favour too, as it left Erin alone to battle the Englishman's dominance and after a brief skirmish, Erin could go on no longer. She accepted her defeat with grace, staying and watching the final showdown between James and Orla after her cousin finally got herself back in the game. Orla was a surprisingly tough nut to crack and James had even looked on the ropes for a couple of minutes, but he was not going to be eliminated that easily. Orla fought valiantly but eventually conceded to defeat. Admiring her perseverance, James gave her a hug which Orla leapt into and, for reasons unknown to him, Erin did too.

"Who won then?" A returning Gerry asked the three in their huddle, causing them all to quickly break away from each other.

"I did Mr Quinn". James proudly announced.

"Well done James". He smiled, putting the blankets and covers down onto the sofa.

"And". He dropped his voice down to a mere whisper, causing Orla to lean in from behind James as to not miss anything. "You can call me Gerry you know".

First Joe and now Gerry. It is almost like I am family to them…

James's mind wandered off, but he caught himself and looked back up to Gerry, who had a warm smile across his face.

"Thanks… Gerry".

A friendly wink was something that James had been led to believe did not exist, yet that was what Gerry offered a second later. It felt as if he were trying to tell James something within the action but James, oblivious to what it could be, merely convinced himself that a friendly wink could exist… just without a true purpose. Orla announced that her night was over too and skipped off in the direction of the stairs without a care in the world and without a care to tidy up behind her. Erin and James set about clearing the board away and taking the empty glasses back to the kitchen, where Gerry washed them up. It would at least keep Mary happy in the morning, all the more pertinent after the effect that the current day had on her. Gerry bid his own farewell for the night, leaving the two of them alone in the living room with the one remaining candle that had not yet been put out. They were both sat under the covers on the sofa, James at one end and Erin at the other, the candle behind her.

"I don't think we'll be havin' ye back for anymore Monopoly again". Erin playfully mused.

"Scared I'll win?" James teased back.

"Catch yourself on". She scrunched her nose at him. "I don't think I can stand another board game where Daddy and Granda spend every passing minute trying to destroy each other".

James laughed, earning himself a swat to the shoulder for his trouble. Erin too started laughing with him and soon they were giggling merrily, looking into each other's eyes and finding solace in the shared humour. James could not help but notice how the flickering candlelight showed her beauty, her lovely golden hair falling down onto her shoulders. The smile that so often lit up a glum day looked even better in the weak light of a lone candle, the curves of her lips dancing along the path of the light and radiating the same warmth that the candle did. God, she is beautiful…

The alarms went on at that point. He was lucky that the light was too weak to show his features fully, because if it had been any stronger then Erin would have seen the red swell in his cheeks. Those were not thoughts he could have when it came to Erin. They were serpentile thoughts that he had to quickly bury to the back of his head, never ever to be seen again.

But like with any serpent, to kill it permanently, you must cut off its head.

If he'd have stumbled upon the scene just a few months earlier, then the Quinn house would have had a first English corpse to be scraped up off the floor. But James had grown on him and sensing the lack of true male figures to guide the young man, Joe saw an opportunity when it came to the wee English fella. So, when he came down to find the young man under the same sheets as his granddaughter, he decided not to make a scene. He could trust the young man not to conduct any funny business under his roof and instead saw the funny side of finding the two youngsters in a slouched position, their heads touching in the middle of the sofa. He remembered stumbling across a similar scene around twenty years earlier, except Gerry had been the outsider and Mary the young girl. The similarities were eerily similar, although Joe did not think James was as much of a gobshite as Gerry, and something told the older man that perhaps god had shown him an early morning vision of the future for the second time.

God had most certainly shown him a chance to have a bit of fun with the two kids though. And fun he would have.

"MORNING JAMES SON". He almost bellowed from the Kitchen

The shocked sounds of the kids leaping forward from their slumber made him grin wickedly. Pair of fools.