A Welcomed Reward

“WOAH GIRL DID YOU SEE THAT? OH, HE ALMOST HAD ME GOIN THAT RAT!”. A middle-aged women said cheering waving her hands in the air being careful not to spill her glass of champagne. Dressed in a blue evening gown she looked down through the slanted glass of the VIP room down at the board. The super imposed overlay of the fight spanning the entire board disappearing as the match ended, revealing the pieces and where they stood. From up there it was amazing how far you could see and just how distant the pieces were from each other despite standing one space apart. They did of course need the room to flex their skills when fights came, and that’s hard to do in such tight quarters.

The women turned to the girl next to her, a sly smile twisting across her face. “Didn’t you say you’d give him some sugar if he won Marjorie?”. Marjorie played with her fingers as she searched for an answer that could weasel her out of her grand proclamation to Harrison all those weeks ago during his draft party. Marjorie wore a black and white sundress with straps that crossed over her neck. She had her Brunette hair tied up in a ponytail with a large bang resting over her left eye that she hid behind occasionally when the situation called for it, like now. “First of all, I said a lot of things I didn’t mean that night because I was drunk. Second, I don’t know what you’re talking about”. Marjorie stood up and walked over to the women. Both ladies stared out to the board as the Pilgrim made it’s walk back to its home square for maintenance.

“You want to go down and congratulate him? I have access to the elevator if you wanted to?” The women chuckled patting Marjorie on the back. Marjorie turned a bright shade or red before refusing and walking to the kitchenette inside the room, fixing to make herself a drink. “Ey Hey girly none of that now you made a promise now stand by your word. Trust me these things are better said directly then with a pinch of liquid luck.” Marjorie kept her head low, her bang shielding her embarrassment partially before shutting the wine cooler. She walked back through the luxurious room passing several couches and art pieces adorning the floor and walls.

She approached the women again and sat on an ottoman up against the glass trying to find her words again.

“How did you do it mom? How did you pluck up the courage to ask dad out?”. The women paused, turning from the window to her daughter. “Well, I took the easy route, I paid an arm and a leg for the chance.” At that moment the women sat down and reached down to her left thigh, sliding her fingers across a ring that then hissed and disconnected just below the hip. She then reached with her left arm up to her right and repeated the movement right below her shoulder, disconnecting her arm. Setting both aside she shot her daughter a goofy grin waiting for the inevitable groan from the corny joke, but it never came. Marjorie was serious, and the women picked up on it quickly.

‘To be frank, your father did ask me out, but not before rejecting my advances multiple times before hand. Only after I lost my limbs saving his sorry butt in Brazil did he ever give me the time of day. In my case I got lucky at a high price, he helped me get back on my feet so to speak and somewhere along that path we clicked.” The women reached to the end table next to her picking up a picture of herself and her husband during their service years, a quaint marriage in a destroyed church during the war. She let her fingers glide down the frame over her husband before pulling away, coming back from her trance. She placed the picture back down and turned to Marjorie. “We had nothing for the longest time, we were all desperate for something to cling on to. Someone to hold on to. We were brought together through terrible circumstance and made the best of it.

The women then attempted to stand catching herself before realizing she wasn’t wearing her prosthetics. Marjorie quickly reached for the two she took off before the women shook her head at her. “Those fancy ones are uncomfortable as all get, please get my good ones.” Marjorie quickly rushed across the room trying not to trip in her heels going to a cabinet near the door. Opening it she quickly browsed the half a dozen or so suitcases in a variety of chic colors and materials before reaching for a bulky beaten up one shoved haphazardly in the bottom of the cabinet. She picked it up and rushed back to the ottoman placing the suitcase next to her mother.

“Thanks, hun.” The women said, opening the case revealing a bulky leg and arm prosthetic that looked like a train wreck compared to the ones she was wearing before. She took the yellow arm and the orange leg out as she continued to speak. “You on the other hand, like your father, have all the cards in your deck already.” Marjorie winced knowing it was true. Harrison had had a crush on her for the longest time, dating back to a very abrupt proposal when they were three. The two had grown up so close together most of their friends and family would find it odd if one wasn’t around the other. The attempts to woo her bounced from playful to serious every so often and she didn’t mind them, but she never took them seriously until the end of high school. Rejecting him flat out after prom. She regretted it. Everyone knew she did but that didn’t change that it happened.

The women looked at Marjorie, putting her prosthetics on and testing their movement and dexterity before getting to her feet. A warm smile crossed her face as she approached her daughter. “We don’t have to go down just yet if you don’t want too dear. I’m sure he’s probably busy now fixing up his mech. You wouldn’t want to cloud his judgement like you did that one time at training camp do ya?” Marjorie punched her mother in the shoulder forgetting it was her metal one, wincing in pain as she attempted to shake it out. The women giggled and turned for the door. “I’m going to see how Amy is doing, you know she must be jazzed after that fight. Want to come with?” Marjorie briefly contemplated going with but decided to hold back. She needed to thing some things through before she was ready to face Harrison again. The women shot her a wink and two finger guns, one a snap and one a metal ding as the door closed behind her.

Once the door closed Marjorie let out an exasperated sigh as she sat back down on the couch, lying down horizontally to the window. The next round had yet to begin as Harrison hadn’t returned to the board. She took out her wallet from a small purse and opened it, flipping through bills, cards, and receipts, until she found a newspaper clipping. It wasn’t too old, only being printed a couple months ago. It had begun to fray but nothing too damaging. “The First of the legacy pilots, Harrison Andross and Marjorie Rheiner, officially enter the League draft for the 2056 season.” The headline said. Below was a picture of the two waving to the camera in a long line of other draftees. Marjorie pondered the clipping for a while before putting it back in her purse. In the sea of pleasant memories and feelings felt a twinge of jealousy, and guilt. Not because Harrison won his fight no, she was very proud of him for that. But that Harrison got drafted, and she didn’t. She noticed it back in high school how he gradually outpaced her in practice. Started training with is parents more often but then all the other parents in the neighborhood as well, including her own mother.

Harrison had shown an unexpected drive that launched him past where they stood together for so long beforehand that she felt left behind. Abandoned even. Angry. These feelings had long subsided from the blazing inferno they used to be. But she used these emotions to justify ostracizing him. To hurt him. Just thinking of them made her feel sick to her stomach. Especially since they never shook his relationship with her. Marjorie stood up and walked to the slanted window. Harrison was rising to the board as the timer for the next move appeared for the Golem’s move. “I should think of what I’m going to say.” She thought to herself as the countdown siren blared out.

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“Congratulations my man you got the SENTINEL’S, WOOOOHHHaaaurghHHH”. Marjorie was standing on a balcony with Harrison who was now patting her back as she threw up over the railing. Below them several annoyed yells roared out, but they were too pre-occupied to mind. “You feelin any better, I know you’re taking it pretty hard.” Harrison said rubbing circles into Marjorie’s back. Marjorie lifted her head resting her arms on the balcony ledge and bowing her head, coughing, and trying to catch her breath. She didn’t catch half of what Harrison said but she knew him well enough to guess, even with a clouded mind. “I’m fine just, disappointed that’s all.” Harrison took his hand away and walked behind her grabbing her arm to turn her around so the view to the street below wouldn’t continue to disorient her.

“We’ve worked our entire lives to get here, where we’re standing right now and now I gotta wait a WHOLE other year to try again! This draft blows! What am I supposed to do go back to working at the Burger Shack, I wanted to be on a team by now I tried so hard and…”. Marjorie quickly turned around as she continued to vomit over the railing. Harrison resumed patting her on the back making sure her hair wasn’t falling in front of her face. “You’ll get your chance in the sun again Marjorie don’t fret. You’re a great pilot.” Marjorie turned around again to face Harrison. Wiping her mouth on her arm. “Then why didn’t they pick me Harrison? Why did they take you over me? I can pilot just as good as you, just as good as anyone, so why didn’t they pick me?” Tears formed in the corners of her eyes, but her sadness was majorly outweighed by her frustration. “I’m a legacy, I’m supposed to be great. So why can I never get the chance to show it?”

Harrison hesitated, choosing his words carefully before he said them. “Marj, I got to where I was the same as you. We worked hard and we sweat hard for this. I just got my foot down before you.” An aggravated look appeared on Marjorie’s face. “Easy for you to say, you’ve been running ahead of me for years.” She tried to take a swig of her wine bottle but it was empty. She raised it above her head to smash it on the ground, but Harrison caught her arm before she had the chance. Swiftly disarming her and setting the bottle on a small table. “What do you mean by running ahead?’ Harrison asked, finding the string in the sweater that could unravel Marjorie’s mind.

Marjorie pointed a finger at Harrison’s chest, poking him several times before speaking. “You know what I mean, we were neck and neck for years until senior year and you always had my back. Then you started training more and spending less time hanging out. You left me behind.” Marjorie pushed past Harrison walking into the apartment heading to the bathroom. Harrison following closely behind. “I didn’t leave you behind I talked to you nearly every day, hell I invited you to come along with me.” Harrison replied. Marjorie walked into the bathroom shutting the door behind her. She turned on the faucet and washed her face, then her hands, and her arms. “Yeah, buy you didn’t really want me there, you wanted to get ahead, you wanted to break away from everyone even me. I didn’t recognize it when you told me, but now I know. Now I see.” She responded. Harrison stopped at the door. “Do you really think I felt like that”.

Marjorie looked at herself in the mirror. “You were in such a rush to escape your parents you didn’t even realize you were leaving me behind too.” Harrison stood in silence. “Then my dad died, and I had to be there for my mom, y’know, and life got hard. I had to put a lot of things on the back burner, and I thought you would be there. But you weren’t.” Harrison almost interjected but a lesson from his own mother rang in his mind to keep quiet as someone spilled their guts. “But I couldn’t bring myself to ask you to stay behind.” Marjorie said, opening the door. “I was mad at you, but I had no right to be. I took my frustration and funneled it into trying to get back at you anyway I could.” Harrison stood aside as Marjorie trudged past him collapsing on the couch, kicking off her shoes.

“When we went to prom in senior year, and we had such a great night, I wanted to say yes to that date.” But I understood that even though you had flown so far beyond my reach I still had one thing. One thing of yours that I could control.” Harrison listened intently, sitting down next to Marjorie moving the tumbleweed that was her hair out of her face so he could hear her through her mumbling. “I said no because I wanted to hurt you, and I’m sorry.” Marjorie turned her face into the cushion to hide. “I wanted to say yes, I really did. But I had been going through so much and you had gone through nothing. I was jealous. You still had both of your parents, you still had the drive to move forward, to seize your legacy. I had lost it all and I was jealous, I was frustrated.” Harrison noticed Marjorie’s breath become ragged and skippy. She was crying. “I’m sorry Harrison. But I’m still jealous, maybe even envious. But I don’t want you to leave me behind again.”

Harrison looked forward, getting lost in his own mind. How could he be so selfish. How could he have been so blind? The girl he loved the girl who needed him, when she rejected him so suddenly after all those years he was crushed, but was he so caught up in himself that he couldn’t read between the lines. He evaluated himself and his relationship with Marjorie. And an idea came to his mind. Harrison turned to Marjorie who was till crying into the couch. “Marjorie, turn over for me.” Marjorie shook her head. “No, if you see me now, you’ll hate me even more. I don’t want you to hate me.” Harrison thought quickly then responded. “Marjorie if you don’t turn over, I’ll really hate you.” Marjorie stood motionless for a second before slowly turning on to her back. Her make up smeared to the right of her face and her hair a disheveled mess.

“I have a proposition for you Marjorie”. Harrison leaned over Marjorie’s head, grabbing the side of her face with his left hand as he took a napkin off the table and started to wipe her face. “I was hurt when you rejected me, really did da number on me. Heck out of all the times I’ve been rejected by you before I think that one took the cake.” Marjorie squinted up at Harrison shooting him a questionable look. “If you’re trying to comfort me, you’re doing a real poor job of it.” Harrison continued to wipe her face from her mascara to her eye shadow. “Let me finish.” He said, grabbing both sides of her head and leaning overlooking into her eyes. “You broke my heart so bad I think you need to give me another chance.”

Marjorie looked puzzled. Harrison took his hands from her face and sat up straight as she turned back over crawling over to him sitting on her knees. “What do you mean?” Marjorie said.

“I mean I think we should arrange another chance. Another opportunity for me to go on a date with you.” Marjorie wasn’t expecting this. She honestly thought he would be furious, but Harrison’s personality always shined through in the end. “How bout’, if I win my first match, you must agree with a handshake and a promise to go on a date with me once the game is done. A real date, not what we normally do when we hang out I mean dinner and a show of some kind.”

A sickly smile appeared on Marjorie’s face as she said “Oh my stars Mr.Andross are you calling upon me for a night out on the town?” in her best southern belle impression. Harrison looked directly at Marjorie again, but this time grabbed both of her hands in his own. The effects from her funny retort quickly evaporated as she began to blush, second guessing the whirlwind of mess that she showed him before. Just now feeling embarrassed for her actions today as opposed to her action’s years prior. “So, you’re telling me that if you win your first round in the League, that you’ll take me out on a date?” Marjorie said, trying to shrink into her shoulders as her face turned from a drunken crimson to a blushed maroon. Harrison leaned into Marjorie, making direct eye contact with her causing her fall back on her butt. Marjorie’s heart was beating so fast that she was getting more nervous that Harrison would be able to hear it.

“No Marjorie, I ‘m telling you if I win my first match. I’m going to take you out on a date to make up for prom. Do you accept?” Marjorie tried to speak but her tongue lost all its memory, and her voice couldn’t raise above a whisper. She tried to look into his eyes but couldn’t help but look away, so entranced she looked back and jumped in between as she looked for an answer. Eventually she closed her eyes and scrunched up her face hard before biting the bullet. “IT’S A DATE THEN”. She said forcefully, trying to stave off her nerves. Harrison smiled as Marjorie continued attempting to hide her fluster. Seizing his opportunity to redeem himself and find his way further into her heart, Harrison said “Now I have two reasons to win.”