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  ALICE 1

  The World of Shadow

  (Book I of The Alice Trilogy)

  Janis Hoffman

  Copyright 2015 by Ernest Kinnie

  Smashwords Edition

  An Over-Sexed Super-Smart Foul-Mouthed Brat

  BOOK I

  THE WORLD OF SHADOW

  CHAPTER 1

  My wicked foster mother called me an evil, lying, little tramp and came at me with a very sharp knife. That was a seriously bad mistake. Sweet Uncle Dave was put on trial for murder and I was sent to another foster home. When I testify, Uncle Dave’s lawyer told me to act cute, a little scared, and say how lucky I am to have such a wonderful uncle.

  ____________________

  “Ms. Shannon, may I call you Alice?” He’s not too bright, and talks like a toad.

  “Oh yes, please do.” Glance nervously around the room and shake a little. I’m a very, very good actress.

  “Thank you, Alice. Would you tell the court where you were on the night your foster mother, Mrs. Delancy, was murdered?”

  He made a big booboo there. I burst into hysterical tears, jumped out of the witness box, and ran down the aisle past two cops who crashed into each other trying to catch me. I’m also a very, very fast runner.

  After they gave me a delicious chocolate ice cream cone, double dip, I was back on the witness stand. Oh my, all those eyes looking up at me, so full of concern and pity. People are so stupid and gullible, except for a skinny guy with a Santa Claus beard in the back of the room, and a cute little girl with Shirley Temple curls near the front. They know I’m just having a little fun.

  “Ms. Shannon, where were you on the evening of October 24th?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I was home. I’m always home.”

  “Yes but...a...the 24th of October was the evening when the police came. Do you remember that Friday evening?”

  “Oh sure, I always watch the Billy Wiggly Show Friday night. He’s so cute.”

  Skinny Santa and the pretty little girl were enjoying my show. The nice lawyer was not.

  “Right. But...but...Ms. Shannon, on the evening of Friday, October 24th, something very bad happened to your foster mother.”

  Oh well, might as well go for variety. I screamed, started to cry, and froze. Skinny Santa, the little kid and I were having such a good time.

  ____________________

  Uncle Dave was acquitted and I never saw him again. He wasn’t my real uncle. I don’t have any aunts or uncles. I don’t have nobody. Oh boo hoo hoo.

  Save your sweet pity.

  I couldn’t care less.

  I never knew my father but he left a pile of money, so I have a dumb, overpaid guardian. He sent me to a shrink but that didn’t work so good. I went hysterical or froze whenever that so tragic evening was mentioned. I tested the bunch of pills on the dog next door, and flushed them down the toilet. Poor Romper staggered around for a week.

  The shrink gave up after a couple of months. Then I turned 18, got the 12 million and a cute little cottage by the sea on Big Sur. Robinson Jeffers used to live nearby. I’m not much for school but google a lot. He’s my favorite poet.

  Click poems and Tor House,

  built from rock he dragged up from the sea.

  A month after I moved in, Skinny Santa came for a visit. Didn’t push the buzzer or yell hello, just walked in and plopped down on the ugly, overstuffed chair.

  “I’m with a group that also has the Gift. We’d like you to come visit.”

  “Well of course I’m terribly flattered, but I’m sure you know a very attractive young lady, with a tiny bit of money, has to be very, very careful. You look kinda old for sex, but money greed lives forever”.

  “You have a lot to learn about older men, Alice. No, we aren’t interested in sex or your money. We have plenty of both. We must decide whether to invite you to join us, or kill you. We had quite a fight whether to give you a chance. I fought for you because I like your spirit, intelligence, and sense of humor.”

  “What will decide if I live or die?”

  “Whether we can trust you to use the Gift responsibly, and keep it a secret.”

  “Well now, I have so many gifts. Which one?”

  “Your Shadow hands.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “I believe you do.”

  Should I throw him out? Nah. The chance to meet other people who know about Shadow hands might not come again.

  “I accept your gracious invitation. When and where?”

  “This coming Monday evening at seven, 9324 Guinevere Drive just south of Carmel”.

  “I’ll be there. Got time for a few questions?”

  “No”.

  ____________________

  I was 2 or 2 ½ when I realized I was different, that I had the Gift. I was using my chubby hands to stack my blocks and they were almost right. So I pushed them just right with my magic hands. My mother saw the blocks move all by themselves and made a kinda funny, squeaky noise, and had a scary face. After that I was careful not to get caught.

  First grade was when the fun began. Ugly Dorothy spit on me and after that kept spilling stuff all over herself. Like once she was just about to take a sip of orange juice and my magic hands shoved the glass just a little away from her mouth. They stretch a long way. That bright orange juice splashed all over her pretty, green dress. Oh my, how sad.

  When I was in the third grade I watched a show on ancient Egypt. Hey! The program was about Shadow hands, just like my magic hands. There’s a whole world right next to this one. The old Egyptians called it the World of Shadow.

  THE WORLD OF SHADOW

  In high school I learned all about linear time and Euclid’s three dimensions. The teacher thought he had the whole universe figured out. Nope. When he reached for the chalk I moved it a little with my Shadow hands. He hid his surprise best he could, but the third time the chalk moved he freaked. His tiny brain just wasn’t up to the challenge.

  A guy hit on me once, put his hand up my dress. That was a seriously bad mistake. My Shadow hands squeezed his balls, just a little. What a pitiful howl he made. Oh my, how sad.

  And then there was the marvelous miracle. The nice priest was raising the Eucharist in front of the sheep. Yeah I know, I know, I’m supposed to call them a flock of lambs but they looked like sheep to me. Anyway, he raised the little white wafer high above his head and it slipped out of his fingers and just kept right on going.

  Oh my, the herd went crazy. There were gasps and grunts, and shouts and screams. It stayed up there a few seconds, and then I let it drop. The priest must not have been much of a baseball player. He missed the catch.

  The next day the talking heads were all over it, throwing around words like mass hysteria and group hypnosis. Nobody suspected it was just a skinny, 15-year year old brat, having a little fun.

  Now I’m off to meet some people who also have the Gift. I’ll be nice, learn what I can, and then decide what to do. Who knows, maybe they’ll be the family I lost when I was four and my mother ran sobbing out the door and into in her car. I watched out the window a long time in my first foster home. She never came back.

  Never knew my dad but he left a pile of money. Better than nothing.

  CHAPTER 2

  Skinny Santa wasn’t kidding, they don’t need my money. They live down millionaire row in a mansion by the sea. A frumpy woman came to the door, maybe late 20’s. Thick glasses and buck teeth, if she ever smiled. She wants me dead. I followed her down a long hallway into a room with Skinny Santa, another man, and a woman sitting around a table with a pile of colorful crystals in the center.

  “You’ve already met Molly. This is Johnny and Linda. Please call me Greg.”

  Johnny has a nice smile. He voted me to li
ve. Linda doesn’t have a nice smile, and for sure voted me to die. Somewhere in her 40’s I suppose. Messy hair, a small scar on her left cheek, and awful lipstick. It’s too bright and doesn’t go with her skin color. So the two guys voted life, and Bucky and Scar Face voted death. Can’t blame them. There is no way they can compete with a cute, sexy, little girl like me.

  “Come on over and sit next to me.” I felt the cold eyes of the women as I went by.

  “Linda and Molly are afraid you’re an angry, self-centered brat, not capable of caring for anyone but yourself. Someone like that with the Gift is very dangerous.”

  Ok, I’ll go with honesty. “They’re right. I had to take care of myself ever since my mother left when I was four, and that was ten lousy foster homes ago. Sure I blew them and they deserved to get blown. Well, not all. A Buddhist couple from Tibet gave me my best foster home, but a bunch of God fearing Christians overflowing with love and kindness killed that one. I could have made it in another, but the handsome guy’s wife didn’t want to share. So here I am, looking at another bunch of strangers. Linda and Molly don’t like me and I don’t much like them. I’ll be friendly as long as you’re friendly.”

  That’s pretty good coming from an angry, self-centered brat. The women softened a little.

  “A good start,” Santa said, smiling.

  Not for Bucky. She went back hard. “Why did you kill your mother?”

  “Number one, she was my foster mother not my real mom. Number two, if I did kill her why would I tell you?”

  “Because being honest with us is the only way you’ll stay alive.”

  I don’t take threats well.

  “Ok! Ok! Enough! If you women are going to stay hard against me no matter what I do give me your best shot! Give me your best shot right now! Right now!!”

  Linda and Molly stood up, and I got ready to fight for my life. I never had to fight anybody with Shadow hands before so I don’t know how this is going to turn out. But they didn’t attack. They smiled, came over and gave me big hugs. What the Hell?!

  “That’s what we like, spirit.”

  Molly doesn’t have buck teeth.

  “Why the death threat and now a warm welcome?”

  “It’s a bonding ritual developed by Johnny, our psychologist,” Skinny Santa said. “The sudden shift from threat of death to warm acceptance is very powerful. You’re now part of our group in a way that would ordinarily take months. Pick up a crystal with a Shadow hand.”

  No problem. I picked up a beautiful blue crystal from the middle of the table and lifted it a foot in the air. Wonder if they’ll be impressed? Not bloody likely. A green crystal near Santa lifted in the air and gently tapped mine. It made a tiny, tinkling sound which brought back memories of mommy tucking me into my warm bed. The bells and fairies of fairyland often came to sing me asleep. I was so loved and safe.

  Linda, Molly and Johnny also sent crystals to gently tap mine. The shining crystals began to dance back and forth, around and around, kissing mine and ringing the fairy bells. Such powerful surges of love and joy, feelings I haven’t felt in a long, long ago.

  Then I saw my mother smiling down at me, and the pain hit hard. They held me a long time, and the pain slowly went away.

  “We have a room ready if you’d like to stay tonight. Tomorrow we’re going to Tahoe to get back a little of the loot the casinos take from tourists. Our van has room if you’d like to come.”

  “Sure. Thanks Greg.”

  I’ve never gambled but roulette is easy. Use a Shadow hand to nudge the white ball onto your color but don’t get greedy. There are sharp eyes in a little room watching the action from cameras in the ceiling. If you get too lucky, or nudge the ball a little too far from where it would normally drop, some very unpleasant people come running. Be cool.

  Oh yeah, not to worry. I’m cool.

  CHAPTER 3

  We started climbing into the Sierras just east of Sacramento, past the dusty, digger pines of the hot foothills to the dark-green sugar pine, spruce and cedar of the cool mountains. Then over Donner Pass and down to that long, gorgeous lake. Johnny said Lake Tahoe was formed by an ancient lava flow across the Truckee River.

  On the way he explained the most important trick casinos use to take people’s money and bring them back again and again to lose some more. Intermittent reinforcement. There’s a ton of research on the relationship between percentage of random reward and how long rats continue to press a bar, and humans continue to drop their chips in the little circle, and pull the handle of a slot machine.

  And casinos create wonderful excitement! The slots blast cheerful sounds and flashing lights when somebody hits something, even a lousy two cherries. The place goes ballistic when somebody hits a jackpot. There are shouts of winners at the crap table. Losers leave quietly. So many winners and the next winner will be you. Don’t miss out! And there are excellent buffets and free drinks to keep people happy, believing they are getting value for their money.

  As I walked into Harvey’s the world shifted from reasonably sane to a colorful, noisy madhouse. A swirling kaleidoscope of lights, noise, and people. Energy! Excitement! Drama! I people watch and found paradise.

  Click Tahoe casinos, and take a look.

  Rows of old ladies at the slots, feeding those one-armed bandits from buckets of coin between their legs. Bet they haven’t had anything else there in a long, long time. Macho guys and gals at the crap tables muscling the dice, and quiet, brainy types at the blackjack tables. Gotta know the odds to play the game. At the roulette tables? Mostly newcomers to gambling, and lazy people who can’t be bothered throwing those heavy dice, or learning the odds.

  A loud speaker blasted the wonderful news that Ms. Janis Hoffman, a dedicated, hard working ranger from Glacier National Park, just won $20,000. I suddenly felt very homesick for those wild, rugged mountains in Northern Montana. Don’t know why. Never been there. Hughie and Kanti popped into my head. Wonder who they are.

  Johnny warned me to be careful, people catch Gambler’s Fever. They win. They double down and win again. Joy! Life is wonderful! Can’t lose. Then hyperventilate and go crazy

  Sooner or later, mostly sooner, they begin to lose. Oh no, gotta get it back! They double down. And lose. They triple down. Lose. Hopelessness! Despair!

  Then the long, long drive home, broke. Never going back there again. Nope.

  A plain clothes cop with a big nose and fat belly ordered me to hand over my ID. He grinned when I acted scared and confused. Caught an underage kid for sure.

  “Why do you want to see my ID? I’m not sure I have it with me.”

  “You better have it with you, little girl. You gotta be 21 to be in here and you sure as hell don’t look 21 to me. And don’t you lie!”

  Oh how I love playing with big, dumb bullies.

  “Please. I don’t know who you are. Why are you bothering me?”

  “I’m casino security and you’re in big trouble.”

  “Please sir, I don’t want to get in trouble,” and my lower lip began to quiver. Works great.

  “Too late for that little girl!” and grabbed for my arm but I jerked away.

  “I’m scared you’re going to hurt me.”

  “I told you damn it, I’m casino security!”

  “Please sir, how do I know?” He reached in his back pocket, flipped open his wallet, and shook a badge in my face.

  “But sir, last week a man showed a badge like that to a little girl, and then raped her.” I said that last part kinda loud. People were watching and starting to get angry at this big guy hitting on a sweet, innocent, little girl.

  Then he made a fatal mistake. He got mad and grabbed for my arm again, but I pivoted quick and he grabbed my breast instead. I screamed and a couple of big guys jumped him. I faded into the crowd and watched the gotcha moment of a delightful game of Let’s You and Him Fight.

  Yeah, I’ve read Eric Berne’s Games People Play. Nobody reads that old book anymore, so people are easy marks
. Uproar is the game I played in the courtroom.

  Wonderful drama for a while, and then everybody calmed down and the nice casino manager politely asked for my ID. I have a very good ID, made by Patty the Pro. All I had to do was be a little nice to him. He was pretty good so I didn’t mind. I never understood why it’s so bad to trade a little fun for something I want.

  Maybe you can explain.

  The manager apologized big time, gave a comp to a show, three meal tickets, and a 100-dollar chip. My gratefulness assured him I wasn’t going to sue.

  “You just let me know anytime you’re in town and we’ll see what we can do for you. Here’s my card.”

  “Thank you, Sir. You are a very nice man,” and gave him a thrill as I brushed past his lips on my way to a tiny kiss on his cheek. Can you believe it, he blushed. You males are so simple.

  My new family was not so pleased, but I’m pretty sure Skinny Santa was amused. I understand. We want to fade into the crowd and almost causing a riot is not good. They were ahead about two grand and after lunch we went across the street to Harrah’s to practice some more.

  “Just watch and be cool. Ok? Please.”

  “Not to worry. I’m cool.”

  A guy at the door checked my ID. No problem. The same bright lights, wild noise, and crowds of people.

  Went to the cashier, got two rolls of quarters and change for my 100-dollar chip, and began my gambling career. You put a quarter in the little slot. You pull the handle. Three wheels whirl around and around and stop, one after the other. You win or you lose. You put a quarter in the little slot. You pull the handle. Oh my God, such mindlessness. What could go wrong?

  A little old lady in tennis shoes was playing the slot next to mine. Nope, I didn’t make that up. She’s wearing ugly, green tennis shoes and they’ve seen plenty of miles. Probably blows her pension check on slots.

  I asked if I could watch, “I’m all new to this gambling stuff.” Sure, she’s a little lonely.

  I was right. As soon as she gets her monthly check she jumps on Harrah’s free bus from Oakland. Casinos are so kindly, so generous.