Ashley was relentlessly feeding his machine in a manner he clearly wouldn’t have been able to do the day before. The instant the inner wheels stopped, another coin dropped into the slot and the arm was pulled. Ashley appeared mesmerized by the blurred images of fruit.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Daniel went directly up to Ashley and pulled him around with a hand on his left shoulder. “Senator! How nice to see you!”
Ashley squinted up into Daniel’s face. His eyes were unblinking, his pupils dilated. His normally carefully combed hair was tousled as if someone had deliberately messed it up, giving him a wild appearance.
“Take your hands off me, you skinny shit,” Ashley growled, without a trace of his normal accent.
Daniel obeyed instantly, shocked and terrified by Ashley’s uncharacteristic profanity, which recalled a similar outburst in the operating room. The last thing he wanted to do was provoke the man and thereby incite a more rapid progression of the seizure symptoms. He stared into Ashley’s eyes, which reflected a kind of disconnect, since Ashley evidenced no signs of recognition. For a beat, neither moved as Daniel rapidly debated whether to attempt to medicate him on the spot. He decided against it, for fear he’d be unsuccessful and make things worse in the process.
“Carol tells me you smelled a disagreeable odor,” Daniel remarked, unsure of what to say or how to proceed.
Ashley gave a wave of dismissal before nodding his head. “I think it was that whore over there in the sexy red dress. That’s why I moved to this machine.”
Daniel glanced down the row of slot machines. There was a young woman in a red dress showing significant cleavage, especially when she worked the slot machine’s arm. Daniel redirected his attention to Ashley, who had gone back to feeding the machine in front of him.
“So you don’t smell the odor any longer?”
“Just a little, now that I moved away from that bitch.”
“Well, good,” Daniel said, allowing himself a ray of hope that the aura might resolve without progression. Regardless, he wanted Ashley back in the Poseidon Suite. If there were a scene in the casino, undoubtedly the whole affair would unravel in the media.
“Senator, I have something I want to show you up in your room.”
“Piss off, I’m busy.”
Daniel swallowed nervously. His nascent ray of hope began to fade as he acknowledged that Ashley’s mood and behavior were obviously already significantly abnormal, even if not yet outrageous. Frantically he tried to think of something to get Ashley up to his suite, but nothing came to mind.
All at once, Carol gave Daniel’s shirtsleeve a tug and whispered in his ear. Daniel shrugged. He was willing to try anything, no matter how ridiculous. “Senator. There’s a full case of bourbon in your room.”
With encouraging rapidity, Ashley let go of the slot machine’s arm, turned, and looked up at Daniel. “Why, Doctor, fancy seeing you down here,” he said, with his accent returning.
“Good to see you as well, sir. I came down to tell you about the case of bourbon that arrived in your room. You have to come up and sign for it.”
To Daniel’s relief, Ashley immediately slid off the stool attached to the floor in front of the slot machine and stood. He must have had a wave of dizziness, because he tottered for a moment before grasping the edge of the counter. Daniel grabbed his arm just above his elbow for additional support. Ashley blinked, looked at Daniel, and for the first time smiled.
“Let’s proceed, young man,” Ashley said. “Signing for a case of bourbon sounds like a worthy cause to this old country boy. Carol, dear, see to my loot, if you please!”
With his hand still gripping Ashley’s upper arm, Daniel guided the man away from the slot machines. In appreciation of Carol’s suggestion, which he never would have thought of on his own, Daniel winked at her as their eyes briefly met. While Carol quickly gathered up Ashley’s coins, Daniel and Stephanie accompanied the senator across the floor and through the milling crowd of gamblers.
The journey went smoothly until they got to the elevators, where they had to wait briefly. Like a cloud passing in front of the sun, Ashley’s smile suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a scowl. Having been watching his face and seeing the transition, Daniel was tempted to ask the senator what he was thinking. But he didn’t, for fear of undermining the status quo. Daniel’s intuition told him that a mere tendril of reality was maintaining Ashley’s control of his mind.
Unfortunately, two couples that Ashley had spotted over Daniel’s shoulder boarded the same elevator behind them. One of them pressed the button for the thirtieth floor. Daniel swore under his breath. He had hoped to have the car to themselves, and the tension of worrying about an explosion of Ashley’s behavior in the presence of strangers caused his pulse to race and perspiration to appear on his forehead. For a split second he looked at Stephanie, who appeared as terrified as he. Returning his attention to Ashley, he could tell the senator was glaring at the couples who were tipsy and carrying on in a boisterous and provocative manner.
Daniel unzipped the medical pouch. He looked in at the vial and syringes, and considered whether he should fill one of the syringes. The problem was that the strangers would see what he was doing and might become alarmed.
“What’s the matter, Papa?” one of the women questioned teasingly after noticing Ashley’s truculent, unblinking stare. “Are you jealous, old man? You need a little action?”
“Screw you, bitch!” Ashley snapped.
“Hey, that’s no way to talk to a lady,” the woman’s companion blurted. He pushed the woman to the side and stepped forward to confront Ashley.
Without thinking of the consequences, Daniel sandwiched himself between the two. He could smell the man’s garlic-and-alcohol breath and feel Ashley’s stare on the back of his head.
“I apologize for my patient,” Daniel said. “I’m a doctor, and the gentleman is ill.”
“He’s going to be a lot sicker if he doesn’t apologize to my wife,” the man threatened. “And what’s he ill with, loss of marbles?” The man laughed mockingly as he tried to peer around Daniel for a better look at Ashley.
“Something like that,” Daniel agreed.
“Whore!” Ashley shouted, while making a lewd gesture toward the woman.
“Oh, that’s it!” the man snapped. He reached out and tried to move Daniel aside while making a fist with his other hand.
Stephanie grabbed the man’s arm. “The doctor is telling the truth,” she asserted. “The gentleman is not acting like himself. We’re taking him back to his room to give him some medication.”
The elevator stopped at the thirtieth floor, and the doors opened.
“Maybe you’d better give him a new brain,” the man said, as his laughing companions pulled him off the elevator. He yanked his arms free and stood, glaring in at Ashley, until the doors closed in front of him.
Daniel and Stephanie exchanged a nervous glance. A potential disaster had been averted. Daniel looked at Ashley, who was smacking his lips as if tasting something disagreeable. The elevator doors opened on the thirty-second floor.
With Carol on one arm and Daniel on the other, they managed to get Ashley off the elevator and down the hall. He did not resist but rather walked like an automaton. At the mermaid door, Carol let go of Ashley long enough to get out her keycard and hand it to Stephanie, who got the door open. As Daniel and Carol started to urge Ashley forward, he shook off their hands and walked in freely.
“Thank heavens,” Stephanie said, as she closed the door behind the group.
The chandelier in the foyer was turned on, as was a lamp on the desk in the great room. Otherwise, the suite was lost in shadow. The drapes were pulled to the side, along with the glass panels. Beyond the balcony, a star-strewn sky arched over a dark sea. Freshly cut flowers rustled softly on the coffee table from the night breeze.