Silver Moon
Adventurer
Chapter One-hundred-one, “Dinner with Al“, Thursday June 8th , 1882, 5:00 P.M.
As Jake leaves the saloon he has already decided that the first stop is Al Brower. Jake enters the Comique at approximately 5:00 P.M. As it does not serve food there aren't any customers yet, with Warren Watson busy stocking the bar and Al Brower busy with a hammer and nails repairing a broken chair.
"Al, you never cease to amaze me. You have a myriad of talents. I am in awe of you." Jake pulls a chair up next to him. "I get tired just watching you." Jake glances around the saloon to make sure no one is close and Warren is far enough away to not overhear them. He says quietly, "Did Adair come to see you?" Al replies, "No, why would he? That man hates me almost as much as he hates you."
Jake pats him on the arm. "Cheer up, you will not always be in my shadow." After Jake finishes laughing at his own joke he continues. "Adair is out scouting for candidates for his new party. He is splitting from Fisk. I did not really think he would come here, but I was not sure. I wanted to give you some advance notice that another party was forming up and was looking for your support." Jake suddenly furrows his brows. "Why does Adair hate you?"
Al replies, "I live at the Double Eagle Boarding House, across of Sierra Street from the Palace. The Comique's previous singer Flossie McKenna lived there too. Adair once propositioned her and I intervened, nothing physical, just verbal, but it was enough to create some permanent animosity. Plus he also hates the fact that we'll do celebrations here during all of the Dwarven holidays."
"It does not take much to make an enemy of that one," Jake says and then cryptically, "some day I will take care of that problem. Never mind that, I came here for another reason. Keep this confidential until you hear it publicly or it makes the paper. Shaw and Escobar were not in agreement with that platform the so called Law and Order party put forth. As far as I can tell it was a complete surprise to them both. I was worried that those lunatics would drive voters to Fisk and Adair's party. So I did a little match-making and it appears to have worked.
Sounds like Shaw and Escobar are willing to join forces with Vera, your new partner," Jake watches for Al's reaction, "and start another party. Something more moderate and sensible. Something that will not put us saloon owners out of business. I think we can get Martin to join as the Marshall. Since you are my friend and a fine upstanding business owner I wanted to let you know, and get you prepared to support this fledgling party. What do you think?"
Al replies, "I would support that party very much Jake. As for the Blake's, Austin told me that he had approached you first about a partnership and you turned him down. I wasn't trying to do anything behind your back." Jake laughs loudly and raucously. Warren eyes him suspiciously.
Jake wipes a tear from his eye and says, "Austin came looking to borrow Jeff Mills from me. The old boy made no mention of any partnership, none that I remember anyway." Jake shrugs but cannot wipe the smile from his face. "That is really funny. I would have considered a partnership of some sort. That is if he would have really offered one." Jake wipes both eyes and then says, "Sorry if I teased you about it. I really do wish you luck with whatever you are up to with them. I am not upset in the least."
Al replies, "Good, I'd like to keep our relationship as it is, friendly rivals when it comes to business and even friendlier rivals when we're sitting across from one another at a poker game. Hold on a minute." He gives the chair a few more taps with the hammer and says, "That should about do it. One of these days I'm going to have to break down and buy some more from Rixton instead of continuing to repair these."
He waves to Watson and says, "I'm off to get a bite, should I bring you back something?" Watson says, "No thanks, Mrs. Milford will be sending me over some dinner soon enough." Brower replies, "Very good." He turns to Jake and asks, "Have you eaten yet?" "No. Lead on." As they are walking Jake says, "Now that you mention it, I do remember Ruby and Niles," Jake's expression darkens for a minute but he shakes it off, "telling me something about him wanting to partner up. It did not seem worth my time. I must have been preoccupied." Jake flashes him another grin. "That is nothing new though."
Al leads Jake two blocks away to the Silver Dollar Restaurant at the corner of Allen and Sierra Streets. He says, "Have you had a chance to dine here Jake since Hay Smith converted it over to a restaurant?" Jake looks it over as if really noticing it for the first time. "No, sir. I take it he has done all right?"
Al replies "Yeah, Haywood Smith's new wife Alice didn't care for the saloon and made him change it. She's part of Mrs. King's sewing circle. He wasn't making money as a saloon anyway since she made him close each night at 9:00 P.M. It's worked well for him in this format because he hired Walter O’Reiley as his chef. Walt used to own another restaurant here in town until it burned down a little while before you came to town. It had been on that vacant lot behind the First National Bank."
They enter and Jake sees that it has been completely remodeled, with the former Silver Dollar Saloon's bar and barstools long gone. In its place two stoves and a pantry have been added to the far end of the single-story 20x30 foot structure. Eight tables fill the room, one large table able to seat up to eight, four tables of four, and three tables for two. A short balding man with eyeglasses is busy preparing food. All but two of the smaller tables are full and Al and Jake help themselves to one.
A paper menu is on the table and lists three main courses: Beef stew with freshly baked bread; Grilled steak and baked potatoes; Lamb chops and mashed potatoes. On the walls is a slate with the desserts listed of Apple Crumb Pie, Cherry Pie, Stanley Barker's Cookies and Raspberry Bread Pudding. Another sign on the wall lists the dozen beverages available, the only two alcoholic ones being Honey Mead and Apple-Pear Wine. Jake orders the steak and coffee. He makes small talk with Al, giving him ample opportunity tell Jake why he really wanted to have dinner with him.
Al says, "Jake, I wanted to discuss something with you. I...I can't seem to forget about Madge Duprey, I guess I love her. Do you know where Madge as gone? She used to spend a lot of time with Ruby, who has been gone for around are week now too. Are they together? What's going on?" "Mierde," Jake mumbles. "I wish I really knew."
He lowers his voice, "I do not know where Ruby is." He tries to continue but gets a lump in his throat. He calms himself and goes on, "I do not think they are together. I think they left for different reasons." Again he is unable to speak for a moment. "I do not know where Madge is, I only know that she left because it was dangerous for her to stay. I suspected she would come back some day when it was safe, but I do not know for sure. I am guessing that part of keeping her safe, and allowing her to come back some day was for everyone to believe she was never coming back. Even those closest to her."
Jake looks at Al, and truly knows how he feels right now. He lowers his voice even more, "It is too soon to attempt to contact her. It would put both her and anyone attempting to contact her at some significant risk. Let some time pass, Al. Maybe another week or two. We can talk again, and if the danger is past I will do what I can to help you send her a message. I think she is quite safe, be at least comforted by that."
Al says, "I'm a big boy Jake, I can take care of myself. Who is she hiding from? What is the risk? I will....." Al then drops his fork onto his plate as he sees somebody walk by the front window and mutters, "Damn, I thought he'd gone for good." Jake turns to see the rotund form of Mr. Cornelius Van Horne out on Sierra Street walking east in the direction of the Palace Saloon. He is followed by Billy Glass of the Wells Fargo Company who is carrying two rather large suitcases.
"Now that is interesting....." Jake has another bite and chews it slowly. He has a drink from his coffee and takes his time to swallow. "I will have to go see for what reason Mr. Van Horne has come to our fine little city."
Then in a lower voice, "Yes, Al, you are a big boy. You are a smart business man, run a fine saloon, gun shop, cigar shop and are even pretty good repairing broken chairs. You are also a fine friend. Are you a gun slinger too now? Are you ready to take on a problem even the law cannot solve? If I tell you what I know, and what I have guessed you will do something about it. She is safer if you do not know. At least for now." Jake takes another sip of coffee. "I am telling you that you will lead the risk right to her, and in the process get yourself shot. If she was in any danger, I would have come to you EVEN IF it was only a guess.
Right now she is safe. If I tell you anything, she is less safe. That is what I believe right here," Jake releases one hand from the coffee cup and taps on the center of his chest right over his heart. "She did not leave to get away from you, that should give you some comfort. You know, she might have left thinking that if she told you the problem you would have attempted to do something about it. I have never enjoyed looking in a six foot hole at the remains of my friends. Al, do not put me through that."
He nods and says, "Alright Jake, I trust you at the poker table I'll trust you in this. But I want you to promise that you will either warn her or come to me if you think that she is in this danger again." Jake replies, "Agreed. If I think she is no longer safe I will come find you right off. We can talk again about this in a week, if it seems safe then I will use my guess to attempt to get her a message." If only my own problems were that simple. "I know this is most distressing to you, I really do understand. There is reason to be optimistic, I have a feeling deep down inside that luck will be on your side."
Al replies, "Thanks Jake, I'm glad we had this chat. Now if we can only convince Van Horne to stay away from our saloons we'll be doing just fine." The food arrives and the two dine. Jake concludes that Mr. O'Reilly is an excellent chef and comments about that. Al replies, "That he is. His cafe always had a pretty good crowd. Too bad he let that newspaperman Baxter burn the place to the ground. Smart of Haywood Smith to talk O'Reilly into coming back to town, this restaurant will really give Haywood's cousin Eric Lee Smith and his wife Melissa a run for their money." Jake replies, "Cousins? Huh...."
Jake and Al chat about nothing much and enjoy the meal. "Are you coming by tonight? I cannot hang out here, I need to talk to Lumley and see if I can keep him from throwing his lot in with Adair." Al says, "Yeah, I probably will. I'm in the mood to play for the first time in over a week. I should go tell Warren and Pierre about Van Horne being back in town. I'll warn you now, if Van Horne shows up at either the Comique tonight or your table at the Lucky Lady then I'll have to call it quits at that point." "I understand. I will see you later." Jake pays the dinner bill, "This one is on me."
Silver Jake wanders into the Gay Lady looking for Burton Lumley. Jim Hagen tells him that Lumley will be out in a few minutes, he is just out back. Jake nods and orders a whiskey, slouches and rests his elbows on the bar waiting for the Gay Lady's owner to come out. "Hello stranger," says a husky female voice while a single fingernail traces a line across the back of Jake's neck. Jake suppresses a tiny shiver but does not turn around. "Hello Fi."
"My, my, it has been a long time since Silver Jake Cook has been here without that red head that is always trailing after him." The woman's hand wanders through his hair before she hops up on the bar next to him. She sits with her legs crossed high and her skirt pulled up. "Come by for a little variety?" Fifi LaFarge bats her eyes several times at him. He says, "Be nice Fi, you know I only have eyes for one woman." He smiles pleasantly and makes an effort not to stare at her provocatively display legs.
Fifi leans forward with a greedy smile, putting her bosom on display for the young gambler. "It is not your eyes that I was thinking about." "Heh." Jake gives up any pretense on where he is looking. "Come on now Fi, do not be getting me into trouble." "You never needed any help getting into trouble before." She titters quietly and sits back, but leaves her legs on display. "I thought you had enjoyed my company, when was it..."
"New Years eve." He replies. "Ah, yes," she taps her red lips with one long fingernail. "New Years eve, and New Years day, and that evening too if I recall. I was quite impressed with your, what should we say? Stamina?" A smirk comes to his face. "Yes, well, I had a lovely time. I will not deny that I did enjoy myself, we had quite a time did we not?" Jake chuckles and then gets serious. "My life has changed, Fifi, I met the woman of my dreams."
"Yes, of course you did. Where is she now?" She cocks her head to one side, her brown hair spilling over her half bared shoulder, and gives him a rather confident smile. "No matter, if you change your mind you know where to find me." She kisses her fingers and then places them on his cheek. "See you around, Silver Jake." She hops down off the bar. "Yes, see you around Fi." He watches her swing her hips as she walks away.
Lumley comes over to Jake and says, "Well hello again Mr. Cooke, I can't say I'm surprised to see you. So, you've come back to twist my arm into joining this moderate party of yours?" Jake grins. "I am no ruffian. If you have hitched your wagon to Adair's horses, then nothing I can say will convince you otherwise. If you are still on the fence, then I am here to help you see other opportunities."
Lumley replies, "I haven't been over to the Palace to see Adair yet but I'm definitely leaning in that direction. So go ahead and make your pitch, tell me how your party will aggressively fight the Law and Order party! Because so help me if those fools make it into office because we didn't do everything we could to legally stop them then we have nobody to blame but ourselves!"
Jake states, "We agree on one thing, that we must stop the Law and Order Party. I also felt that it was just as bad to have Fisk and Adair running this town. I was convinced that if we did not do something Mrs. King's cronies with their foolish newspaper advertisement would drive enough voters to Fisk and Adair to get them elected. I suppose the good news is they are no longer working together, which splits their support base. It could start to make your head spin, but I think that gives the advantage back to the Law and Order gang." Jake takes a sip of the whiskey and resists making a face at the quality of it.
"If you join Adair, you give him legitimacy that he otherwise would not get. Plain and simple. You have to ask yourself, at the end of the day do you really want to be beholding to Evan Adair? The man is worse than a rattlesnake. If only half the rumors about him are true, then you are dealing with a devil and giving that same devil a hold on this city. A city that you helped build. Adair is rather proud of the long list of people he has burned because he felt slighted by them."
Jake downs the rest of the whiskey. "I know you are expecting a slick line from me. I am going to disappoint you. I do not know YET how this moderate party is going to win, but it IS going to win. With you helping Adair it will be harder. It will be a darned shame that after all this time of you helping to lead it, that it should start its incorporation without you. This is going to sound funny coming from me, but the folks that are joining this party truly want the right thing for Promise City. I think that enough of the folks in Promise City will figure that out by election time. Manny, Shaw, the Blake’s, and yourself are know for being reasonable folk AND for sticking to your guns. That is what the people of Promise City will see.
Martin has risked his life more times than I have fingers to fight the Cowboy gang. It just feels right and I will do what it takes to help them get elected. Heck, Burton, you and I have not always seen eye to eye, but I respect you and what you have done for this town. You think I somehow imagine that you will be beholding to me when this is done?" Jake laughs and shakes his head. "Sometimes even Silver Jake Cook does the right thing. Do the right thing. Make sure you are standing with folks that have real character when this is all over. Work with them. Keep the Cowboy Gang AND Mrs. King's morality police from killing this town."
Lumley replies, "You make some good points Cook but until I hear a platform from your group that does counter Mrs. King's cronies I'm not signing up. I'll tell you what, I'll stay an independent for a while longer to give you folks some time to get organized. I'm already registered so tomorrow's deadline doesn't restrict me, and since political parties can make substitutions up until two days before the election I could still join either you or Adair at a later date if I decide to."
"That is fair. I will tell Shaw and the others that. Have a good evening." Jake heads next to the El Parador. He tells Pedro to keep his ears open for Manny's new party and not to lose hope. "Have you seen Senor Gonzalez about? I need to speak with him for a quick moment." Pedro says, "I believe that he is upstairs in his room. I can have somebody go check if you would like." Jake answers, "If he has a quick minute, and I would not be bothering him. Otherwise, I can come back tomorrow."
Pedro catches Ginnie rushing through the room and sends her upstairs to get Gonzales. The elderly wood elf makes his way downstairs a short while later and approaches Jake. Ginnie trails her teacher through the room heads to the kitchen to grab a cookie and ducks a playful swat from Dorita as she heads back into the main room smiling at the "Food you eat no more cookies!" yelled at her as she bounces into the room.
Jake waits a few minutes and Senor Gonzalez comes down to see Jake. "Thank you for seeing me. I wanted to let you know what was happening in the elections." Jake proceeds to briefly tell the old wizard about the Law and Order party, Fisk and Adair splitting up and the new party that was starting up. "I trust you will think on it, and perhaps share with Katherine any advice you might have or inside knowledge regarding this. We will need all the help we can get, and time is short."
Then nonchalantly Jake slips in the real reason he came to seem him. "We do not want to miss any opportunities," Jake pretends that reminds him of something, "Speaking of missed opportunities, when I told Al Brower about it he seemed to have a hard time focusing on it. Sounds like he was really head over heels in love with Madge Duprey and is having a tough time now that she is gone and not coming back. It is a crying shame that she does not know old Al is in love with her." Jake then touches his hand to his hat and nods his head. "Thank you again for seeing me, I will not keep you any longer. I have to get to work." He gives Senor Gonzalez a wink and a smile.
Gonzales takes all of the information in without comments. He thanks Jake for stopping by before heading back upstairs, bringing Ginnie with him and promising to show her a new book he recently acquired.
As Jake leaves the saloon he has already decided that the first stop is Al Brower. Jake enters the Comique at approximately 5:00 P.M. As it does not serve food there aren't any customers yet, with Warren Watson busy stocking the bar and Al Brower busy with a hammer and nails repairing a broken chair.
"Al, you never cease to amaze me. You have a myriad of talents. I am in awe of you." Jake pulls a chair up next to him. "I get tired just watching you." Jake glances around the saloon to make sure no one is close and Warren is far enough away to not overhear them. He says quietly, "Did Adair come to see you?" Al replies, "No, why would he? That man hates me almost as much as he hates you."
Jake pats him on the arm. "Cheer up, you will not always be in my shadow." After Jake finishes laughing at his own joke he continues. "Adair is out scouting for candidates for his new party. He is splitting from Fisk. I did not really think he would come here, but I was not sure. I wanted to give you some advance notice that another party was forming up and was looking for your support." Jake suddenly furrows his brows. "Why does Adair hate you?"
Al replies, "I live at the Double Eagle Boarding House, across of Sierra Street from the Palace. The Comique's previous singer Flossie McKenna lived there too. Adair once propositioned her and I intervened, nothing physical, just verbal, but it was enough to create some permanent animosity. Plus he also hates the fact that we'll do celebrations here during all of the Dwarven holidays."
"It does not take much to make an enemy of that one," Jake says and then cryptically, "some day I will take care of that problem. Never mind that, I came here for another reason. Keep this confidential until you hear it publicly or it makes the paper. Shaw and Escobar were not in agreement with that platform the so called Law and Order party put forth. As far as I can tell it was a complete surprise to them both. I was worried that those lunatics would drive voters to Fisk and Adair's party. So I did a little match-making and it appears to have worked.
Sounds like Shaw and Escobar are willing to join forces with Vera, your new partner," Jake watches for Al's reaction, "and start another party. Something more moderate and sensible. Something that will not put us saloon owners out of business. I think we can get Martin to join as the Marshall. Since you are my friend and a fine upstanding business owner I wanted to let you know, and get you prepared to support this fledgling party. What do you think?"
Al replies, "I would support that party very much Jake. As for the Blake's, Austin told me that he had approached you first about a partnership and you turned him down. I wasn't trying to do anything behind your back." Jake laughs loudly and raucously. Warren eyes him suspiciously.
Jake wipes a tear from his eye and says, "Austin came looking to borrow Jeff Mills from me. The old boy made no mention of any partnership, none that I remember anyway." Jake shrugs but cannot wipe the smile from his face. "That is really funny. I would have considered a partnership of some sort. That is if he would have really offered one." Jake wipes both eyes and then says, "Sorry if I teased you about it. I really do wish you luck with whatever you are up to with them. I am not upset in the least."
Al replies, "Good, I'd like to keep our relationship as it is, friendly rivals when it comes to business and even friendlier rivals when we're sitting across from one another at a poker game. Hold on a minute." He gives the chair a few more taps with the hammer and says, "That should about do it. One of these days I'm going to have to break down and buy some more from Rixton instead of continuing to repair these."
He waves to Watson and says, "I'm off to get a bite, should I bring you back something?" Watson says, "No thanks, Mrs. Milford will be sending me over some dinner soon enough." Brower replies, "Very good." He turns to Jake and asks, "Have you eaten yet?" "No. Lead on." As they are walking Jake says, "Now that you mention it, I do remember Ruby and Niles," Jake's expression darkens for a minute but he shakes it off, "telling me something about him wanting to partner up. It did not seem worth my time. I must have been preoccupied." Jake flashes him another grin. "That is nothing new though."
Al leads Jake two blocks away to the Silver Dollar Restaurant at the corner of Allen and Sierra Streets. He says, "Have you had a chance to dine here Jake since Hay Smith converted it over to a restaurant?" Jake looks it over as if really noticing it for the first time. "No, sir. I take it he has done all right?"
Al replies "Yeah, Haywood Smith's new wife Alice didn't care for the saloon and made him change it. She's part of Mrs. King's sewing circle. He wasn't making money as a saloon anyway since she made him close each night at 9:00 P.M. It's worked well for him in this format because he hired Walter O’Reiley as his chef. Walt used to own another restaurant here in town until it burned down a little while before you came to town. It had been on that vacant lot behind the First National Bank."
They enter and Jake sees that it has been completely remodeled, with the former Silver Dollar Saloon's bar and barstools long gone. In its place two stoves and a pantry have been added to the far end of the single-story 20x30 foot structure. Eight tables fill the room, one large table able to seat up to eight, four tables of four, and three tables for two. A short balding man with eyeglasses is busy preparing food. All but two of the smaller tables are full and Al and Jake help themselves to one.
A paper menu is on the table and lists three main courses: Beef stew with freshly baked bread; Grilled steak and baked potatoes; Lamb chops and mashed potatoes. On the walls is a slate with the desserts listed of Apple Crumb Pie, Cherry Pie, Stanley Barker's Cookies and Raspberry Bread Pudding. Another sign on the wall lists the dozen beverages available, the only two alcoholic ones being Honey Mead and Apple-Pear Wine. Jake orders the steak and coffee. He makes small talk with Al, giving him ample opportunity tell Jake why he really wanted to have dinner with him.
Al says, "Jake, I wanted to discuss something with you. I...I can't seem to forget about Madge Duprey, I guess I love her. Do you know where Madge as gone? She used to spend a lot of time with Ruby, who has been gone for around are week now too. Are they together? What's going on?" "Mierde," Jake mumbles. "I wish I really knew."
He lowers his voice, "I do not know where Ruby is." He tries to continue but gets a lump in his throat. He calms himself and goes on, "I do not think they are together. I think they left for different reasons." Again he is unable to speak for a moment. "I do not know where Madge is, I only know that she left because it was dangerous for her to stay. I suspected she would come back some day when it was safe, but I do not know for sure. I am guessing that part of keeping her safe, and allowing her to come back some day was for everyone to believe she was never coming back. Even those closest to her."
Jake looks at Al, and truly knows how he feels right now. He lowers his voice even more, "It is too soon to attempt to contact her. It would put both her and anyone attempting to contact her at some significant risk. Let some time pass, Al. Maybe another week or two. We can talk again, and if the danger is past I will do what I can to help you send her a message. I think she is quite safe, be at least comforted by that."
Al says, "I'm a big boy Jake, I can take care of myself. Who is she hiding from? What is the risk? I will....." Al then drops his fork onto his plate as he sees somebody walk by the front window and mutters, "Damn, I thought he'd gone for good." Jake turns to see the rotund form of Mr. Cornelius Van Horne out on Sierra Street walking east in the direction of the Palace Saloon. He is followed by Billy Glass of the Wells Fargo Company who is carrying two rather large suitcases.
"Now that is interesting....." Jake has another bite and chews it slowly. He has a drink from his coffee and takes his time to swallow. "I will have to go see for what reason Mr. Van Horne has come to our fine little city."
Then in a lower voice, "Yes, Al, you are a big boy. You are a smart business man, run a fine saloon, gun shop, cigar shop and are even pretty good repairing broken chairs. You are also a fine friend. Are you a gun slinger too now? Are you ready to take on a problem even the law cannot solve? If I tell you what I know, and what I have guessed you will do something about it. She is safer if you do not know. At least for now." Jake takes another sip of coffee. "I am telling you that you will lead the risk right to her, and in the process get yourself shot. If she was in any danger, I would have come to you EVEN IF it was only a guess.
Right now she is safe. If I tell you anything, she is less safe. That is what I believe right here," Jake releases one hand from the coffee cup and taps on the center of his chest right over his heart. "She did not leave to get away from you, that should give you some comfort. You know, she might have left thinking that if she told you the problem you would have attempted to do something about it. I have never enjoyed looking in a six foot hole at the remains of my friends. Al, do not put me through that."
He nods and says, "Alright Jake, I trust you at the poker table I'll trust you in this. But I want you to promise that you will either warn her or come to me if you think that she is in this danger again." Jake replies, "Agreed. If I think she is no longer safe I will come find you right off. We can talk again about this in a week, if it seems safe then I will use my guess to attempt to get her a message." If only my own problems were that simple. "I know this is most distressing to you, I really do understand. There is reason to be optimistic, I have a feeling deep down inside that luck will be on your side."
Al replies, "Thanks Jake, I'm glad we had this chat. Now if we can only convince Van Horne to stay away from our saloons we'll be doing just fine." The food arrives and the two dine. Jake concludes that Mr. O'Reilly is an excellent chef and comments about that. Al replies, "That he is. His cafe always had a pretty good crowd. Too bad he let that newspaperman Baxter burn the place to the ground. Smart of Haywood Smith to talk O'Reilly into coming back to town, this restaurant will really give Haywood's cousin Eric Lee Smith and his wife Melissa a run for their money." Jake replies, "Cousins? Huh...."
Jake and Al chat about nothing much and enjoy the meal. "Are you coming by tonight? I cannot hang out here, I need to talk to Lumley and see if I can keep him from throwing his lot in with Adair." Al says, "Yeah, I probably will. I'm in the mood to play for the first time in over a week. I should go tell Warren and Pierre about Van Horne being back in town. I'll warn you now, if Van Horne shows up at either the Comique tonight or your table at the Lucky Lady then I'll have to call it quits at that point." "I understand. I will see you later." Jake pays the dinner bill, "This one is on me."
Silver Jake wanders into the Gay Lady looking for Burton Lumley. Jim Hagen tells him that Lumley will be out in a few minutes, he is just out back. Jake nods and orders a whiskey, slouches and rests his elbows on the bar waiting for the Gay Lady's owner to come out. "Hello stranger," says a husky female voice while a single fingernail traces a line across the back of Jake's neck. Jake suppresses a tiny shiver but does not turn around. "Hello Fi."
"My, my, it has been a long time since Silver Jake Cook has been here without that red head that is always trailing after him." The woman's hand wanders through his hair before she hops up on the bar next to him. She sits with her legs crossed high and her skirt pulled up. "Come by for a little variety?" Fifi LaFarge bats her eyes several times at him. He says, "Be nice Fi, you know I only have eyes for one woman." He smiles pleasantly and makes an effort not to stare at her provocatively display legs.
Fifi leans forward with a greedy smile, putting her bosom on display for the young gambler. "It is not your eyes that I was thinking about." "Heh." Jake gives up any pretense on where he is looking. "Come on now Fi, do not be getting me into trouble." "You never needed any help getting into trouble before." She titters quietly and sits back, but leaves her legs on display. "I thought you had enjoyed my company, when was it..."
"New Years eve." He replies. "Ah, yes," she taps her red lips with one long fingernail. "New Years eve, and New Years day, and that evening too if I recall. I was quite impressed with your, what should we say? Stamina?" A smirk comes to his face. "Yes, well, I had a lovely time. I will not deny that I did enjoy myself, we had quite a time did we not?" Jake chuckles and then gets serious. "My life has changed, Fifi, I met the woman of my dreams."
"Yes, of course you did. Where is she now?" She cocks her head to one side, her brown hair spilling over her half bared shoulder, and gives him a rather confident smile. "No matter, if you change your mind you know where to find me." She kisses her fingers and then places them on his cheek. "See you around, Silver Jake." She hops down off the bar. "Yes, see you around Fi." He watches her swing her hips as she walks away.
Lumley comes over to Jake and says, "Well hello again Mr. Cooke, I can't say I'm surprised to see you. So, you've come back to twist my arm into joining this moderate party of yours?" Jake grins. "I am no ruffian. If you have hitched your wagon to Adair's horses, then nothing I can say will convince you otherwise. If you are still on the fence, then I am here to help you see other opportunities."
Lumley replies, "I haven't been over to the Palace to see Adair yet but I'm definitely leaning in that direction. So go ahead and make your pitch, tell me how your party will aggressively fight the Law and Order party! Because so help me if those fools make it into office because we didn't do everything we could to legally stop them then we have nobody to blame but ourselves!"
Jake states, "We agree on one thing, that we must stop the Law and Order Party. I also felt that it was just as bad to have Fisk and Adair running this town. I was convinced that if we did not do something Mrs. King's cronies with their foolish newspaper advertisement would drive enough voters to Fisk and Adair to get them elected. I suppose the good news is they are no longer working together, which splits their support base. It could start to make your head spin, but I think that gives the advantage back to the Law and Order gang." Jake takes a sip of the whiskey and resists making a face at the quality of it.
"If you join Adair, you give him legitimacy that he otherwise would not get. Plain and simple. You have to ask yourself, at the end of the day do you really want to be beholding to Evan Adair? The man is worse than a rattlesnake. If only half the rumors about him are true, then you are dealing with a devil and giving that same devil a hold on this city. A city that you helped build. Adair is rather proud of the long list of people he has burned because he felt slighted by them."
Jake downs the rest of the whiskey. "I know you are expecting a slick line from me. I am going to disappoint you. I do not know YET how this moderate party is going to win, but it IS going to win. With you helping Adair it will be harder. It will be a darned shame that after all this time of you helping to lead it, that it should start its incorporation without you. This is going to sound funny coming from me, but the folks that are joining this party truly want the right thing for Promise City. I think that enough of the folks in Promise City will figure that out by election time. Manny, Shaw, the Blake’s, and yourself are know for being reasonable folk AND for sticking to your guns. That is what the people of Promise City will see.
Martin has risked his life more times than I have fingers to fight the Cowboy gang. It just feels right and I will do what it takes to help them get elected. Heck, Burton, you and I have not always seen eye to eye, but I respect you and what you have done for this town. You think I somehow imagine that you will be beholding to me when this is done?" Jake laughs and shakes his head. "Sometimes even Silver Jake Cook does the right thing. Do the right thing. Make sure you are standing with folks that have real character when this is all over. Work with them. Keep the Cowboy Gang AND Mrs. King's morality police from killing this town."
Lumley replies, "You make some good points Cook but until I hear a platform from your group that does counter Mrs. King's cronies I'm not signing up. I'll tell you what, I'll stay an independent for a while longer to give you folks some time to get organized. I'm already registered so tomorrow's deadline doesn't restrict me, and since political parties can make substitutions up until two days before the election I could still join either you or Adair at a later date if I decide to."
"That is fair. I will tell Shaw and the others that. Have a good evening." Jake heads next to the El Parador. He tells Pedro to keep his ears open for Manny's new party and not to lose hope. "Have you seen Senor Gonzalez about? I need to speak with him for a quick moment." Pedro says, "I believe that he is upstairs in his room. I can have somebody go check if you would like." Jake answers, "If he has a quick minute, and I would not be bothering him. Otherwise, I can come back tomorrow."
Pedro catches Ginnie rushing through the room and sends her upstairs to get Gonzales. The elderly wood elf makes his way downstairs a short while later and approaches Jake. Ginnie trails her teacher through the room heads to the kitchen to grab a cookie and ducks a playful swat from Dorita as she heads back into the main room smiling at the "Food you eat no more cookies!" yelled at her as she bounces into the room.
Jake waits a few minutes and Senor Gonzalez comes down to see Jake. "Thank you for seeing me. I wanted to let you know what was happening in the elections." Jake proceeds to briefly tell the old wizard about the Law and Order party, Fisk and Adair splitting up and the new party that was starting up. "I trust you will think on it, and perhaps share with Katherine any advice you might have or inside knowledge regarding this. We will need all the help we can get, and time is short."
Then nonchalantly Jake slips in the real reason he came to seem him. "We do not want to miss any opportunities," Jake pretends that reminds him of something, "Speaking of missed opportunities, when I told Al Brower about it he seemed to have a hard time focusing on it. Sounds like he was really head over heels in love with Madge Duprey and is having a tough time now that she is gone and not coming back. It is a crying shame that she does not know old Al is in love with her." Jake then touches his hand to his hat and nods his head. "Thank you again for seeing me, I will not keep you any longer. I have to get to work." He gives Senor Gonzalez a wink and a smile.
Gonzales takes all of the information in without comments. He thanks Jake for stopping by before heading back upstairs, bringing Ginnie with him and promising to show her a new book he recently acquired.