Choices: Chapter 1

The following is chapter one of my new novella titled "Choices". It's the story of an older man who heads off to a Vegas nightclub called "Choices" to attend the 50th anniversary reunion of his university graduating class. He soon discovers that this is not a normal nightclub.

I'll post additional chapters over the coming weeks/months. I hope you enjoy it.

The nightclub was a place called “Choices”, a monstrous building with five separate entrances, each one catering to a particular type of music. I was standing outside of the entrance that featured “Pop”. I’m not really into that type of music, but it was the club that had the shortest lineup to get in.

I was getting too old to be doing this shit. Here I was, at seventy-three years of age, standing outside of a Vegas nightclub along with hundreds of other people waiting to get in.

Why, you may ask?

Good question. I was starting to second-guess why I was here myself. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately – second guessing everything. It had started when Maddie, my wife of almost fifty years, had passed away a few months ago. Seven months, three days and fourteen hours to be exact, but who’s counting.

Maddie had told me I should attend the 50th anniversary celebration of my university graduating class, but I hadn’t replied to the invitation. Yet, here I was, standing in line. Maybe I was hoping that it would make her proud of me.

That’s all I’d ever wanted – my whole life – for people to be proud of me. At first, it was my parents, then my various bosses over the years, and then, most importantly, Maddie. I wish I had done better.

“Jay, Jay Tremblay, is that you?” someone said as they came toward me.

No one had called me Jay in years. My real name is Jasper but everyone at university had called me Jay and I’d never bothered to correct them. Jay sounded cooler than Jasper, and back in those days, I desperately wanted to be cool.

“Hi Neil,” I said. I couldn’t recall his last name, but I remembered him from our Calculus study group. He was accompanied by a lady I sort of recognized, but I couldn’t remember her name at all.

“You remember Barb, don’t you?” Neil said.

“Sure I do,” I replied.

I’m sure it wouldn’t be the last time I lied about remembering someone tonight.

Neil got permission from the people behind me to butt in line. Since we were almost at the back of the line anyway, no one seemed to object.

Most of the people here knew nothing about our reunion; they had come because it was the grand opening of the club.

“I didn’t see your name on the Facebook page as one of the attendees,” Neil said.

“I only decided at the last minute to come,” I explained. “I wasn’t even sure I was in the right place.”

Barb pulled a small pamphlet from her purse and handed it to me. It had a brief description of each of the clubs within the whole complex. One club featured Pop music, the second featured Country & Western, another Folk Music, the fourth Rhythm & Blues, and the last club featured music from the Sixties.

“We were told we could enter through whichever club we liked,” Barb said, “but our whole graduating class is supposed to meet in the Sixties club at midnight. Judy has reserved a special section just for us. You remember Judy Prescott, right?”

“Of course I do,” I said.

This time, I wasn’t lying. Judy and I had dated while at university, but had gone our separate ways after graduation. We hadn’t spoken to each other since then. I felt the tension grow in my chest and I suddenly wondered if I was about to have my first heart attack.

“She’s one of the owners of the club,” Neil said. “That’s one of the reasons we’re having our reunion here.”

The line continued to shuffle forward until we found ourselves at the entrance.

“Fifty bucks,” the bouncer at the door said.

I glared at him. “Fifty bucks just to get in the door?”

“It’s opening night, old-man. You could have saved yourself twenty bucks if you’d purchased your ticket in advance.” He flashed a fake smile. “And there’s no senior’s discount.”

If I was twenty years younger, I would have kicked his ass for his attitude. Okay, maybe fifty years younger.

It was too late to turn back now. I pulled the money from my wallet and handed it to him. When I stepped through the door, a pretty girl handed me a pair of sunglasses.

“What are these for?” I asked.

“For the laser light show,” the girl said. “You have to wear them to get the full effect.”

I took the glasses and put them in the front vest pocket of my sports-jacket.

Neil, Barb and I made our way into the club. I let them take the lead as I had no idea where I was going.

The club was much larger than it appeared from the outside. There were numerous U-shaped booths that could accommodate about eight people each, all facing an enormous stage. Waitresses moved quickly from table to table serving drinks.

The floor of the club sloped gently from back to front so all of the guests, even those near the back, could easily see the performers. There was a huge dance floor just in front of the stage, although the people up there didn’t appear to be dancing, just jumping up and down to the music. I suddenly felt even older than I was.

As the music continued, we walked through the club looking for others from our class. We found a few familiar faces near the back and joined them in their booth. I waved a hello at them, but it was too loud to carry on a conversation with anyone other than Neil and Barb.

We shared stories about the ups and downs of our careers since we’d graduated. Neil and Barb had been retired for about twelve years now.

“How about you?” Neil asked.

“I didn’t retire until I was sixty-eight,” I said. “I owned a small legal software company and ended up selling it to a big U.S. firm. They kept me around for a few years after that on a consulting basis to help with the transition. It was good money and it helped us build up a bit more of a nest-egg.”

“We decided to retire early,” Barb said, “and spend more of our kids’ inheritance.” She gave a sly smile. “How about you? Are you married? Have kids?”

“My wife passed away a few months ago,” I mumbled.

“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Barb said.

“We had three kids together,” I continued. “Michael, our oldest, is over forty years old now and doing quite well. He works in the banking industry, like his mom used to. Danny is three years younger, and is quite the entrepreneur. He’s always starting up some new venture of one type or another. Sarah, our baby, is ten years younger than Danny. She was our surprise baby and she’s got some challenges ahead of her.”

I could see that Neil and Barb wondered what those challenges were, but I didn’t want to get into it. I was pleased when they didn’t pursue it and changed the subject.

“Neil and I have been doing a lot of travelling the last few years,” Barb said. “We’ve taken a few river cruises through Europe. We’re planning to do another one next year. How about you?”

“We were planning to do some travelling,” I said, “but Maddie got sick before we really got to.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Neil said.

The event seemed to be turning into a pity party, with me playing the lead. I felt like I was killing off every topic of conversation.

“There’s no reason to be sad,” I said. “Maddie told me that her life had turned out better than she could have ever imagined. She said she’d felt she’d been really lucky her whole life and accomplished all of the important things.”

I could see they wondered how someone whose life had been cut so short could consider herself lucky. I have to admit, I wondered myself. I felt like I’d let Maddie down by not giving her more.

Our conversation was interrupted by the emcee on the stage.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, we now have a special feature for you! It’s time to put on the special glasses you were given when you entered the building tonight.”

I reached into my suit jacket to get my glasses. Barb reached into her huge purse and pulled out the glasses for herself and Neil.

The emcee continued to fire up the crowd. “I’d like to introduce a DJ we’ve brought in from Los Angeles for a unique performance. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you DJ Vision!”
The music changed to a loud heart-thumping bass and drum rhythm. All eyes turned to the center of the stage which slowly started rising, illuminating the performer. He had a large conglomeration of equipment surrounding him, consisting of turntables, synthesizers and computer screens. He was working feverishly to keep all of the high-tech equipment in synch.

Suddenly a series of laser lights in a rainbow of colors appeared in the center of the stage below the DJ. They seemed to be transforming or building something, almost like watching a 3D-printer build an object out of thin air.

It took the crowd a while to realize what was happening, but we all seemed to recognize the shape being built at the same time. It was a woman. First, there were just the feet, and then the legs, and they were dancing to the rhythm of the music. As the image grew, it showed the hips of the woman who was wearing a red sequined party dress. I was sure I had seen the dress before.

The image of the woman continued to grow onstage. Strangely, I found myself attracted to her, even though I knew it was just a 3D image.

When the lasers started to build her face, I felt a weird sensation overtake me. I knew this woman. When the lasers built her nose and her eyes, it removed all doubt. How could this be happening? My mouth hung open in amazement.

The woman dancing on stage was my wife, Maddie.