You guys have been keeping up pretty well, so I may start posting a little more quickly. We'll see. I have 27 chapters drafted. Yeah, I know. Never thought it would take so long to tell all this stuff. I'm thinking I might jump ahead to when Fraser and Ray and I showed up in this world... time-traveled... dimension-jumped. Whatever you want to call it. And I might jump back and forth between the times a bit. I don't want to be confusing, but I do want to explain how and why we're here and stuff. We'll see how it goes.

We're up to 14 UK readers now. Still no Canadians. It's your show, Canada! Show it a little love. (Fraser of course has to point out that if they're not reading already, they won't see my message. Killjoy.) ~Ray K.

Chapter Seventeen: House Warming

After we got done with work that night, Fraser invited me, Ray and Franny to his place for a little apartment-warming dinner. Of course, we all went.

"I hope you won't be too critical," Fraser said, sounding genuinely nervous, "but I decided to go with an Italian theme tonight: lasagna and garlic bread with a caesar salad."

"Oho," said Ray, rubbing his hands together. "Some of my favorite stuff Benny. You took a risk."

I went to the small dining table Fraser had acquired and offered one of the two chairs to Franny. She and I sat down while Ray went to hover annoyingly over Fraser while he put the lasagna in the oven.

"Prepared it ahead of time," Ray observed. "That was good planning. You're turning into quite the little homemaker, now that you live someplace bigger than a matchbox."

Franny cleared her throat.

"I did have some help," Fraser said quickly. "I got the lasagna recipe from Francesca."

Ray looked at his sister in surprise. "For real? Since when do you cook?"

"I can cook!" she exclaimed indignantly. "I just usually don't. I've seen ma do it a hundred times, and one time I made lasagna for Fraser." She gave a little superior shrug. "It was no big deal."

"Huh."

"I'm sorry there aren't enough chairs for all of us," Fraser said. "There were only two left of the set, but that did allow me to purchase it for a bargain price. I'll find some more soon."

"I like it," I said, running my hand along the table's edge. "It looks kinda rustic, but not shabby."

"Well, I sanded it down a bit."

"That's what that sound was!" I exclaimed. "I woke up at like six and there was this... shh-shh, shh-shh..."

Ray looked at me with one eyebrow cocked. "I can see why you two get along so well."

"I'm sorry if I disturbed your sleep," said Fraser.

He looked very sorry, and I knew he was thinking about how I hadn't been sleeping well anyway. I didn't want to get on that subject. "It's fine," I said. "It turned out nice."

"I still have to finish it, but it wouldn't have been dry by tonight, so I waited."

"I think we've got some stain if you want it," said Ray. "Leftover from remodeling the porch after the fire."

"Thank you. I would appreciate that."

"Oh, and I know you don't drink, but I brought some wine for the rest of us..." Ray indicated a paper bag he had brought in with him. "And some sparkling grape juice for you."

Fraser smiled. "That was very thoughtful."

"And I brought playing cards," I announced, pulling them from my back pocket. "Care for a round of poker while we wait?"

"I'm in," Franny said.

"Ever play blackjack?" asked Ray.

"Eh... once or twice," I said. I wasn't crazy about the game.

"Played a lot o' blackjack in Vegas. It was kinda the thing in Langoustini's circle."

"Then we definitely don't wanna play it against you," Franny concluded. "Poker, it is."

Ray seemed a little disappointed, but he didn't argue. "You playing, Benny? I know you barely got the basics down, but we can school you along."

"Actually," Fraser said, "I've participated in a few games during your absence, and I think I'm getting the hang of it."

I smirked. He'd come a long way since I met him, but he still couldn't bluff a lick, and he kept getting the hand names wrong. "Maybe we should team up," I said.

I could see that Ray liked my idea, but then he realized that that would mean either he was stuck with his sister for a partner, or he had to let me be his sister's partner. After a moment's hesitation, he shrugged. "Why not? You can partner with Franny."

"How come you get to be Fraser's partner?" she asked.

"You can't pair with Fraser because you two are the weaker players," I said, doing my best not to sound offensive.

"What makes you think that?"

"Well, I know Ray's done a lot of card-playing—he just spent most of two years in Vegas. And I've seen Fraser's game."

"And you assume you're better than me because I'm a girl."

"No. I just figure you probably haven't spent a lot of time sitting around boring places like stakeouts, waiting for something to happen. It's just a matter of experience."

I was relieved to see her hackles going down. "I guess," she said.

Ray offered to deal first, and I had to give him kudos for his shuffling skills. I mean, I can shuffle, but I can't do that springy thing where you pop the deck back together after.

"You learn to do that in Vegas?" I asked him.

"Had to," he answered. "I saw some of my associates playing and all the fancy stuff they were doing, I knew I had to brush up a little. I was lucky they didn't try to deal me in the first night."

"What did you do?"

"I taught myself."

"Overnight? No way!"

"Calling me a liar, funny man?"

"No... just impressed."

"Well, I wasn't exactly expert at it by morning," Ray admitted. "But good enough that I could play a few rounds, deal a couple of times and say I was off my game and leave the table. Then I had several days before anyone tried to get me to play again, and by then I was pretty good at it. Almost gave myself blisters and ruined about eight packs of cards, but I got it."

"That's some dedication."

"Yeah... never thought my life would depend on fancy shuffling. What'll ya take?"

I picked up my five cards. "Regular rules?" I asked.

"Yeah," said Franny. "Aces are high, right? And, um... if you shoot the moon..."

"That's hearts," I said.

"You shoot the moon with hearts?"

"No, the game of hearts. You don't shoot the moon in poker."

"Oh."

Ray sighed. "Okay, listen. I'll say this once. After that, your partner can help you. If you got nothing, it's high card. A pair beats a high card. Two pair beats one pair. Three of a kind beats two pair. A straight beats three of a kind. A flush beats a straight. Full house beats a flush. Four of a kind beats a full house. Straight flush beats four of a kind, and royal flush beats everything. Got that?"

"Got it," Franny and Fraser said together, both looking a little glazed over and neither sounding convincing.

"It's a good thing lasagna takes a while to cook," I muttered.

Fraser brought a box of toothpicks to the table to use for currency. "What's the ante?" he asked.

"Let's keep it simple. No minimum."

"What's that mean?" asked Franny.

"It means as long as you bet something, or raise something, you're good. It's only if you fold that you're out. If you're down to your last toothpicks, we won't raise it above your total. When you put up the last ones, you're 'all in.'"

Fraser began divvying up the toothpicks.

"Let's just start and hope she catches up," said Ray.

Franny gave him a look that would have murdered him in cold blood, if looks could kill. "I'll be just fine, thanks. Play ball."

Ray rolled his eyes and sighed. Then he chuckled. "You know, you haven't changed a bit."

"Well good, 'cause there was nothing wrong with me before you left."

"What'll ya take?" he asked me again.

I looked over my cards again. I had one measly pair. "Three," I said, handing over my cards. He dealt me three more. They didn't improve my hand.

"Fraser?"

"Doesn't he have to bet first?" asked Franny.

"We're keeping it simple for you amateurs. We'll bet next time around. Fraser?"

After a lot of deliberation, Fraser also took three cards.

"Franny?"

She asked for three cards even quicker than I had, and from the tiny smirk on her face, I guessed she had gotten something good. Or at least that she believed she had. I hoped she knew what she was doing.

Ray looked at his own cards. "And the dealer takes... one." If he had a tell, I couldn't detect it yet. He seemed neither pleased nor disappointed with the new card he drew. "All right, whaddya say?" he asked me.

I didn't like my chances. I shoved one toothpick from my pile into the middle of the table.

Ray chuckled. "One toothpick. All right. How about you, Fraser?"

Fraser took a moment before putting in two of his own. "I see your toothpick, and I raise you one," he said.

"Ooo, big money," Ray mocked. "Franny?"

She licked her lips and counted out four toothpicks. "I see you and double it."

She still didn't sound like she knew what she was talking about, but she looked pretty happy. I hoped she had something.

"That's a little more like it," Ray said. He put out five of his own toothpicks. "I raise you one. Ray?"

"I fold," I said, leaning back in my chair.

"Boring. Fraser?"

Fraser shook his head. "I think Francesca's and your confidence suggest that at least one of you has a good hand..."

"Do you fold?"

After another moment's hesitation, he said, "Like a lawn chair."

Ray snorted.

"Hey, those things don't fold easy," I said.

"Easily," said Fraser.

I blinked. "Whatever."

"Now what happens?" asked Franny.

"Well, you can call, or you can raise it again," said Ray.

"Okay, I raise you two more."

Ray narrowed his eyes. "I see that and raise you one."

Franny hesitated just slightly. "And two again."

"I see that, too. Raise you one."

I was worried that sibling rivalry was going to make Franny get in over her head, but that was as far as it went.

"Okay, I call you out."

"Just say, 'I call,'" Ray corrected.

"Fine. I call."

He turned his cards over. "Two pair. Whatcha got?"

Franny laid down her cards. "I have three aces... do I win?"

Ray made a quiet sound of disgust. "Beginner's luck."

I smiled at her. "Hey, nice job, partner." I put up my hand and she high-fived me.

"What did you have?" I asked Fraser.

"A pair of eights," he answered.

I nodded. "You're starting to get it, but you don't need to talk out your reasons, okay? Keep the rest of us guessing."

"Ah, yes." He nodded to himself as if to reinforce my advice in his mind.

The next round, neither of our beginner-level players stayed in the betting long. Ray kept raising the stakes, and I started to wonder if he'd ever stop. I had three tens, and I knew how hard it was to put together a flush or a straight, let alone anything better. I still couldn't read him, though. He seemed cool as a cucumber. Of course, we were only playing for toothpicks, but still.

I nearly folded, but then I thought, What the hell? They're only toothpicks, and even if we get up to his limit, I'll still have a couple leftover. So I kept seeing his raise until he didn't have any extra to put in and he had to call. That son of a gun had been bluffing on a pair of threes!

"Wowee!" Franny whooped. "He creamed you!"

"Eh, he beat me," said Ray. "Just because his hand was more impressive than mine doesn't mean he beat me by a lot. He played the numbers game, took a gamble and it paid off. That's what poker's all about." He nodded at me. "Respect."

"He creamed you!" she said again. She put out both her hands for me to slap.

After I gave her ten, I told Ray, "I seriously couldn't tell if you were bluffing."

"I know." It seemed like he was proud enough of himself that he didn't mind losing.

Fraser spotted Ray a few toothpicks and we played a few more rounds. Ray couldn't recover much after losing so heavily, but he didn't seem to mind that much, either. The more we could smell the lasagna in the air, the better everyone's mood got. Once, Franny thought Fraser asked a question about what beat what to make us think he had a really good hand, but Ray and I knew that Fraser didn't have that level of deception in him. We folded and I advised Franny to do the same. She wouldn't at first, but when Fraser raised the stakes again, she decided to listen to me. Sure enough, Fraser's hand beat all of ours.

A little later, the lasagna came out of the oven and we started eating salad while it cooled.

"Do you want to sit down for a while?" Franny asked Fraser. He and Ray had been standing for our poker game, since there were only two chairs.

"Oh..." I tilted my head back. "I'm an idiot."

"He finally realized it," Franny said, and I have to admit, her deadpan was pretty good.

I got up. "I'll go grab a couple stools from my place."

"I'll give you a hand," Ray said.

"I can get 'em, but... come if you want to."

He followed me across the hall and I let him in. "It's kind of a mess," I said.

As soon as we were inside, he said, "I need to smoke, and I don't have an excuse."

"Right... uh..." I went into my living area and opened a window. "Here. Light up. I'll think of something."

He nodded and did as I said.

I went to my kitchen area where the stools were, thinking hard as I went. "Um... shoot." I looked around at everything, hoping some reason for delay would jump out at me. I looked at the dishes in the cabinet. They were ones my mom had given me when I first moved out. I didn't use them because I knew I'd break them. Besides, they looked kind of pretty in there... I pictured myself offering the dishes to Fraser as a housewarming gift. I shook my head. Taking those over wouldn't delay us enough. It wasn't worth it.

Suddenly, I remembered the dream catcher. "Fraser made you a dream catcher," I said, realizing for the first time that all that crap Fraser had told me about acquiring the eagle feathers actually held some significance: He must have started working on it before he met me. It had been intended for the other Ray to begin with.

"What? Did you say a dream catcher?"

"Uh-huh."

"One of those Indian spider webs with feathers and beads and stuff?"

"Yeah. He made it for your birthday... and he gave it to me. A year ago last September."

"Oh." Ray frowned as he took a drag on his foreign cigarette. "You know... he's kinda the king of impractical gifts."

I grinned. "Yeah, I know. Hang on. I'll see if I can find it."

It took me at least five minutes, but I finally found it in a desk drawer with some other junk. "It's a little worse for wear," I said. "I may or may not have used it as a Frisbee."

"Ha." He took it and turned it around in one hand. "I wonder how long it took him to make this."

"Way too long for the gratitude I showed him," I said sheepishly. "Anyway, he meant it for you, so... it's yours if you want it."

He looked at the dream catcher a while longer before saying, "It's pretty cool. And it's a decent excuse. So, yeah. Thanks."

"No problem." It was stupid, because I hadn't so much as looked at the thing in like a year, but now I didn't like giving it up. But if it kept Fraser and Franny happy, it was worth it.

I let him have some mouthwash before we went back across the hall. I felt bad for leaving Fraser alone with Franny for so long, but it couldn't be helped. He seemed OK... but also glad to see us.

"Where'd you go to get those stools, Canada?" Franny asked.

"Sorry," I said. "I was telling Ray about that dream catcher Fraser made for me, and then I decided to show it to him, and I couldn't find it at first." All of that was pretty much true.

"Ah, I wondered where it had gotten to," Fraser commented.

"I told Ray he could have it... since you really made it for him."

Fraser looked a little blind-sided for a second, and I worried I'd made a mistake, but then he smiled at Ray and said, "Well, yes. That is true."

More soon. Favorite, follow, share, review! ~Ray K.