“Your ambassador is making an ass of himself,” he said to Thomas Hudson.
“I’ll be a sad son of a bitch,” Thomas Hudson said.
“No. No. Be serious. Let me tell you. Now this is absolutely between you and me.”
“Drink up. I don’t want to hear about it.”
“Well, you should hear about it. And you should do something about it.”
“Aren’t you cold?” Thomas Hudson asked him. “In that shirt and the light trousers?”
“I’m never cold.”
You’re never sober either, Thomas Hudson thought. You start to drink in that little bar by the house and by the time you come here for the first one of the day you’re potted. You probably didn’t even notice the weather when you dressed. Yes, he thought. And what about yourself? What time of day did you take your first drink this morning and how many have you had before this first one? Don’t you cast the first stone at any rummies. It’s not rummies, he thought. I don’t mind him being a rummy. It is just that he is a damned bore. You don’t have to pity bores and you do not have to be kind to them. Come on, he said. You’re going to have fun today. Relax and enjoy it.
“I’ll roll you for this one,” he said.
“Very well,” said Ignacio. “You roll.”
He rolled three kings in one, stood on them, naturally, and won.
That was pleasant. It couldn’t make the drink taste any better. But it was a pleasant feeling to roll three kings in one and he enjoyed winning from Ignacio Natera Revello because he was a snob and a bore and winning from him gave him some useful significance.
“Now we’ll roll for this one,” Ignacio Natera Revello said. He’s the type of snob and bore, that you always think of by all his three names, Thomas Hudson thought, just as you think of him as a snob and a bore. It’s probably like people who put III after their names. Thomas Hudson the third. Thomas Hudson the turd.
“You’re not Ignacio Natera Revello the third are you by any chance?”
“Of course not. You know my father’s name very well.”
“That’s right. Of course I do.”
“You know both my brothers’ names. You know my grandfather’s name. Don’t be silly.”
“I’ll try not to be,” Thomas Hudson said. “I’ll try quite hard.”
“Do,” Ignacio Natera Revello said. “It will be good for you.”
Concentrating, working the leather cup in his best form, doing his hardest and best work of the morning, he rolled four jacks all day.
“My poor dear friend,” Thomas Hudson said. He shook the dice in the heavy leather cup and loved the sound of them. “Such kind good dice. Such rich-feeling and laudable dice,” he said.
“Go on and throw them and don’t be silly.”
Thomas Hudson rolled out three kings and a pair of tens on the slightly dampened bar.
“Want to bet?”
“We have a bet,” Ignacio Natera Revello said. “The second round of drinks.”
Thomas Hudson shook the dice lovingly again and rolled a queen and a jack.
“Want to bet now?”
“The odds are still greatly in your favor.”
“OK. I’ll just take the drinks then.”
He rolled a king and an ace, feeling them come out of the shaker solidly and proudly.
“You lucky sod.”
“Another double frozen daiquiri without sugar and whatever Ignacio wants,” Thomas Hudson said. He was beginning to feel fond of Ignacio.
“Look, Ignacio,” he said. “I never heard of anyone looking at the world through green-colored glasses. Rose colored, yes. Green colored, no. Doesn’t it give everything a sort of grassy look? Don’t you feel as though you were on the turf? Do you never feel as though you had been turned out to pasture?”
“This is the most restful tint for the eyes. It’s been proven by the greatest optometrists.”
“Do you run around much with the greatest optometrists? They must be a pretty wild bunch.”
“I don’t know any optometrists personally except my own. But he is familiar with the findings of the others. He is the best in New York.”
“I want to know the best in London.”
“I know the best optometrist in London. But the very best is in New York. I’ll be glad to give you a card to him.”
“Let’s roll for this one.”
“Very well. You roll back to me.”
Thomas Hudson picked up the leather cup and felt the heavy confident weight of the big Floridita dice. He barely stirred them in order not to irritate their kindness and generosity and rolled out three kings, a ten, and a queen.
“Three kings in one. The clásico.”
“You are a bastard,” Ignacio Natera Revello said and rolled an ace, two queens, and two jacks.
“Another double frozen daiquiri absolutely without sugar and whatever Don Ignacio wishes,” Thomas Hudson said to Pedrico. Pedrico made his smile and the drink. He set down the mixer before Thomas Hudson with at least another full daiquiri in the bottom of it.
“I could do that to you all day,” Thomas Hudson said to Ignacio.
“The horrible thing is that I’m afraid you could.”
“The dice love me.”
“It’s good something does.”
Thomas Hudson felt the faint prickle go over his scalp that he had felt many times in the last month.
“How do you mean that, Ignacio?” he asked very politely.
“I mean that I certainly don’t, with you taking all my money.”
“Oh,” said Thomas Hudson. “Here’s to your good health.”
“I hope you die,” Ignacio Natera Revello said.
Thomas Hudson felt the prickle go over his scalp again. He reached his left hand against the bar where Ignacio Natera Revello could not see it and tapped softly three times with the ends of his fingers.
“That’s nice of you,” he said. “Do you want to roll for another round?”
“No,” the other said. “I’ve lost quite enough money to you for one day.”
“You haven’t lost any money. Only drinks.”
“I pay my bar bill here.”
“Ignacio,” Thomas Hudson said. “That’s the third slightly edgy thing you’ve said.”
“Well, I am edgy. If you’d had someone be as damned rude to you as your bloody ambassador was to me.”
“I still don’t want to hear about it.”
“There you are. And you call me edgy. Look, Thomas. We’re good friends. I’ve known you and your boy Tom for years. By the way how is he?”
“He’s dead.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
“That’s all right,” Thomas Hudson said. “I’ll buy you a drink.”
“I’m so very sorry. Please know how terribly sorry I am. How was he killed?”
“I don’t know yet,” Thomas Hudson said. “I’ll let you know when I know.”
“Where was it?”
“I don’t know that. I know where he was flying but I don’t know anything else.”
“Did he get into London and see any of our friends?”
“Oh yes. He’d been in town several times and to White’s each time and he’d seen whoever was around.”
“Well, that’s a comfort in a way.”
“A what?”
“I mean it’s nice to know he saw our friends.”
“Certainly. I’m sure he had a good time. He always had an awfully good time.”
“Should we drink to him?”
“Shit, no,” Thomas Hudson said. He could feel it all coming up; everything he had not thought about; all the grief he had put away and walled out and never even thought of on the trip nor all this morning. “Let’s not.”