A New Kind of Win
The alley was quiet now. Gus was a whimpering puddle on the ground, a man whose sneer had been replaced by a kind of pathetic terror. I let him go, not because I was kind, but because there was no honor in hitting a broken man. I looked at the two women. The old lady’s tears had stopped, replaced by a kind of quiet awe as she clutched the money Jamie had given her. Lola’s face was a mixture of fear and gratitude, a woman who had just been given a chance at a life she thought was gone forever.
I looked at Jamie. He stood there, a man who had just lost a lot of money and had, by some twisted casino logic, come out ahead. He was the one who had been wronged, but he was also the one who had made it right. He was a good man, a man who believed in a moral code in a world that had forgotten how to spell the word.
Back on the Street
We left the alley, having helped the two women find their way out of the dark. We walked in silence for a few blocks, the neon lights of the city casting a cold, indifferent glow on our faces.
“You’re a good man, Jamie,” I said, my voice low. “You know that?”
He gave a short, bitter laugh. “I’m a gambler, Jack. I just played the odds. The odds of a man like Gus ever bothering them again? Slim to none. The odds of Lola making a new life for herself? Pretty good.”
“That’s not gambling, Jamie,” I said. “That’s a man with a moral code.”
He didn’t answer. He just looked at me, a silent understanding passing between us. He knew what I was saying. I’d seen a lot of men with a lot of money, but few with his kind of soul. The streets were full of sharks, and Jamie, with his quiet generosity, was an anomaly.
We walked on, two men in a world of grays and shadows. The city, a beautiful, deceptive con, stretched out before us. I knew that for every grift we exposed, there were a hundred others waiting to be found. But for now, the debt was paid. The game was over. And a man like me was left with a cold, quiet truth: some men play for money. And some, if they’re lucky, play for something more.
