"What will you do next? What do you envision as your next adventure?" Brad asked Mahony, he sat with his back against the bar and started people watching.

"I don't know, I just," Mahony rubbed the back of his neck, "it just isn't fair. I've done everything I'm supposed to do, followed the rules, worked hard; hell, I didn't even give in to temptations, not much anyway ... look where it got me," he said exhaling heavily.

"Man, Dave," Brad turned his head and eyed Mahony sideways, "don't tell me you've never heard people say that life isn't fair?"

"Of course, I've heard that before."

"Then what's the problem?"

"There's no satisfaction," Mahony finally said after a long pause. He didn't want to say it out loud, he didn't even want to admit to himself even though he knew the answer ever since he got to the In-between.

"What? Not seeing Lisa punished?"

"That's a big one but it's about," Mahony let out a breath, "I'm that guy that saved the best for last, you know, saving that favorite piece of a meal to eat at the very end."

"You've saved and saved and now you didn't get to eat it," Brad finished the thought for Mahony. "What have you been saving to savor?"

Mahony smirked bitterly. "That's the problem. I haven't even gotten to the meal yet. I've just been preparing, waiting for the right moment to start cooking."

"I hate to say it but you waited a tad too long to get started."

"That's stating the obvious." Mahony rubbed the back of his neck again.

"I think I know what your real problem is," Brad said, "you still don't know what that perfect meal looked like, don't you?" Mahony didn't answer. "I knew it!" Brad turned towards Mahony, "There are no perfect meals, not unless you start cooking."

"I don't follow," Mahony said.

"How are you going to perfect it if you don't ever start? There's never going to be the right time or the right conditions. The way I see it is you either roll with what you've got or you," Brad spread his hands at Mahony, "ended up sitting here, in a bar of the In-between, lamenting over the unfairness of it all."

"If you have it all figured out, how did you ended up here, in a bar of the In-between, sitting with a guy bitching and moping over not eating that favorite piece?" Mahony said, although not intended as a jab at Brad but as soon as he'd said it, he felt he'd done Brad dirty.

"The truth is, I'm greedy," Brad admitted.

"You don't have to—"

"It's fine, it's something I need to come to terms with as well," Brad said. "I couldn't get enough of the experience. Unlike you I want to try all the meals that're available and eat the best piece first."

"I see."

"It's exciting, when that flavor hit, god, what an experience," Brad said, eyes shining with possibilities. I'm already thinking maybe I should be a high-powered general in my next adventure, calling the shots to life and death situations. A knife in my back, plunging to my death, I didn't see it coming but what if I can, what'll that be like?"

"You can't be serious. You really want to experience that?" Mahony said with no small amount of apprehension unable to reconcile the horror of the scenario Brad just described in his own mind.

"Don't get me wrong, I've been in the trenches before in one of these rides but I think I've never been the one strategizing and making the difficult decisions," Brad said.

"Each to their own, I guess," Mahony said noncommittally.

"That's just it, how do you know if you won't like it and be good at it if you don't make the attempt?" Brad said. "What's the harm?"

"What's the harm?! The harm is, we come back with unsavory memories that's what," Mahony said. "Do you think I like to remember the moment when Lisa plunged her knife into me?"

"Yeah, that sucks but I bet you've learned something new," Brad said.

"Right," Mahony snorted, "know to recognize the crazies sooner."

"There you go," Brad said. "The more you've experienced the better to recognize the signs."

"You know, Brad, you're a smart guy," Mahony said.

"You're not too bad yourself," Brad reciprocated. "You just need to live your adventures."

"Here, take this." Mahony fished out one of the two coins he still got stored in the zipper pocket of his wallet and slid it across the bar top towards Brad. He explained about the coin, how he got it and how to use it.

"What good is it if you can't remember anything," Brad said looking at the coin sitting on the bar top, making no move to pick it up.

"I think I've worked it out," Mahony said, "it's intuition, let your intuition guide you. That's how I was able to delay everything by at least six months."

"Oh no ...," Brad started chuckling, "don't tell me, you've used it and you've done exactly what I had said earlier, you'd gone back and experienced Lisa all over again, haven't you? Oh my god, Dave. What were you thinking?"

"Alright, rub it in, why don't you," Mahony said sheepishly. "Like you've said, I've gone through it, I've some experience, that's why I'm telling you to listen to your gut if you do use the coin."

"I don't know," Brad said, "we get to choose our own adventures here, what good will a coin like this do us?"

"It's my gift to you," Mahony said, "what's the harm in holding onto it? You can always give it away like the guy did me."

Brad picked up the weighty coin and expertly rolled it on top of his fingers and in one flip of his hand the coin vanished in the same sleight of hand trick he did with Lisa's fake diamond pendant. "Alright, Dave. I'll hold on to it."

Brad decided to paint the town, or Main Street, red after he and Mahony had a few more rounds at the bar. After Brad left, Mahony moved to a booth seat at the back corner of the bar. He didn't want to leave the comfort and the coziness of the bar yet. He didn't know how long he sat there or how many times he looped, when he came out of the latest round of looping, he made up his mind on something. He said a quick goodbye to Mona before he left the bar.

Mahony walked down Main Street seeking out the person that he's to pass the wishing coin on. He went with his intuition. He decided the next person that met his eyes and held it that'd be the person to pass the coin to. The task proved harder to accomplish than Mahony first thought. He wandered down the street trying to meet the eyes of passerby, the more Mahony searched the more he realized that the people he came upon were either focused singularly in seeking out merriment from food and drinks or they were absorbed within themselves. He didn't know how long he'd walked up and down the street until he met the eyes of a red headed woman in a gingham dress.

The woman stared back at Mahony, her gaze didn't waver and stood waiting for Mahony to go closer. "Hi, I'm Mahony, David," he introduced himself to the woman."

"Pauline," the woman said simply.

"I noticed that you seemed to be one of the few that weren't coming and going to visit any of these establishments," Mahony started lamely.

"I'm waiting for someone. What's it to you?" Pauline said.

"Sorry, I didn't mean anything, I just wanted to ask you if you'd like a wishing coin," Mahony said. He pulled out his last coin from his pants pocket and show it to Pauline.

Pauline snorted. "You're kidding right? A wishing coin?" she said cynically. "If we're not where we're right now, I'd tell you to take a hike."

"Didn't mean to bother you, sorry," Mahony said. Mahony was about to beat a hasty retreat giving Pauline's gruff attitude, clearly his plan of leaving things to kismet didn't seem to be working as he had thought.

"Hey, wait a minute," Pauline said. "I didn't say I wasn't interested."

Mahony quickly explained about the coin and reassured her numerous times the legitimacy of the coin before Pauline accepted it.

Mona watched the exchange between Mahony and Pauline from inside the shopfront where Pauline stood. When Mahony vanished amongst the crowd, a knowing smile surfaced on her face. "He'll be back," she murmured to herself. "They always do."

#

Mahonystood at the front yard of his childhood home, Dorothy was with him, they wereplaying. For a brief second, Mahony stopped to stare at Dorothy's carefree formas she hoped and skipped over the sprinkler, sunlight bounced off the sparkling,rainbow colored mist. Mesmerized, he felt something in his mind shift; beforehe could register the feeling, he was already running towards Dorothy jumpingthrough the rainbow.

End