Wild Cards 13 : Card Sharks by George R.R. Martin Read Free Book Online Page A

so pretty. Flo looked away, as though he wasn't there.
    My family lived in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a fairly small building. I closed the door and led her into the living room, where I switched on the lamps on each end table by the couch. The air was hot and stale, so I turned on the big standing fan in the corner, to sweep back and forth across the room. Then I opened the windows.
    Flo paced nervously for a moment, looking around. Some framed pictures on the wall caught her eye, over the back of a pink canvas butterfly chair. "Is that your Dad?"
    I came as close as I dared and raised up on tiptoe to see over her shoulder. Her perfume was light and sweet. She was looking at a posed studio picture of my father in his army uniform. A photograph of his whole platoon was next to it.
    "Yeah, that's him."
    "Is that the American army?"
    "Yeah. 442nd Battalion."
    "But they're all ..." She trailed off.
    "Nisei. Second generation Japanese Americans. He fought in Italy, among other places. I was born while he was in the army."
    "Really? Where were you born?"
    "In California."
    "Where? San Francisco or Los Angeles?"
    "Uh, no. A camp in Tule Lake."
    "A what?" Flo turned to look down at me.
    I backed away. "An internment camp for Japanese Americans."
    Her brown eyes were puzzled. "What do you mean?"
    "Well, it was a kind of prison camp. All the Japanese Americans on the west coast were put in them."
    "Even if your Dad was in the army?"
    I shrugged uncomfortably. "Yeah."
    She searched my face. I felt she was actually realizing for the first time that I was more than a joker. My face grew hot.
    "Want to sit down?" I gestured toward the wing-back couch.
    Flo hesitated, then sat down on one end of the couch. I sat down on the far end, well away from her. I just waited.
    Finally, looking down at her hands in her lap, she spoke almost in a whisper. "Do you know what an abortion is?"
    "Yeah." I froze, staring at her.
    "You do?" She glanced up in surprise, her ponytail swaying.
    "Yeah, I've heard about them from guys on the street," I said softly. I could hardly believe this was what she wanted.
    She spoke quickly. "Can I get one in Jokertown? Safely? And in absolute, total secrecy ? And how much would it cost?" Her brown eyes were large now, watching me anxiously.
    "I don't know," I said slowly. "But I can find out."
    "Would you? Please?" Her voice was pleading.
    "Sure." I got up and walked over to the phone sitting on the kitchen counter. A guy named Waffle was good for stuff like that. I dialed Biff's Burgers, but he wasn't there yet. I hung up. "A friend of mine will call back."
    "Okay."
    I sat down on the couch again. I wasn't going to tell her what a jerk Waffle was. "He's twenty, and he knows about ... stuff like this. We'll just have to wait."
    "How long do you think it will be?"
    "No way to tell, but he goes by Biff's every night. When do you have to be home?"
    She shook her head, then looked away. "I have to find out."
    "Your parents don't make you come home on time?"
    "My mother's dead," she said, almost in a whisper. Then she smiled cynically. "My father is ... very important. Always busy. He thinks I'm at a girlfriend's right now." She closed her eyes.
    "Your father's important?" I looked at her stylish clothes again, especially the pearls. Those weren't kiddie beads.
    "He works for the government. And he has powerful friends. So I have to keep this a secret. I can't even tell you who he is."
    I was getting a little scared. "Look, you want to watch TV? I'm not sure what's on - maybe Dobie Gillis." 
    She didn't speak or even look up.
    "You know, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis , with Dobie and Maynard G. Krebs, the beatnik? Don't you like it?"
    Tears seeped from under Flo's eyelids. She began to sob, fighting it quietly. Then she fumbled her purse open and pulled out some white tissues from a little plastic packet.
    Before I even thought about it, I slid over to her on the couch. I guess if I understood anything deeper than