Read Online Shelly's Second Chance (The Wish Granters, Book One) by L B Gschwandtner - Free Book Online

with me? I’m nobody. I
don’t have any money and I can’t do anything for you.” She pushed up from the
chair and stood uncertainly as if she didn’t know whether to walk out or stay
put. She felt a little embarrassed to be talking to them in a robe.
    “I think you’d better sit
back down to hear what we have to tell you.” Alanna waved toward the chair and
sat down on another one facing her. She smiled and nodded to Joe to take a seat
as well but he stood where he was. The look on his face, still the defense
attorney, said: “Okay, make your case and make it good.”
    “This is going to be hard for
you to accept,” Alanna began. “See, Joe and I,” she stopped. This was going to
be harder to explain than she’d thought but then Joe broke in.
    “We’ve been assigned to give
you a special gift.” He stopped and looked from Shelly to Alanna. That hardly
covered the subject but it was a start.
    “That’s right. A gift. And
we’re here to help you use that gift.” Alanna echoed.
    “You’re going to help me
gamble?” Shelly’s tone said it all. “I already know how to do that.” She sat
quietly for a minute and then, just as Joe started to speak, she said, “Oh I
get it. I’m the patsy, huh? You guys have some kind of counting system and
you’ve been banned from the casinos so you need someone to lay bets for you.
Well you can forget it. I’ll do my own gambling with my own chips and keep all
the winnings. I don’t need any help from you and I’m not splitting anything
with you.” She stood up and brushed the wrinkles from the plush robe.
    “What if you lose?” Alanna
asked quietly.
    “Yes,” Joe echoed. “You seem
to lose pretty often. Matter of fact
,
most people do.”
    “But this is different,”
Shelly shook her head. “
T
his time I’m going to win. I don’t need you
two for that.”
    “And you don’t want to know
how you got that ticket and why we’re here? It has nothing to do with gambling.
Really,” Alanna said.
    “So you don’t want a piece of
the action?”
    Joe and Alanna both shook
their heads. Shelly looked from one to the other. They could see she was trying
to figure out what was going on but she couldn’t quite get her mind around the
situation.
    “Where did you come from
anyway?” This was directed at Joe. “You weren’t on that plane.”
    “Sit down, Shelly,” Joe told
her. And this time she did.
     
     
    *****
     
     
    Alanna thought they hadn’t
told Shelly enough. Joe thought they had explained just the right amount, that
it was too soon to give her more than the essential fact that she had been
granted a wish. Who, what, when, where, and how could come later.
    “She’s going to start
thinking we’ll give her anything and everything she wants,” Alanna argued.
    “She’ll find out soon enough.
Anyway we’re not even sure how much we can do for her, are we?”
    They had manifested near a
fountain somewhere. It was inside but they had no idea if it was inside a hotel
or a promenade or part of a casino complex. Las Vegas was almost as confusing
as Transition.
    “I wish we could just get set
down somewhere normal,” Alanna said. “I’ve never felt so off kilter.”
    They sat down in chairs by
the fountain surrounded by potted trees and banks of flowers. The scent was
pleasant and the sound of the water soothing.
    “Maybe after we grant enough
wishes, we’ll move on. But you want to get back to life.”
    “Don’t you?” Joe sounded
surprised.
    “I don’t know.”
    At that moment a scrap of
littered paper blew against Joe’s foot and stuck there. He reached down
absently to pull it off but it stuck to his hand so he tried to get it loose by
flicking his hand. When it wouldn’t detach, Alanna reached out and pulled it
away.
    “Look,” she handed it to Joe.
“Does this mean anything to you?”
    It was a printed list of
names with the last one torn in half at the bottom of the paper scrap. Joe
studied it.
    “Just some piece of