Chapter 38: Where The Door Leads

"This looks like trouble" Ethan commented as he read some of his work email. He had just arrived for yet another exciting evening of work at the computer lab.

Nikki looked up from the computer she was using in the lab. "What does?" she asked.

"Well I got an email from my boss saying that we need to have an important meeting to discuss something in..." He looked at his watch briefly. "..43 seconds."

"Well that does sound ominous, good luck with that" was all Nikki could reply with before returning her attention to her web comics.

"You should be looking for a job in case this meeting doesn't go very well" Ethan suggested to her.

She snorted. "Yeah, I'll get right on that. Right after I'm finished reading the Internet."

"Well I'm glad you put a reasonable limit on your web browsing. Here comes my boss, don't cause any problems while he's here."

Ethan's boss, Bill came through the glass doors leading into the lab. "Hey Ethan, lets go over to that table in the corner to have our meeting." They walked over and sat at the table Bill had pointed at. "So as you may have heard, we've been asked to cut back on expenses here because all the top executives of huge companies that don't have a thing to do with us need bail-out multi-million dollar bonuses this month."

Ethan cut in, "I hate those guys."

"Most people do, but anyway we'd like to move you days where we can save a little bit of money. We'll be able to close the lab a little earlier. That has the added effect of not having to worry as much about the frequent zombie attacks outside at night."

Ethan scratched his head. "I've seen those guys out there before, but they never bother me. I always felt a sense of camaraderie from them."

Bill frowned. "Disturbing. Well for our other employees, this is probably a good thing. So effective immediately, you will now work from 8 to 5 each day. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to send an email." Bill took out his PDA and started typing on it.

Ethan got up from the table and walked back to the employee desk to check some more of his email. Just as he got back up to the desk, he saw he had just received another email from Bill. It read 'Something came up, we need to have another meeting. Meet me at the table I'm sitting at in 4 seconds.' Ethan frowned, looked over at Bill and then back at his email before scurrying over to the table.

Bill opened the new meeting by saying "I'm glad we could meet on such short notice, somethings come up with moving you to days."

Ethan looked concerned. "What came up dare I ask?"

"Well we're having a problem with the library about the doors. They're voicing some sort of concern that the doors open into another reality after a certain time each night. Until we can install some reality anchor devices on the doors, we won't be able to move you to days."

"How hard is it to anchor the doors to reality"

"Not very hard really, it's a simple 10 inch screw you can get at the hardware store in their screw reality section." Bill took a deep breath before continuing. "The problem is that facilities here has to have a meeting to plan another meeting to create a committee that will create the task force to look into researching the method of placing a work order to purchase and install the paper and printer used to print a contract to hire a screw union expert to install the screw."

Ethan shrugged. "I guess that's how these things go. I'd never noticed that the door lead anywhere strange all these years. Everything about my life is perfectly normal."

Nikki started laughing uncontrollably. When she realized that Ethan and Bill were looking at her with concerned looks, she said "Oh I just read something funny."

Bill continued "So anyway, sorry to bring you bad news. You'll be staying on your current schedule until all of those things I mentioned happen to occur in that exact order. I'm glad we had this opportunity to talk, I'll see you at the staff meeting tomorrow. Don't forget to think of one thing you've been arrested more then once for to our ice breaking activity at the beginning of the meeting." Bill then got up and left out the door of the lab.

Nikki came up to the Ethan's desk. "Vehicular Manslaughter"

"What?" Ethan asked.

"That's what you should submit for your ice breaker at the meeting tomorrow."

Ethan laughed and shook his head. "I've never been arrested for that though."

"Good point. Well I couldn't help but overhear your meetings. So to summarize, nothing has changed really? And it only took two meeting to figure that out."

"That's about right, though the glimmer of hope of change lingers overhead." Ethan made a swirling motion over his head.

Ethan sat back down at his desk and started to type an email. It looked to Nikki like he was deep in thought for a few minutes. "Ah ha" Ethan shouted suddenly. "I know what I've been arrested for more then once, failure to put the toilet seat down in the women's restroom."

Nikki groaned. "I hate to break it to you, but you weren't arrested for leaving the toilet seat up."

Chapter 37: Cash and Prizes

"I remember a time where there was room to sit on the couch" Ethan commented to Nikki. They were both in the living room sitting on the floor playing on the Wee gaming system. "Now with all these cats that have nested here, look where we end up having to sit."

Nikki turned to face the couch that was completely covered with cats in various stages of sleep or laziness. "You make a compelling point for once."

"Hey!" Ethan protested.

She continued "I can't complain too much because this huge estate we're living in now, I'm pretty sure that had something to do with Cleopatra's doing." Cleo looked up when she heard her name mentioned and winked before settling back down to her nap.

"Alright, I'll agree to that." Ethan smirked. "Now hurry up and 'throw' your bowling ball." They were playing the game Wee Can't Play Sports and specifically the mode that resembled in an abstract sort of way a variation of bowling.

Nikki stood up, twirled around 3 times, jumped in the air, and then threw her hand out in front of her. The game reported "Strike, Good Job".

Ethan frowned. "How is it that your method always gets a strike? That's a completely absurd way to throw the ball."

Nikki giggled. "And yet it works every time. Looks like you should take some pointers based on your score."

Ethan threw his ball and the game reported "Gutter Ball, Try harder next time."

She added "I meant to ask, why is your score negative, I'm pretty sure that's not how bowling scoring works in this game."

"I'm just that good" Ethan said proudly.

"We aren't playing golf, so you want a positive score, you know what never mind, try and not beat me too badly OK brother?" Nikki tried to not laugh too hard.

Just then, Ethan's phone rang. He quickly answered his phone.
"Possibly A Pizza Pizzaria, how can I help you?.....
Large pepperoni pizza hold the sauce, cheese, and dough?.....
Sure thing, it'll be ready next month, that'll be elvenity hundred dollar....."

Ethan pulled out a sheet of paper. "We do accept credit cards, whats your card number? Ok and name on the card? Alright and that other number. Ok thank you, see you in 30 days." He then hung up the cellphone, yanked out the battery, and tossed both pieces out the window.

Nikki gave him a confused look. "Funny story about how I got that phone.." he began but was abruptly interrupted by his real cellphone ringing. "I should take this." Nikki nodded.
"Hello?...
Hey Lenny, what's up?.....
Really? That's great, when can I start?.....
Taking money from tourists, yeah.....
We'll head on over in a few minutes...
Thanks, see you there.....
Bye"

Ethan hung up his phone and dropped it in a pocket. "Guess what we're doing tonight?"

Nikki dropped her hands to her sides. "I probably don't want to know, but go ahead and tell me."

"Well, the local casino on the Russian reservation across town just got poker tables in. So I was going to 'Russia' on over and take some money from hapless tourists."

"Haven't the Russians been trying to get us for the past couple weeks? " Nikki asked. Cleo lifted her head up and nodded though neither Nikki or Ethan seemed to be watching.

"What are you talking about?" Ethan scratched his head.

"Don't you read the paper? Last week's headline read 'Russians fail to crash space debris on local residents, foiled by giant laser'. Didn't you put two and two together?" she asked him.

"I hadn't made the connection, and besides Suki had a very convincing note that said 'There is no giant laser, nothing to see here. Move along.' "

Jade walked by briefly as she headed into the kitchen and added "You even do the power bills and see our power consumption is in the tens of thousands of dollars."

Ethan nodded. "I do take care of the power bill. I just figured Nikki over here took really long hot showers." Nikki punched Ethan in the shoulder. "So are we going or what?"

Nikki nodded grudgingly. "Sure, lets go."

The trip to the casino was short because it was only a couple miles down the road. Upon arriving, they found a parking space in the parking lot and walked over to the entrance. A tall man greeted them as they entered. "Velcome to Casino vhere slot machines play you. Please to be enjoying your stay. And don't forget to leave all your money here."

As Nikki and Ethan walked towards the poker room, Nikki commented "Well at least they are straight forward here. That's got to be worth something."

Ethan shrugged. "Part of the fun is the illusion you're going to leave with more money, shatter that fragment of a hope and what are you left with. Overpriced beverages."

"I thought the beverages were free here."

"They are, but what have you got to do to get the free drinks?" he asked her. She nodded in understanding. "Ah here we are" he commented as they made it up to the poker room.

The poker room host walked up to them. "Velcome to Poker Room, ve have many games for you to pick tonight. Pick vhich one you vant. Ve have Limit, No Limit, and our newest game, 'everybody bets, everybody loses'."

Ethan's eyes lit up ."Hmm that last one sounds good."

"ETHAN!" Nikki said forcefully.

He quickly corrected "Oh uh the No Limit game is fine."