Elf: Atlantic-City {Dough}

Narrated 'deed' of an American 'prince' whose daring magic in Atlantic City yields a 'human race' expression for fortune-emojis.

An Atlantic City 'faerie-tale' inspired by the American imagination-film It Could Happen to You (Nicolas Cage). Thanks for reading (and Happy Holidays!), 

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Let me tell you the story of my encounter with the American socialite-businessman John Gage in Atlantic City which led me to a life-awakening. You see, I'd been making comics-tales online about blood-diamond operations in Northern Ireland (United Kingdom) and managing the Porcellian chess-club in New England and decided to take a vacation to the iconic casino-resort entertainment center in North America. Atlantic City is the Western Vegas, and there's really nothing like it, and it really does remind you why the spacious environments of vacation-tourism draws the human fascination with metaphysical fortune and 'cool' comforts. I didn't expect to run into the iconic John Gage of Forbes who made me an offer which would alter my entire 'species' consciousness.

My name's Amlan Satan, and I took this Atlantic City trip in the summertime, hoping to enjoy some 'cool' experiences in Caesar's Palace (perhaps!) and maybe even meet a nice young woman to marry. That's what my mother would've wanted, as she'd always say, "You surf on the Internet too much and don't think enough about Disney-World or Thanksgiving."

When I got to Atlantic City, all I thought about was my mother's 'wise' advice and what she revealed/illuminated about the simple magic of everyday family-values oriented wisdom. Maybe I'd been spending too much time with chess/comics and simply needed a 'cool' Boardwalk-stroller experience and needed to blend the metaphysical experience of casino-resort entertainment 'photography' with human philosophy about social exchange in an 'Earth' environment.

Just imagine if a host of Martians descended on Atlantic City and decided to create a telepathic mind-control invasion of the human race of capitalism worry and wouldn't desist in this fascist design unless a human 'champion' of chess managed to achieve a stalemate-draw condition of chess against the Martians...in Atlantic City! Would we start to conceive of how the human race of capitalism expression was all about excellence in life's strange intuitions? That's what I thought about in Atlantic City, as an 'Earth-prince' my mother hoped would become a 'family-man' of storytelling and not just a wandering chess-artist of the cyber-world(s).

JOHN GAGE: I'm giving you a special proposal, young prince, to trade your special Cunningham 'Strike-Force' sports-card.

ME: Why...I'm just here for the Madden video-game mini-conference during which I'm boasting my Cunningham-Viking card!

JOHN GAGE: I know, and that 'Upper-Deck' sports-transfer market Super Bowl ambition(s) 'gem' is something I need to own.

ME: What's in it for me...if you get the card (now)?
JOHN GAGE: I'll introduce you to a 'beautiful' Caesar's concierge, a single-woman looking for love/marriage; and movie-night!

I didn't know what to say? That Upper-Deck Cunningham-Viking gem Strike-Force post-Philly career Super Bowl ambitions-card that this American 'rich-man' (John Gage) wanted me to 'gift' him, which I otherwise brought with me simply to 'show-off' to friends/encounters in Caesar's (Atlantic City) was something I'd now planned to share with the mini-Madden football video-game 'event'/conference I realized the Palace was hosting.

Life's so much about fortune and chance encounters and the odd experience of sharing/knowing your treasures in life and what you 'really' value, so getting this 'strange' marriage-meeting proposition from the iconic John Gage made me wonder if that Cunningham-Viking 'gem' was worth 'sacrificing' for the sake of moving on the wisdom-advice of my mother, to forsake just a life of arts/chess in favor of a life of American 'living' family conversation (hmm).

SHELBYE: John Gage sent me to knock on your door, Satan.

ME: Thanks...come in...gosh, you're beautiful!

SHELBYE: You've got a 'fantastic' suite here at Caesar's Amlan!

ME: Thanks...John Gage paid for it, you know.

SHELBYE: So, are you 'gifting' him your Cunningham-Viking (Upper-Deck) treasure for this Atlantic City dreamscape, Satan?
ME: Nah...I've come up with a 'bright' maneuver (instead).

JOHN GAGE: What's this 'bright' maneuver Shelbye tells me about concerning the Upper-Deck sports-card treasure you owe?

ME: If I manage to make a 'cool' social-media post about your diamond-investments in America, you'd not need the card!

JOHN GAGE: What do you mean?
ME: I'm a comic-book artist/writer; I can cast you as an 'adult' Richie-Rich with diamond-insurance 'chess' intelligence.

JOHN GAGE: In Atlantic City?

ME: Yes...and this way, I can 'keep' Shelbye...as your reciprocity-expression.

JOHN GAGE: Alright.

SHELBYE: So, he let you keep the Cunningham 'Strike-Force' treasure, Amlan?
ME: Yeah...and you're my 'real' prize for this Caesar's event now, Shelbye.

SHELBYE: What's the message here, Satan?
ME: It's what my mother would've mentioned for her 'wisdom' --- "Keep your treasures, lest you keep some dough."

Shelbye/I married and had a son (Damian) who became a fan of football, and I'd share with him the special 'magic-tale' of how that iconic vacation-trip to Atlantic City yielded a 'cool' trade-tale of sportsmanship, chess, social-media journalism, and perhaps the odd serendipity of discovering 'real' magic in a land of otherwise great commercial 'ambition' friction.

JOHN GAGE: I got a great social-media public 'journal' expression from that Atlantic City 'conference' and won a Faberge.

PUBLICIST: Seems you've won some kind of 'Monopoly' card.

JOHN GAGE: Yes!

My mother was laid-to-rest in the Atlantic City cemetery in the area she once worked as a loving waitress. The irony of all this was that what I'd remember most is that her 'wisdom' inspired me some pretty cool timely 'confidence' art to yield my newfound Catholic spirits regarding discovering love in a life of 'complexity' expression.

SHELBYE: Even a Martian would envy you, Satan!
ME: I know...but it's not because of Cunningham...or Gage...it's because of you, darling.

SHELBYE: Very cool.

I still wrote comics-works/art and managed my cyber chess-club in New England, but that 'encounter' in Atlantic City altered my brains, and I'd learn that the real 'value' of my Strike-Force transfer-market pro-football spirits card (Upper Deck) was what it brought to my 'sense(s)'...of 'human' distance(s).

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures" (William Shakespeare).

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)