Texas Hold 'Em

by George R. R. Martin

  “He’s a teenaged boy.” Jade Blossom took a sexy pose, with a hand on her hip and one leg angled out of a slit in her gown. “Of course he’s hot for me. His mama can’t do a damn thing about it.”

  “My son is naturally gifted!”

  Jade Blossom understood: Lara wasn’t any kind of true believer. She saw the protesters’ position in pragmatic terms. Lara just wanted to get an edge for her son. Jade Blossom heard the echo of her mother’s voice again.

  The guy wearing a sidearm shouldered his way through the crowd with a confident grin, leering at Jade Blossom. He had a comb-over and wore a denim cowboy shirt rolled up at the sleeves. His gaze dropped to her shoes and came slowly up her legs and trim torso to rest on her face.

  She began increasing her density in case she needed to defend herself. “Lara, if Cesar’s truly gifted, he’ll be fine.”

  “This ace has quite a mouth on her, doesn’t she?” The guy stopped in front of Jade Blossom, his hands on his hips.

  “I think she was just leaving, Earl,” said Betty Virginia, giving Jade Blossom a hard look. She waved her hand in a shooing motion.

  Jade Blossom had reached aluminum density. With her hard right hand, she gave Earl a pseudoaffectionate chuck under the chin that knocked his head back. “You’re a cute little thing, Earl.” With that, she sashayed away, knowing he appreciated the view no matter what his church taught.

  “Inhuman bitch,” Earl called after her.

  Inside the ballroom, many kids were talking, some dancing to canned music, others mingling and joking around. Many were clustered around the table with soft drinks and the table with munchies. Jade Blossom spotted Cesar in the crowd, now wearing a black suit that was too small and tight, a white shirt, and a plain blue necktie that made him more nerdy than before.

  He was running his hand over the polished black surface of the grand piano. Most of his peers were casually dressed in teen styles she found silly but genuine. She decided Lara must have bought Cesar his ill-fitting suit.

  This time, the kids accepted her presence. Many of them watched her but no one interfered as she worked her way toward Cesar. She came up behind him as he looked at his slightly elongated reflection in the top of the piano.

  “Waiting for your date?” Jade Blossom asked, projecting her voice over the buzz of the crowd.

  Startled, Cesar whirled around. “Uh, hi.”

  “Why aren’t you hitting on girls?”

  “I suppose they’re avoiding me because of you.”

  “Okay, I’m your date. But what’s so fascinating about your own face?”

  “I want a human girlfriend! Someday, I mean.”

  “Someday!” Jade Blossom laughed. “Someday never comes, Cesar.”

  She looked out over the crowd. Rustbelt was across the room, his big jaw moving up and down as he talked to Rubberband in his signature slouch. Near one wall, she spotted a girl who fit the description of the joker piano player Cesar had mentioned. Her body looked like it was formed of large and small piano keys, hard and white in modular rectangles connected by hinges large and small. She had an exoskeleton, Jade Blossom had said to Cesar. In her case, this meant a chiseled white face with dark eyes, softened only by lush chestnut hair that reached her ivory-white shoulders. A green dress of modest length hung on her body, revealing more hard angles under the fabric.

  As Cesar eyed Jade Blossom, she nodded toward the keys of the grand piano. “Show me your stuff. You’re my date, damn it. Try to make a good impression on me.”

  “Why would I care what a diseased mutant thinks?”

  “You have any other girls begging to take my place?”

  He frowned but settled himself on the bench and started playing, even with the canned music coming through speakers and the growing buzz of conversation.

  She leaned down close. “Keep at it, dude, and I’ll be right back.” She ran her manicured nails along the back of his scalp for encouragement, but he flinched at the contact.

  When Jade Blossom reached Marissa she didn’t bother with niceties. “Don’t you want to play?”

  “I do play,” said Marissa, as her mouth made rigid vertical movements. “Pleased to meet you, Jade Blossom.”

  “I know you are.”

  Jade Blossom nodded toward Cesar. “Is that guy any good?”

  Marissa shrugged, her modular shoulders going up, slightly sideways, then moving in reverse. “I guess we’re all pretty good.”

  “Show us what you got,” said Jade Blossom.

  “What? You mean, now?”

  “Come on, joker girl. Have you got anything or not?”

  “Where the hell do you get off talking that way?” Marissa demanded. “Are you always a super-bitch?”

  “I’m a sweetheart.” Jade Blossom batted her eyes.

  Instead of responding, Marissa watched Cesar at the piano for a moment. Then she walked toward him, maneuvering awkwardly through the crowd.

  Jade Blossom followed.

  Cesar was toying with the keys, gazing out at the crowd in front of him.

  “Can you play or not?” Jade Blossom demanded, as she came up behind him. She began raising her density, sure that Cesar might try to walk away.

  “What?” When Cesar saw Marissa timidly sit down on one end of the bench, he rose to his feet. “Hey! I’m not playing with a joker!”

  Jade Blossom’s density had reached granite level. She placed her heavy hands gently on his shoulders and bent her knees slightly. Her weight slammed Cesar back down on the bench. “You’re my date, remember? Pretend you’re trying to get in my pants. Well, my thong.”

  Cesar glanced once more at Marissa, who pointedly looked down at her fingers on the keys in front of her. In a sitting position, her green dress clung even more to the sharp edges and angles of her body.

  Cesar suddenly started a fast, complex piece.

  Jade Blossom knew very little about classical music, but this had nothing to do with jazz. She believed it was a composition by Johann Sebastian Bach, but in any case, Cesar was showing off. Jade Blossom had challenged him and he was responding.

  The kids nearby turned to watch and listen.

  Marissa began playing. At first she watched Cesar’s hands, but quickly found what she wanted. Her hard, white, rectangular fingers matched the white piano keys.

  Jade Blossom listened and realized that Marissa was not just keeping up, but harmonizing.

  Cesar made an abrupt change. Suddenly he was playing a mid-tempo atonal piece, leaving Marissa behind.

  Jade Blossom finally got it—Cesar had no interest in impressing her. He was trying to embarrass Marissa. The little snot was angry about Marissa joining him, so he wanted her to look bad in front of all their fellow musicians. In return, Marissa was showing her stuff. Jade Blossom knew next to nothing about atonal music but she could see that their fast hand motions were precise.

  Against the far wall, the slender, very pretty six-footer was talking to the guy covered in peach fuzz. Others in the crowd drifted toward the piano, interested in the impromptu performance. A moment later, the canned music stopped.

  Marissa made the next move. She began a tune that Jade Blossom actually knew; her mother had listened to a lot of British-invasion-era rock music and this was “The House of the Rising Sun,” bluesy and wailing.

  Cesar hesitated, then followed her lead to the song.

  Jade Blossom heard him improvising and saw that Marissa responded in kind.

  The other kids were swaying, dancing, talking, and laughing. Many, though not all, were obviously tipsy, on drinks they must have smuggled into the event.

  Jade Blossom swept her skirt out of her way and planted one Jimmy Choo on the piano bench. Then she stepped up onto the deeply polished top of the piano. She danced alone, moving to the jazzy version of the song she had pretty much gotten sick of hearing when she was growing up.

  “Cool, bitch!” One of the boys held up a cell phone and starting taking video.

  “Proud t
o be both,” Jade Blossom shot back, and gave him a little hip move.

  Cesar settled into the line of music that was traditionally instrumental, down low, working the bass with his left hand and an A-minor chord arpeggio with his right. Marissa was playing the melody that represented the lyrics as the song was usually sung, slowly making it her own.

  Jade Blossom, still dancing and laughing as the kids crammed closer with their cell phones raised, realized that Cesar and Marissa seemed to have reached a musical accommodation.

  Because Jade Blossom wanted to keep the moment between them going, she swayed and waved, moving around a little on the grand piano. She spotted the solemn girl she had noticed earlier. The girl stood close to the piano, watching Jade Blossom without a cell phone, still in her green T-shirt with a faded logo and worn black jeans.

  Jade Blossom turned away from her, putting on her catwalk pout as she turned one way and then another. Cesar worked the piano keys cleanly as Marissa strained even higher for the melody. While Jade Blossom danced and posed for the cameras in the crowd, some of the kids, mostly boys, hooted and called out to her, sometimes with insults or taunts. Most were drowned out between the music and crowd noise.

  From her high vantage point, she saw that more of the chaperones, staff, and parents were watching her from various spots along the walls. A strikingly pretty blonde with light eyes pushed past people with a hard expression on her face. A slender guy of East Asian descent was talking to a dude with short blond hair and a husky build, who was chewing gum as he gave off a kind of cocky air.

  “Hey, Jade Blossom!” One of the boys, a tall, angular guy, waved his cell phone at her. “Did Cesar screw ya yet?”

  The kids who heard him laughed, waiting for her response.

  “A lady doesn’t kiss and tell!” She swiveled her hips, making her dress sway.

  “What’s a slut say?” A girl in the crowd giggled.

  “She doesn’t blow and tell, either,” Jade Blossom shot back, laughing.

  Across the room, the adults turned to one another, maybe not sure if they had heard her right.

  Cesar kept the arpeggio going and lowered the bass line even more, while Marissa blew on the melody, wailing high, sad, and lonely.

  Some of the boys, fortified by whatever they’d been drinking and maybe smoking, started climbing up on the piano at Jade Blossom’s feet.

  The solemn girl in the faded T-shirt still stood nearby, not speaking.

  Jade Blossom laughed at the boys and, remembering they were still kids, she approached them one at a time as she increased her density. She gently placed one Jimmy Choo sole against a shoulder and straightened her leg, pushing each guy back down again. Some laughed as they fell, staggering with an alcohol buzz. While some guys had friends who caught them, others hit the floor on their butts, still grinning.

  The adults in the back of the room started coming forward through the crowd, led by Rustbelt. He made slow, careful movements, apparently to avoid colliding with anyone. One woman hurried out, probably looking for help. Cesar and Marissa kept playing, oblivious to the other kids.

  Jade Blossom, still dancing, increased her density to aluminum as she waited to see what would happen next. She hoped Cesar and Marissa would keep playing. From what she could hear, she believed they communicated through their piano work.

  “Geez, fellas.” Rustbelt finally worked his way through the crowd and stopped near the piano.

  Jade Blossom pretended she hadn’t noticed him.

  Rustbelt raised his voice, speaking in his distinctive accent. “Hey, Jade Blossom—”

  At the sound of her name, she swung her hips, opening the slits in her dress and flashing a long leg up to her thigh.

  “Jeepers.” Rustbelt turned away for a moment, then looked up at her again. “That sure is some fancy dancing, you betcha. It’s good, real good. But, uh, I’m wondering maybe this ain’t such a good idea.”

  “I’m here to make a splash for the event, right?” Jade Blossom continued gyrating, swirling the split panels of her gown up high around her legs. “They wanted media coverage, they got it!”

  Some of the tipsy boys were climbing up on the piano again.

  “C’mon, fellas, knock it off, how about?” Rustbelt said to the boys.

  A few backed away, but several ignored him.

  Jade Blossom laughed and dropped into a crouch. She kissed one guy on the forehead and gave him a shove that threw him back. Raising her density again, she put a hand on another guy’s chest and leaned forward, pushing him off the piano.

  The two security guards, Carnahan and Berbelia, pushed their way through the crowd, grim and determined.

  “Cripes,” said Rustbelt, his expression pained. “Jade Blossom?”

  On the piano at her feet, Cesar pounded away at the bass and maintained the arpeggio. Marissa took the melody into a high-pitched wail that took Jade Blossom by surprise.

  “Get down here, bitch!” Carnahan gave her a hard grin.

  “Whoa, now,” said Rustbelt. “That ain’t right.”

  Carnahan gave him a wary glance.

  “Wanna dance, little boy?” Jade Blossom laughed and turned slightly, angling one hip toward Carnahan. She increased her density again, going past aluminum toward lead.

  The two security guards reached up, Carnahan grabbing her ankle and Berbelia reaching for her arm.

  Jade Blossom lifted the ankle with a hand wrapped around it and slammed her foot down. The polished surface of the piano cracked. Carnahan let go, wincing in pain, and walked backward.

  “C’mon, knock it off, fellas,” said Rustbelt, moving between Carnahan and the piano.

  When Berbelia grabbed Jade Blossom’s arm, she folded at the knees and slammed his hand against the wood, breaking the fine bones.

  Berbelia gave a throaty growl of pain and released her, staggering back.

  Rustbelt eased to one side, now blocking Berbelia from the piano.

  “Jade Blossom?” Cesar shouted, though he kept playing.

  Carnahan ducked around Rustbelt and launched himself at Jade Blossom’s legs like he was making a football tackle.

  Jade Blossom sprang up to avoid this grasp, though not very high given her great weight now. When she came down, her Jimmy Choos smashed through the top of the piano and through the wires.

  Carnahan’s tackle missed her and the music came to a stop. He bounced off the edge of the piano and fell to the floor, tangled in wires and big chunks of wood.

  The crowd of kids burst out laughing.

  Annoyed, Jade Blossom kicked out, breaking more wires and wood. Gradually she crashed her way down to the floor, knocking big splinters of wood aside with her hands and stamping a bigger opening even though she was trapped in the middle of the piano’s wreckage. Then she pounded on the piano with her fists, splintering more wood so she could eventually break out.

  “Awww, geez,” said Rustbelt. “Didja have to go and wreck the piano? I’ll bet them things are real expensive.”

  “Aw, Rusty, don’t you know I always make a mess?” Jade Blossom grinned at him as she stood up straight, though she was still caught inside the remains of the big piano. She saw Cesar backing away, holding Marissa by her upper arm.

  “Get away from my son!” Lara pushed through the kids, screaming. “What’s wrong with you?”

  “The piano was out of tune,” said Jade Blossom, shaking her hair loose. Still using her great density, she smashed her way out of the piano, throwing chunks of wood ahead of her, forcing Lara back.

  “Somebody arrest her!” Lara yelled.

  “Okeydokey, I think we’re done here,” said Rustbelt. He turned to Carnahan and Berbelia. “Find Michelle, will you?”

  The security guards turned and pushed their way through the crowd.

  Ignoring Rustbelt and Lara, Jade Blossom kicked the remains of the piano out of the way and looked around. She found Cesar and Marissa standing together, staring wide-eyed at her and the ruined grand piano.

&nb
sp; “You didn’t have to do that,” Cesar muttered, looking at the huge mess.

  “Here!” Jade Blossom snatched up some loose keys and tossed them toward him as she reduced her density to normal. “Play all you want.” She stepped between the two of them, blocking out Marissa with her body, and grabbed his arm. “Come on.”

  “What?”

  Jade Blossom pulled him close and threw both of her arms around him. Before he could react, she put her lips against his and kissed him. He wriggled with surprise but she held on.

  Around them, the kids cheered, hooted, and whistled. Boys shouted obscene suggestions. “Get away from him!” Lara yelled.

  Still in the clinch, Jade Blossom spoke in a whisper: “Listen, turd brain, I’m making you the hottest hunk around. If you won’t try to use your dick, I might as well rip it off your body myself. Just tell everybody you’re leaving me, if your IQ is any higher than room temperature!” She increased her density, certain she would need it.

  “Hey! I’ve got an IQ of a hundred and forty!”

  Jade Blossom put her palms on his shoulders and shoved, using her greater weight to send him staggering backward to Marissa.

  The crowd of kids, some of them more tipsy than ever, cheered.

  “All right, then!” Jade Blossom shouted, with a melodramatic expression of horror. “Take your joker girl, you like her so much!”

  Marissa’s rigid mouth dropped open in surprise. Her shocked eyes stared out of her otherwise rigid, blocky white features.

  The kids quieted, curious to see what would happen next.

  Lara stared with them. When Rustbelt started toward Cesar, Lara gestured for him to stay back and he stopped.

  Across the room, the security guards returned with the Amazing Bubbles, her platinum hair distinctive in the press of the crowd.

  Jade Blossom knew she did not have much time before Bubbles stepped up to confront her. She watched Cesar’s expression change from incomprehension to realization, but had no idea what he would do. Suppressing a laugh, Jade Blossom wailed, “Cesar! At least finish our date! Don’t leeeave me!”

  The crowd broke into laughter and hoots of derision at Jade Blossom but encouragement for Cesar.

  “The bitch is hot for ya, Cesar!” One boy’s voice carried over the general din.