James Axler – Keepers of the Sun

“Only men?” Krysty asked.

“Of course!”

“Well, just this once I’ll go along with your male chauvinism without a protest.”

“Seconded,” Mildred said. “Very high on the list of things that I don’t want to see.”

Ryan shook his head, pouring some fresh orange juice. “I don’t think any of us want to come.”

He turned to Yashimoto. “Can you just give our excuses to Mashashige?”

Doc nodded. “Correct, Ryan. Tell your master that we plead a subsequent engagement.”

The samurai looked puzzled. “You do not comprehend. Not a matter of choosing for you. Lord Mashashige invites, and you must all come. All four of you. It will happen as soon as the sun reaches the highest point in its journey across the celestial heavens before it begins to sink once more toward its resting in the far skies of the west.”

“Noon,” Ryan said.

DURING THE MORNING Doc asked for and obtained a set of mah-jongg tiles, offering to teach the others how to play that most subtle of games.

Ryan, Krysty and Mildred finally agreed to give it a go, sitting at a green-baize-covered table in a room with slitted windows along its northern flank. A trio of young geisha came in and watched, giggling immoderately at the attempts of the gaijin to master the complexities of the game.

After a while one of them got bored and went to sit with Jak, who was flipping idly through a pile of pre-dark magazines, each one wrapped in clear plastic to protect its brittle rarity.

“I thought that mah-jongg was a Chinese game, Doc,” Mildred said as the old man opened a beautiful inlaid box of rosewood, with patterns of mother-of-pearl on its lid. He revealed the rows of ivory-and-bamboo tiles, all of them delicately engraved with stylized designs.

“It was originally, but it spread all across the East and then to many other countries.”

“Hope it’s easy to learn, Doc,” Ryan said. “Took me long enough to master five-card draw.”

It took all of his mental powers to follow Doc’s instructions. The old-timer’s mind was never known for its crystal clarity, and explaining convoluted rules didn’t find him at his very best.

“Now, when you have a pung of red dragons and a pair of each of the winds, then No, I believe that the hand called Gates of Heaven is alsoor is that the Wriggling Snake?”

“I’ve got a kong of circles, characters and bamboos, Doc,” Krysty said. “Now, if I get one of each of the dragons plus a pair, is that hand called Dragonfly?”

“Yes, my dear young lady, it is. Excellent. We make progress here.”

“Triple Knitting is half-limit and the Heavenly Twins are full-limit?” Mildred looked at Doc. “That right?”

“No! It most certainly is not correct.” With a scant heartbeat’s hesitation, he said, “Yes, it is correct. Yes, it certainly is.”

“Is the Three Scholars better than the Four Blessings, Doc?” Ryan asked, puzzled.

“No. But in the Four Blessings you must beware of konging the winds.”

Mildred and Krysty exchanged glances and both of them started laughing.

“One thing, Doc,” Krysty spluttered, “mah-jongg sure takes your mind off any other worries.”

J.B. had also been reading some of the predark periodicals, vanishing into his own world when he discovered that several of them were blaster mags.

“Interesting bit on Baby Brownings,” be said, looking up at the burst of laughter. “And some superb pix of the Rossi snub-nosed revolvers.”

Jak glanced across. “Pix here of famine in China. And Ruskies testing bombs in Tibet. Also big issue about taking chunks national parks to build redoubts. Folks then said was raping land. And war would never happen.”

“War always happen,” said the young geisha who was sitting so close to Jak that she was almost in his lap, her almond eyes staring into his ruby eyes.

Ryan stood, checking his wrist chron. “You’re not wrong there, miss. Ten to twelve. Best get ready to go and watch this chilling.”

“But we have scarcely scratched the surface as far as the mah-jongg is concerned.” Doc looked down at the scattered tiles, like spilled shards of bright porcelain, brilliant against the dull green baize.

“We can play two-handed, can’t we, Doc?” Mildred asked. “While you and the others areaway for a while.”