Dan had played the ponies as long as he could remember. In fact, the regulars knew when they heard “Jiminy Christmas” from across the Jockey Club that Dan had just hit his favorite bet, the $50 exacta. Dan was a tall, dark haired fella that never knew how to play it safe, and spent his 30 plus years starting and failing at several business ventures including real estate, adult entertainment streaming and even tried his hand at opening a restaurant but his love was always gambling. His reckless mentality never allowed him to simply bet $20 on the favorite to win, place or show, he had to have the exotics. He knew that there was value in predicting the 1st and 2nd place finishers and scoffed at the simpletons that picked a single horse. Why couldn’t they try and pick the top three finishers like he could? He loved the challenge of getting the top three right, the only problem was he was no better than anyone else at handicapping. Still he boxed his bets to pay forward and backwards and even busted out the occasional wheel to give him the most flexibility but it was expensive to buy in with that many combinations. His wife Lynn of 15 years never understood the attraction, but he always seemed to make ends meet and so she allowed his indulgence. Then Kaylee, their first daughter was born and Lynn asked Dan to cut back on his habit to help support the larger family. He was able to comply for a few years, but made up a story when Kaylee was three about his hours getting cut so he could explain a smaller paycheck. In reality, he simply went down to the bank and opened a secret account and started diverting a grand a month into this slush fund. Dan had a problem, but it had yet to cause an issue with the family.
Kaylee was all of four when Dan started teaching her about horses, and he would often refer to her as his brown-eyed girl and his lucky charm. A precocious one from the start, Kaylee’s strawberry blonde hair made her stand out amongst her class, and she loves to keep it long and curly. She loved the horses and would shake her head, making those horse sounds, trying to get their attention in the paddock. About the only thing she ever got attention from were the jockeys, who would take pictures with the little one every once in a while, as her dad took the picture but never quite focused on what he was doing, always trying to get the edge. So, the pictures more often than not were horrible, but Kaylee liked them anyway. When it came to picking the ponies, he never really listened to her, but remarkably it always seemed to work out when he did. Once, when Kaylee was 7, she started screaming at her dad, saying “The spotted horse will win and the black horse looks real mean, so he will be in second!” He looked through his silver-rimmed bifocals at his post time report and early odds and dismissed her because she picked a 40-1 and 20-1 to finish first and second. Still, he bought her a $2 ticket and told her good luck. That day marked the first time he missed out on a boatload not trusting her opinion.
After the race, he pulled her aside and asked “How did you know that the 3 and 5 would win?”
She looked around and said “Because I saw the race, daddy. I dreamed about it and saw that you lost alot of money. You told me that mom was going to be really mad, and I remember that I was so scared. I hate it when you fight with mommy and I dreamed about the race. Then, like magic, the race was going to start and I told you spotted horse and the black mean horse would win.”
“So you had a dream about the race before it happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’re a silly girl, I love your imagination. Make sure and tell me if you have any more horse dreams and I will make sure and make a bigger bet for you next time, and then we can buy you a new Barbie.”
“I hate Barbie, you know that. Get me some baller decks that my friends have. Some of them are cool, and the soccer ones are the ones I really want.”
“Baller decks?”
“Dad, just go ask. It’s like Yu-Gi-Oh when you were a kid, except for sports.”
Dan spent the rest of the day talking about what almost was in the Jockey Club, but just dismissing his daughter’s daydream as a childhood fantasy. He knew that $2 bet just saved his bacon, covering his losses for the day and managing to give him a little profit up to that point. It also changed his luck and he hit the trifecta in the 8th race and an exacta in the 10th. All in all, he made close to a thousand dollars on that Saturday afternoon, but he knew that it could have been the best day of his life had he hit that big one. Still he’d had a bad day, with one shining moment that turned his day around, but it did not even belong to him. It was Kaylee’s, his soon-to-be real good luck charm.
Dan and Lynn were just a couple of years away from paying off their home and being free of a mortgage that was burdensome at times. With Dan’s gambling losses beginning to mount, the couple had to cut back on a few things like their Satellite Television and alternative streaming services, but nothing beyond pure entertainment for them. After a tough day at work, Dan decided to head down to the Jockey Club to catch the last four races of the night but he knew that he was on thin ice. They barely had enough to cover the rest of the month’s expenses, and he was about to take half of that money as his bankroll for the evening. Armed with $500 and an axe to grind after a hard day, he found his racing form and quickly went to work. In the 7th, he found a horse moving down in class and this was his first time using lasix. Dan was seasoned enough to know that everyone else would be all over this horse too. At 9-1, he was not the favorite, but something just did not add up. The last workout listed for Bully Bondsman was a blazing fast half mile and a good 6 furlong time. It was certainly enough to compete at this level, but why was the horse going off at 9-1? He concluded that no one was taking this horse seriously, and he found the perfect horse to box up in his exacta and was so sure of himself that he threw down a $200 exacta box and his ticket would pay off with 7-3 or 3-7. This cost him almost all of his bankroll, but he knew he had a winner here. He was sure of it.
The bell sounded, and he casually walked over to a monitor and saw his 7 horse take the early lead, off to the same blazing start he had in his workout. This time, the lasix helped Bully Bondsman breathe a little easier and he maintained his pace. By the time they reached the stretch, Bully Bondsman had a nine length lead and was going to win the race, but in the pack, Dan’s 3 horse, Calypso, had some work to do. He was pinned on the rail by the 2 and the 5 horse with nowhere to run. His jockey had him in a bad spot, and had to do something and fast. As they started down the stretch, Calypso’s jockey went to his whip and with a tug, the horse changed his running lane, forcing the 5 horse a little wider. They made the hole they needed and Calypso was off to the races. Closing the lead to one length, the horses crossed in front of the eighth pole and Dan was screaming at the monitor for his horse. This was the moment he was looking forward to for the last 6 months, he had been losing and losing and losing and this was his big day! Calypso pulled ahead by a nose as the horses approached the line, but missed a step and got off stride. The 2 horse closed and they hit the line together, it was impossible to tell who came in second. The tote board had blanks for 2nd and 3rd and beneath the results grid was the red neon light of the word “photo”. Dan’s heart raced as he began to feel the pain and emptiness in his gut. He knew this race would finish 7-3, it had to be, but now his fate was in the hands of race officials examining the photos taken at the line. He was totally lost in his own emotion, and failed to notice that on the tote board, the word “photo” was joined by the word “inquiry”.
“Jiminy Christmas!”, Dan yelped as the photo was shown on the monitor. It was fairly clear to him he had a few thousand dollars coming to him as it showed Calypso by a nose for second. He began celebrating quietly, as it is frowned upon for the pros to show over the top exuberance, but this was different. This time Lynn would be proud of him. He not only paid the mortgage for a couple of months, he paid for their vacation this summer. He was making plans in his head when all of a sudden…
“The steward’s inquiry has resulted in a disqualification of the 3 horse, Calypso, in race number 7. The 3 has been placed in 4th, behind the 5 horse. The results are now official.” Dan never heard the rest of the announcement.
As track personnel tried to revive Dan, it was apparent that he had suffered a massive heart attack. An ambulance was rushed to the scene and CPR was performed on him for 12 minutes as they raced to the hospital. A paramedic removed the ticket from his clenched hand and remarked that he should not be playing with money he could not afford to lose, but no one can ever truly understand the mind of a man addicted to gambling.
The phone rang and Lynn answered, talked for a second and all Kaylee heard was a shriek as her mom screamed for her little girl to come down so they can see daddy. At 12 years old, Kaylee did not fully grasp the dire circumstances right away, but when they arrived at the hospital, it became clear. Her mom talked to an older man, wearing blue clothes and a paper hat. She saw the doctor remove his hat and put his hand on her mom’s shoulder as she began sobbing uncontrollably. Just then a news story came on the TV by Kaylee and she was distracted by a report of a man who collapsed with an apparent heart attack today at Horseman’s Park after his horse was disqualified and replaced by the number 2 horse. She looked back at her mom and reality began to sink in. Her dad had died.
As Dan looked over the racing form for the seventh race, he could not believe his eyes. He saw a first time lasix user dropping in class going off at 9-1. He knew this was too good to be true, what was the catch? He looked over his racing form again and decided that the 7 horse would win this race, regardless of what the “smart money” said. He chose the 3 horse, Calypso, that was also dropping in class and was one of the favorites, and decided to blow almost his whole bankroll for the day on this one race. As he approached the cage, his phone rang. It was Kaylee calling him and there were 3 minutes to post, so he answered.
“Dad, the 3 horse is going to get disqualified. Pick the 2.”
“Wait. What? How do you even know where I am?”
“I had another dream dad, just listen to me, this one was really bad. Please, just pick the 2 horse instead of the 3, OK?”
Dan was puzzled. He remembered the last time this happened, it was five years ago and she was spot on. He walked up to the cage and said, “$200 exacta, 7-2. $300 on 7 to win.”
“Dan, are you sure?” the clerk responded.
“Yes, and hurry, they are at the gate!”
“Good luck.” And the clerk just looked down and shook her head, she always felt bad for the degenerates who could not bring themselves to stop and started reaching for longshots.
Dan watched in awe as the race unfolded exactly as he thought it would, with a photo finish. Nervously, he waited to see the word photo and then started yelling at the monitor “Inquiry! Come on Inquiry!”
“Good luck, pal, that race was clean,” a bystander said.
Then the board lit up the inquiry sign, and Dan started to believe. How could this be, what on earth happened that his daughter knew he was at the track, and knew that he was betting on a horse that was about to be disqualified? Just then, the announcement that the 3 horse was disqualified and placed behind the 5, making the finish 7-2-5-3 and Dan started looking at the board to see the final odds.
In his head, he did a little quick math and he estimated his take was going to be $3500. He was close, but a small exacta pool only netted $3200 and he won another $2700 on his win bet with the 7 horse, so he decided that it was time to go home and question Kaylee, who saved the family house and sent them on vacation with that tip. But how did she do it?
When Dan got home, he grabbed a beer, gave his wife $4000 and said “we have a very lucky charm in this house!” as he began walking up to Kaylee’s room.
“Hey brown-eyed girl.”
“Hi dad, I guess you took my advice.”
“I sure did, how did you know that?”
“Because we are not at the hospital watching you die.”
“What?” He spit a little bit of his beer out with that remark, “Why would you say such a thing Kaylee?”
“Dad, I had another dream, like that one when I was a kid. It was so real. I dreamt that mom got a phone call and we had to go to the hospital. She told me you were at the track and collapsed so they had to take you there to make you feel better. When we got there, the doctor told mom some really bad news and then I saw a news story that you had a heart attack. I knew you had died and I got very sad and really upset, but then the dream ended and I woke up in my room. So, I called you to tell you that the news said the horse got disqualified and that this other horse was in second place.”
“I am sure glad you did, but I don’t think I would have died by missing a bet.”
“Well, I am telling you that this was real. I saw the future and could warn you to change it. I don’t know how it happened, but it did, you better not die dad.”
“OK honey, thank you. There is still some light out, so I am going to try and cut the grass.” With that, he gave her a little peck on top of her strawberry blonde locks and headed down to the garage.
Dan loved yard work for some reason, it just let him relax and ride the tractor over their 3 acres while he thought about the races, but lately his thoughts were all about money problems. Those problems were over for now, but he was still troubled at what his daughter said. After he finished cutting the yard, he grabbed his weed eater and started to sculpt his front yard. About 15 minutes later, he started to feel a little tired and since the light was fading pretty fast he decided to call it a day. He’d get to the rest of the front yard and trim around Lynn’s garden tomorrow. He hung the weed eater on the twin hooks on the wall and did a quick survey to make sure everything in the garage was in its place but started to feel dizzy as he turned his head. He shook his head and noticed a few beads of sweat fly from the tips of his grey hair and that cleared the sensation for a second, but then he started to feel a pain in his left arm, dull and achy. “Man, I am getting old,” he thought to himself as he turned off the light and shut the garage door. As he made the trek over the path of pave stones that led to the back door and into the kitchen, his pain and dizziness returned, and he struggled to catch his breath. “There is no way,” he muttered to himself as he thought about his daughter telling him he was going to die today. He walked to the phone and called 9-1-1.
The sweet 16 party was a happy time for just about everyone that Kaylee knew, with many looking forward to graduation in a couple of years, some already looking forward to working and still others just wanting a car so they can cruise the strip and head to Chestertown for the weekend for some good parties. Kaylee just missed her dad and wanted him to be there to see her take her first drive but knew that could not happen. In the four years since her father’s heart attack, she was never able to see another vision, or whatever it was. Even now she did not think about the visions, but always had an uneasy feeling that there was something else that she was missing in her life. As she grew, she never questioned the path life laid out for her, even after a bad break up and a boy that strayed, or the C she got on a research paper because someone stole her work and the teacher graded them both down.
This was a time for her to figure out who she was, and what she wanted. And the answer was that she had no clue. She was lost, and needed a clear path. She wanted to get a job at the day care down the street but hated the idea of dealing with other kids. She wanted to continue her soccer career into college but tore her ACL and would spend another three months in rehab and would have to work her butt off to get the scholarship she thought she’d be able to earn. This was not the happy time of celebration she always thought it would be. Throughout the party, the feeling was there. Something was just off.
They only lived a couple of blocks away from the old community center where they hosted the party, so she and her mom walked over on this fine spring day and were getting ready to walk back home when a couple of friends wanted to get ice cream on the strip, so they went downtown. Little Oak was a small town, to be certain, and the ‘downtown strip’ consisted of Main Street and about 8 little mom and pop shops, including a grocery. The ice cream shoppe was right next to the hardware store, which was getting a new paint job on the front of the store. The police force numbered 4 guys and two squad cars and there was a volunteer fire department of about two dozen men and boys that had a single truck and and an ambulance with two paramedics that were on call from the hospital. As they walked the two blocks to Main Street, Kaylee asked her mom what she should do for work and they talked about being a nanny for the family down the street or maybe working at the hardware store since she liked to build things in the back yard, but there was no rush.
They walked up Main Street and her mom said “hold on a second, I need to get a little bit of glue for my scrapbook.”
“OK mom, I will just walk over to the ice cream shoppe and we will get you some of that cherry pecan that you like.”
“That sounds good sweetie.”
Kaylee heard the bang and saw the guy running away, but did not know what was going on until one of her friends ran into the shoppe and told her that her mom was hurt really bad. Lynn had walked into a robbery at the hardware store and, being the assertive woman that she is, admonished the robber for not having the decency to get a real job, and he looked at her and just pulled the trigger. The man pulled his hoodie over his head and ran out, leaving his $98 score behind and took off across town on foot. When Kaylee got there, her mom had passed out, but was still alive. A kind stranger saw what happened and grabbed rags to apply pressure to the wound, which was through her chest and shoulder. Lynn struggled to breathe and suddenly went silent. Kaylee screamed for her mommy to wake up as the ambulance pulled up to get her to the hospital. The paramedics were able to control the bleeding but they were not able to resuscitate her. Kaylee feared the absolute worst, there was no way she was going to lose her mother to some idiot in a grey hoodie. She started to freak out.
“Wait!” Kaylee yelled, “do not go in there.”
“Why?” Lynn asked.
“I don’t know, I just had that weird thing that happened with dad happen again. Something bad is about to happen here.”
She grabbed two cans of paint from under the scaffolding where two workers had been painting the front of the store and laid them in front of the door so paint spilled out and then put another can on top of them. She told her mom to get over to the ice cream store and they waited. The first thing they saw was a can of paint go flying out into the street, then they heard the commotion of the other paint cans with a man screaming obscenities as he picked himself up off the ground, covered in fresh paint. He took off across town with his paint covered $98 and the police arrived 90 seconds later. Knowing they did not need a detective to track down this criminal mastermind, they simply followed the paint trail to a house four blocks away and found a wet man trying to fit into some clothes hung on the line by the pool. Case closed.
Back at the ice cream shoppe, Kaylee and her friends sat and talked about what had just happened. How did she know that a guy was robbing the hardware store? How come she knew to put paint cans in front so he’d give away his path as he ran away? Lots of questions, and Kaylee had no answers. She simply said she had a bad feeling about something bad happening inside the store and wanted everyone to be safe. She was a hero, but no one knew that she saved her mother’s life. Lynn was shaken and thought to herself, “what if I’d have gone in to get the glue?” and simply started crying. Kaylee just put her arm around her mother and said, “Mom, everything is fine now. Nothing happened to you.”
After they got home, Lynn stopped. “How did you know? And why did you say that about your dad, it was the same thing when you said you had a dream about him dying? Did you see me die in the store too?” The tears began to form right where the crows feet stemmed from her big blue eyes.
“No, mom. I saw you get shot by the guy in the hoodie but you had not died yet, you were just in the ambulance and they were working on you. I freaked out and suddenly was back on the street and you were telling me that you needed glue. I had to stop you from going in there.”
“This is the second time something like this has happened, and both times something really bad was about to happen to your father or me, right?”
“Third time mom. I never said anything about the first one.”
“What?”
“It happened the first time when dad lost all the house payment money, and I told him what horse would win. He did not believe me, but put a small bet on it anyway and won back all the money he lost. He started calling me his good luck charm after that.”
“But Dad never lost the house payment money.”
Kaylee was resolute, “he did this time, I saw it happen in this dream thing, but then the daydream stopped and I was back at the beginning of the race.”
“Well, he will be back from his business trip on Tuesday, I know you wanted him to take your first drive and you’re stressed, but we will talk about this. I think there is something really strange happening with you and we need to get to the bottom of…what happened to your eye?”
“What mom? Nothing happened.”
“Look at me,” as she grabbed Kaylee’s wrist and spun her in for a closer look. “One of your eyes is half brown and half blue. When did that happen?”
“I have no idea,” she said as she yanked her arm back from her mother’s concerned grasp. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Look in this mirror!”
As Kaylee looked into the mirror, a strange feeling settled into her. She was feeling the stress of whatever happened to her, and as she peered into her own reflection she saw a piece of her mother in herself. She had saved her mother’s life but lost a piece of herself in the process, or at least that is what it felt like. That feeling of “something missing” in her life was back now, and it was stronger than ever. Something was amiss, she was totally lost in her own life and it was time to figure out what these visions were.
As she started trying to think about who to talk to, the reality of what she would say sunk in. Who would believe a teenager who said she could see the future? They’d put her in a hospital or worse yet, send her to the psychiatric ward. So, she decided to keep quiet and try to experiment on how to make these visions appear, and what she could do to control them so they no longer had control over her.
Finally, her dad was home. He was overseas traveling to set up a new plant in Hong Kong and was gone for way too long, but he was home now. Finally, the one person who seemed at peace with all this craziness in Kaylee’s life was here and she could start to piece together all these things that happened. She knew her dad could help figure out what was going on and he would be the one to help set her free from her mental prison.
For Dan, this was a revelation. He put the pieces together like a puzzle. The first time, he was about to lose the house money and she got upset. Then, he was about to die and she was very distressed. The third time, her mother got shot, a real traumatic experience. He had a hard time believing what he was thinking, but he was a gambling man and would use his daughter to figure out if his suspicion was correct. He was about to gamble with their livelihood just to find out if this worked.
“Kaylee, let’s hit the track! It’s Saturday and you have no school this summer.”
“Dad, it’s raining.”
“Sure it is, that only means that we have to look for the mudders.”
“OK, fine. But you know I always pick the mudders better than you.”
Lynn steps in and says “hun, we only have a few hundred bucks in the bank and you don’t get paid until tuesday.”
“It’s fine,” Dan yells “I have a guy that owes me some money, I will go collect from him on the way down there.”
“I really don’t think you two should be going, I don’t want to get back into a bind. We did so well the last few years, and now we have Kaylee’s college to think about”
“So the college fund is on the line, that makes it more exciting then!”
“Wait a second,” Kaylee interrupts, “you are using my college money to gamble with? Are you nuts?”
“No, honey, we are using Rick’s money, that is what he owes me. We will be fine.”
They get to Rick’s place and it is a dump. Kaylee is afraid to even get out of the car. Her dad says it is ok, and that she needs to stay with him in this part of town. In earlier times, this was the industrial zone on the outside of Chestertown, but now it’s just a beat up old shell of its former self. Rick set up shop inside an old abandoned mill, and the door let out a high pitched squeak as they entered what barely passed for an office. There was a desk all right, but not much else. There was a light in the corner that flickered and glowed with a greenish tint and stale cheetos all over the floor. And a dead rat that makes Kaylee jump.
“Dan. It’s been a long time, pal.” Rick says, with an outstretched right hand. To say that Rick is a man of size just does not do justice to him. He might weigh 400 pounds on a good day, and his hair is greasy enough to set fire to.
Dan meets his eyes and gives a firm handshake back, “yes sir, it has been. This is my daughter Kaylee, I told you that I’d bring her down here one day.”
“This is the one that saved your ass huh? You told me that you had a good luck charm to help you pay off that 2 grand. And now, you are putting her to work for the family business am I right or am I right?” Rick gives a wink to Kaylee and she throws up a little bit in her mouth.
“We got a system today, Rick. I need three gees this time.”
“Hey, even I know a degenerate like you ain’t god for no three gees. But hey it’s your life. I’m giving you this at twenty percent. You make good in two weeks or,” he turns to Kaylee, “or your dad gets a bullet where his face used to be. Got it?”
Kaylee was stunned. There was no way she was seeing this. Her dad was taking money from a loan shark? Her mind starts racing, trying to figure out how to get out of this, but her dad is already out the door with the money, beckoning her to follow him.
As they get to the track, the sky is still overcast, but there is a dampness in the air that exacerbates the heavy feeling that Kaylee has in her heart right now. She has to help her dad make money to pay the bills and make sure he has enough to pay off the loan shark. She starts to freak out again as her dad walks up with the racing forms. They check the morning line, just like they have done a thousand times before, but this time, she is too distracted to see anything. All these numbers are just writing on a page. She has no idea what to do. In the first race, there is a 2-1 favorite where all the money is going, but a 6-1 choice has some potential and Dan sees that he won a 5 furlong race in sloppy conditions last month. That’s the play. He picks the 4 horse to win and plays an exacta wheel, picking either the 7 or the 1 to finish second. He throws $100 at this one and says, “we will start small.”
That race goes exactly as the handicapper planned it and the favorite wins the race by four lengths. They lose $200 in the second race, another $400 in the third, and $400 in the fourth. They are almost half way through the bankroll of mob money when Dan sees the play in the fifth race. He has Knightly Shadow, the son of Shadow Fist and Queens Knight. He says “we are betting a grand on this race.”
“What! You are nuts!” Kaylee screeches.
“No I am not, look at these horses. Knightly Shadow likes mud.” He breaks into a mob accent and yells, “he’s a mudda! His mudda was a mudda, his fadda was a mudda, he’s a mudda!”
“You can lay off the fake New York accent dad.” Kaylee rolls her eyes and secretly hopes that he is kidding about betting a thousand dollars on a race. She looks over her shoulder and there is Rick and two guys.
“You know, we got another customer that we need that money for, and he pays better than you, ya punk.” Rick calmly says as he walks up with his goons flanking him on either side.
Dan hands the money to Kaylee and says “Bet it all on the 5 horse to win.”
“But he is a 10-1 shot.”
“Just do it.”
Kaylee goes off to make the bet for her dad, with a sense of fear she has never quite experienced before.
“Young lady?” the man in a blue ball cap says.
“Yes?” Kaylee stammers.
“I am sorry, you just were walking and all of a sudden just stopped, it looked like you were about to faint right there. It almost looked like you were in a trance,” he says.
“I am ok, is this the 5th race still?”
“Why yes it is, but you only have 2 minutes to post. Are you feeling all right?”
“Yes I am. Thank you for asking sir.”
She walks up to the window and says “$400 exacta 2-5. $1400 on 2 to win.”
“Honey where did you get all that money, from your daddy? He is gonna be pissed at you, you’re picking a 30-1 shot to win.”
“I know it.” Kaylee says bluntly, and with enough confidence to shut the agent up.
She walks back to her dad and Rick with the tickets and her dad screams, “what are you doing? I said the 5 horse to win, not 2nd in an exacta and where the hell did this 2 horse come from? He’s a grey horse and everyone knows that grey horses suck!”
“Don’t worry dad, I got it.”
“You better pray that horse comes in little lady or we might take our three gees out on you too.” Rick chuckles as his threat does not have the desired effect.
“Just get ready to leave us alone Rick,” Kaylee shoots back with a stone cold glare that gives Rick a momentary pause.
The bell sounds and the 4 horse goes to the lead. As they approach the half mile pole the he has a 5 length lead, with Kaylee’s 2 horse and 5 horse a distant second and third. As they round for home, the 4 begins to fade and looks like he is laboring. They start yelling for the 2 and the 5 and at the quarter pole the lead is only 2 lengths and closing. Knightly Shadow catches him first and pulls in to the lead. The 2 horse, Dance Whisperer stalks in third. As they roar down the stretch the unmistakable thunder and slashing of hooves and mud make for a cornucopia of sounds as Knightly Shadow and Dance Whisperer dual for the lead past the eighth pole. They come to the line and Dance Whisperer is on stride, Knightly Shadow is mid-stride and that makes the difference. “Photo” illuminates on the board, but they all know the result, it was 2 by a nose with 5 in second.
Kaylee’s big bet changed the odds on the board just before post, and other bettors, seeing the shift also threw money on the eventual winner, so Dance Whisperer only paid 20-1 in the end, but Rick was about to be paid off, and they had $40,000 in their pocket.
“Jiminy Christmas, did you have a vision and change the bet?” Dan asked Kaylee, “That was not what I told you to do.”
“How did you know that?”
“Because I put you in a spot that you thought something really bad was going to happen, and I hoped that would trigger a vision for you.”
She glared at him and partially squinted her blue eye, trying to hold back a punch, “You gambled with our life just to see if I could have a vision? What is wrong with you?”
“Nothing, I just figured it out,” he said, “You always have these visions when things are getting upsetting for you. Do you remember how you felt?”
“Yes, I got this really weird feeling in the pit of my stomach after the race was over and our horse lost. I knew we were in alot of trouble and then I jumped back in to line where I was placing the bet and this guy was looking at me, telling me that I looked like I was in a trance.”
“So that is when you jumped back. Interesting.”
“I think you are right about stress causing these visions, dad. All these have happened when I was really scared about something happening to you or mom. I can’t believe that you would take a chance with our lives like that!”
“It’s not a chance when you know the result. We can make this work for us, you know. Whatever this defect is you have, I think it lets you travel back in time and I can make a profit if we learn to control it.
They were not the only ones researching the Coriolis Defect.
David Villegas - GM Dave
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- Star Wars: Destiny CCDG Review - November 25, 2016
