“The Urge”

By Ron Stultz

Chapter 1 

She has waited, tossing and turning, for hours, to hear her son leave for work and finally, she hears the front door close, his car startup and pull away from the house.  She has not slept.  She has not really slept for weeks and it takes all her strength to sit up.  She is so tired, but her mind has been racing all night.  “Must make this right. I am a bad person. Just make it right and I will stop.  I promise!”, she thinks over and over and over again, looping.

She dresses slowly, moving slowly but there is no time or strength for makeup or food.  She heads for her son’s desk. Begins to open one drawer after another until she finds it.  She hesitates for a moment but the loop in her head does not stop: “Make it right. Today can be my lucky day. I just need one good hit, one jackpot, and everything will be ok” and she looks at her son’s signature on various pieces of paper and traces over them, over and over again until she is comfortable, she can forge it. When she wins today, she will replace all the money she is going to take out of his bank account and although a check will be missing, he will never know she borrowed the money. 

“She is a bad person”, over and over again, it loops in her head. “Have to make it right.” 

Her heart is going to burst out of her chest when she walks into the bank to cash the check.  They do not know her there and it could be a problem but the teller does not question and hands over the $6000.  “She is a bad person” loops as she walks out of the bank. 

The trip to the casino seems to take forever.  She has only been to this casino a couple of times and it has never paid but one of her friends has told her, the casino changed ownership and now pays more often.  

As she drives along, smoking one cigarette after another to calm her nerves, she thinks about the bankruptcy proceedings next week.  $100,000 in credit card debt she will never pay.  Oh, how it had hurt her husband and he never suspecting a thing all the time she was using up their savings, his savings.  “Have to make it right. One good jackpot and I promise I will stop.” 

Now and again, she cries from exhaustion and the tears cloud her vision of the road.  Sometimes she thinks of just running the car off the road, maybe into a tree.  “I am a bad person” the loop keeps running in her head. 

Finally, she pulls into the casino parking lot and quickly is out of her car and into the bright, noisy, slot machine filled, casino itself.  It is much larger than she remembers with so many slot machines. “Where are the high dollar machines?” she asks the security guard standing by the door.  He points and she is off, watching others play all the while, looking to see how they are doing as an indication of what she can expect.  Not many jackpots it seems.    

She finds the high dollar slot area and frantically walks around and around looking at the various machines. Which one to play?  Many are already in use by other players but she finds a $5 machine and sits down in front of it.  Once more she prays.  “Please God, let me have this one jackpot to make it all right and I promise I will stop. I know my husband says I need help, counseling, but I don’t.  I just need one jackpot and I will stop.  I can stop, I know it.” 

She opens up her purse and takes out 5 one hundred dollar bills and feeds them into the machine.  Luck.  Just needs some luck for a change.  It has been so long since she had a jackpot.  It has to happen, just has to happen today, tonight, now.  “She has to make it right.” 

The wheels of the machine spin and stop: nothing. She spins again and again and still the machine does not pay her anything at all. “This is good”, she thinks, "As if it does not pay out small amounts perhaps it is going to pay out just one large one and I can get it, if I try and am lucky. I have to make this right.” 

More bills come out of the purse and are feed into the machine and still the machine refuses to give her anything and then a $500 hit. “$500? I put in a thousand at least! Enough of this machine”, cashes out and leaves the high roller area. She had noticed a row of penny, multiple pay line, progressive machines entering the casino and their $425,000 amazing jackpot and heads to them.  Finding an open machine, she feeds in $300 and begins to bet max and spin. 

A cocktail waitress comes by offering free drinks but she does not have time for that.  She stares straight ahead, spinning the wheels and watching them stop without giving her so much as a dime.  

 Chapter 2

It is mid-morning when the notion, the urge, of going gambling occurs to him out of nowhere.  He had not been to a casino in a while, could use the break and with June on another of her world travel trips, the timing is perfect. The ‘management transition period’ clause of the sale of his company was almost over and there has not really been any problems only he could solve, in days.  They had his cell phone number if they need him. 

At home, he gathers what he needs for the trip, planning to spend the night to make the trip, ride, easier. Once in the car, he thinks if he needs anything else and then an urge to take his camera case and goes to get it.  Then to the bank for cash and he is finally on the road for the 3-hour trip using the back roads and he always takes the back roads through the farm country and the small towns on any leisure trip. The roads are mostly empty except for the occasional farm equipment moving from field to field or an Amish buggy moving slowly, mostly on the shoulder of the road. He does not speed. With the sale of his company, he no longer has to rush doing anything and he isn’t going to.  

The season has changed since the last time he went to this casino with the fields now cut low for the winter and green has been replaced by stubble and brown. The small towns appear to be unchanged although a small house, right on the shoulder of the road, has become a store selling the new issue quarters from every state. He cannot imagine.

 Between towns and periods of when he has turned off the music, he thinks once again about slot machine programming and how he is slowly getting a feel for the patterns that all regulated machines follow. ‘Duck Ponds’, Kids Carnival Duck Ponds: ‘Game’. Small rubber ducks circulating around and around in an oval channel of water, each loop, into a small tunnel and back out again. For a dime or a quarter, a child gets to pick up a duck as it floats by, hand it to an attendant who then reads the prized defined on the bottom: a pencil; an eraser; a Chinese finger puller or some other small toy that costs half of the cost of playing the game. But always in the pool of ducks are 2 ducks with larger prizes marked on the bottom. One a small stuffed animal and the other, a giant stuffed animal which is the draw of the game for the kids. They want the largest stuffed animal hanging above the oval of water. Slot machines are carnival duck pond games but with most of the ducts having nothing written on the bottom and the machine does the actual, random draw, from all the ducks circulating or combinations of symbols on the spinning wheels. In the carnival duck pond game, the ducks in circulation never vary in the quantity or range of prizes but slot machines are more complicated than that. In the carnival duck pond game, all ducks go into a tunnel and then back out again but in the slot machine, it is in the tunnel, the place between spins that a computer follows a program. Based primarily on the amount of money the machine has taken in during any given period or ‘session’ and the money it is paid out in the same session, it adjusts the number of ducks that will be randomly selected from as well as the prize amounts assigned to each duck. The larger the difference between money in and money out, either the fewer ducks or larger amounts assigned to the randomly selected ducks. The number of ducks and values assigned are program parameters of each machine and these vary from machine to machine.

 John can see it, understands it but also understands sitting down at any one machine, he has no way of knowing how large or small, the difference between money in and money out for a particular machine is or how long a machine as been in an difference range long enough to have started reducing the number of ducks the machine will randomly pull from or increasing the odds of a good size payout or even the jackpot or the highest amount a machine can pay.

 For John, ‘gambling’ is not about the money but rather man against machine and he trying to sense how many ducks are circulating and their possible values.  With the machine making a random draw, even with a reduced number of ducks, random draws could easily have him put thousands and never get the random draw of the good amount or “hit” or even better, a jackpot ‘duck’. As any mount over $1200 is taxable, it must be hand paid by an attendant and income tax information collected from the winner. Anything over $1200 is considered a ‘hit’.

 When John pulls up to the front the casino hotel, he is met by the valet parking attendants. They all know his name, his large tips. It has been a while but he likes feeling special and is known in the gambling industry as ‘a whale’, and gets special attention from the hotel and the casino.

 Entering the hotel, he is met by another attendant that takes his luggage and guides him to the penthouse suite. As he enters, it is as he remembered when he was here last. The massive living room that could easily host 30 or more, complete with a baby grand piano, a dining area with a table and chairs for 12, a stocked liquor cabinet, a massive media center and along an outer wall, full floor to ceiling windows overlooking the city. Best casino hotel outside of a few in Vegas and he has been to many casinos over the years. 

Left alone, John sits down in the living room and checks his email and lights a cigarette. Really has been a while. Maybe the last time was one of their early Christmas visits where he always brought a little Christmas tree and they dined on room service, slept late and now and again June could be naughty and drape herself on the top of the baby grand nude.  

It is almost 6PM. As the casino floor shuts down for cleaning and machine maintenance at 4am each day, he has plenty of time. No rush. And goes to the refrigerator and pulls out a bottled water. A full liquor cabinet but John does not drink. 

He smokes another cigarette and thinks about the sale of his company. Going to be strange not going to work or that is at least the idea and he is not sure about it. What will he do now? Who will he be? All those hours he plowed into the design and development of his software for his own use, managing investments, for his family and how it had cost him, one, very severe, mental breakdown. Months and months of working 9 till 5 at this take-home pay job and then from midnight until 4, over and over again, adding, refining, testing. 5 years of effort and now, he had just signed over the rights to the software that has become standard in all major brokerage houses in the United States in preparation of meeting the Federal law mandate of 2008. 

What next? June travels but he has no interest. He is or was, a workaholic. What next? 

The phone rings. It is the slot host. 

“No, everything is fine. Thanks for the suite.” 

“Yes, June is fine. On another of her trips. In India right now.” 

“Yep, alone.” 

“No, really don’t need anything. No, no dinner in tonight, but thanks.” 

“Well, that would be great, see you later then.” 

The phone call has brought him back to where he is and feeling the urge, gets up takes shower and changes clothes.

When he steps off the elevator at the casino floor, he is blasted by light and sound. Every slot machine plays a little tune or makes some sort of noise each spin of the wheels and there is the incessant ‘winner’ ringing bells and flashing lights everwhere. But under all that mechanical is the loud underbelly of mixed conversations, laughter, cheering: the crowd.  

He pauses for a moment, not ready to enter the fray but then the urge and he is off. It is a long way to the high roller corner of the casino and as he walks along he watches players sitting square up in front of large and smaller machines, wheels just spinning all sort of symbols or images of farmers or fish or some mythical creature.   

Past several bars mostly full of floor cocktail waitresses getting their floor order drinks filled, a fast-food section, a couple of small stages that will have a singer or band playing later, the section that holds tables for poker, baccarat, blackjack, and other card games he does not recognize. 3 craps pits but only one in action and crowded. The casino main money cage with several armed, uniformed, guards on duty. The main cage is where players can borrow money on their line of credit or get money off a charge card or write a check. Tonight, there must be 5 working behind the cage and there is a line waiting to be serviced. 

Finally, he sees the high roller section up ahead with its double glass doors.  

The high roller slot machine section is its own little world. Completely glassed off from the rest of the casino, it has 2 full time cocktail waitresses, its own smaller money cage and just out a door beside the money cage, its own smoking lounge with a TV mounted on the wall. 

John approaches the double glass door and is surprised there is no guard on duty as every other time, there has been. Now, simply a sign saying, ‘Players Only’. 

The high roller slot area is not large but seldom filled with players. There is a smattering of $5 per credit machines where a 3 credits spin is required to win the advertised jackpot on the top of the front glass panel. More $10 machines than $5 and lots of $20 machines. And then there are the 4, $100 per credit machines with 2 credits required to win their advertised jackpot of $400,000. 

John has money but has never played a $100 machine. Still remembers being in Las Vegas at a convention and in some casino seeing the entire $100 machine area roped off and some guy moving around a circle of machines, inserting money and spinning the wheel and then the next, around and around, over again. No idea who he was but he obviously had big money. “No, no, $100 machines for me.” 

“What to play?” In the $5 section there is the old ‘10X’ machine which has been good to him over the years. Never much out of the $10 machines and the $20’s now and again but money goes fast on a $20 per credit, 2 credits per spin for a good size hit and John is all about good size hit or the jackpot, not happy with small amounts here and there. He either wins big or goes home broke. 

The $5 ‘10X’ machine is open and he sits down, feeds in $500 and presses the max bet spin button while looking around at the players inside the glass walls with him. Still pushing the spin button, not expecting anything to happen for the first $1000 or so, he sees 2 young couples, probably on a date, putting $100 in one machine, spinning and losing and then moving on to another machine. An expensive form of entertainment but the ladies apparently loving it. Don’t know his name and has never met him but the older black man dressed as if he is about to win some famous award, a wheel-chaired older lady, a couple of players that look like they would not have a dime to their name. 

The ‘10X’s’ has paid only little stuff now and again and the first $500 is gone. He thinks about moving to another machine but inserts another $500 and presses the spin button again. 

“Well hello stranger, been awhile.” It’s Molly. “Yea been busy. You looking great as always” Molly shifts the tray of drinks on her shoulder and gives John a big smile, eyes full on 

 John stops the spinning wheels. “What you been up to? Married yet? Bought a new car? Moved?”.

 “I got some great news! Tonight is my last night waitressing, next Monday night I start as a dealer in the high stakes poker room!”

 “Wow! How did you get that?”

 “They offered a course here and after a background check, trained for 6 weeks.” 

“Good for you. Amazing, really. High stakes poker room. You going to do great in there.” 

“Well, that is my hope. Really done with waitressing. Too many rude people and tips keep getting smaller and smaller. Had to do something. A little concerned over what I hear goes on in there. People wearing diapers to keep from leaving the table, some drug dealers coming in taking over a table and then one or more getting really angry over losing and there have been fights. Couple of times, has taken all security guards to get the group to leave. Thank God, no guns, so far.” 

“People! You keep the same outfit? 

“Nope, wear a suit with pants and even a tie.” 

John laughs, “Would like to see that.” 

“You ought to come by sometime.” 

“I might just have to.” 

“What can I get you?" 

Holding up a hundred, “A water and a diet” Then an urge, “No, make it a whiskey, Wild Turkey on the rocks”  

“Whiskey?” 

“Celebrating your new job.” 

Molly smiles, flicks her long blonde hair away from her face, turns and heads off to get his order. 

Molly is one beautiful woman and although he has never asked, wonders how she wound up working as a waitress in a casino. With looks like she has, well a natural advantage at any job she might want anywhere.

He watches her head out of the section and then at the glass doors, she stops, turns and looks at him and smiles again, somehow knowing he has been watching her. 

He pushes the ‘spin button’ and up comes a hit for $4000. His machine locks up, the light on top begins to flash and the never ending ‘Winner’ bell starts up. Immediately everyone in the section turns and looks his way. “$4000” he mouths, shaking his head, ‘no’ a few times to convey, ‘no’ not the Jackpot, but any hit is encouragement for players. 

“Wow, you hit good. You lucky!” 

Looking up, there is a Korean woman standing beside him, her hand on his shoulder.  

“I here for hours, win nothing. Money all gone. Mind, if I watch you play for a while?” and she sits down beside him. 

The payout attendant appears and John stands up and gets out of the way. The attendant inserts a key hanging from his belt into the side of the machine and swivels the whole front away from anchored back of the machine. John has seen inside the machines before but has yet not figured out the 6 mechanical counters mounted on a bracket. The payout attendant, writes the numbers of each on the paperwork he has in on a clipboard, checks the paper in the ticket print portion and also pulls out and checks the bill validator. Then takes out his key and slams the door shut. The bell is silent once again and the attendant takes John’s driver’s license and get his social security number for the income taxes paperwork.  

“How do you want it?” John thinks for a moment: “Make it all cash, large bills.” “Well do.” and the attendant is gone. 

“I need a cigarette. Going to take him 5 minutes or more to get the money and return so I am going to step outside for a smoke.” 

“Can I come with you?” 

“Sure.” 

Chapter 3

The smoking lounge is empty and the TV has some game show playing with no volume. John takes a seat at the far end and sits down and moves an ash tray.

Still standing, “Can I have one, I need one for my nerves?” John raises the pack off the small table, holding he pack out for her to take. She walks over, pulls one from the pack, lights it and sits down beside him. “I am Ming”, holding her hand out to John. “John, nice to meet you”, shaking her frail hand.

She is Korean, hard to tell how old but maybe mid to late 40’s, lean, thin even, with a very tired looking face. No makeup. 

Others come into the lounge, have a quick smoke and then leave.  They each start another cigarette when she turns to him and begins.  “I do not know what I will do.  I borrowed money from my son to come here and he does not know about it and now I do not have any money to pay him back.  I just knew I would win today, but I didn’t.  I am such a bad person.”  “You’re not a bad person,” he responds.  “Haven’t killed anyone have you?” 

He finishes his cigarette and standing up. “Suspect the attendant is waiting. I got go.” She does not say a word and does not move. 

Back at 10X, the attendant is waiting, John signs the paperwork and the attendant uses his radio to call the overhead security to monitor the hand pay and begins counting $100 bills into John’s stretched out hand. When he finishes, he uses another key from his belt to unlock the machine for play and John hands him a hundred tip. 

“Can I get some money? I know I win this time and share with you.” She is back, sitting right next to him. He has not even had the time to add the payout to the stash in his pocket. He looks at her. “Oh, what the hell!”, and hands her $1000. Immediately she is up and gone and John is happier about her leaving than the little hit he has just had. He comes to play ‘man against machine’ and does not need a companion.

Chapter 4

Mike switches the ‘pay out’ monitor from the $4000 hand pay location to roaming and the camera in the high roller section begins to slowly pan the entire area.

Mike loves his job. From above, unseen, he can watch everything and everybody and although he has only been in video security for only 4 months, he has already seen some strange stuff happen on the floor. Against the rules but easy to do and no chance of getting caught, he has copied some video clips and taken them home, His greatest hits include:2 gay guys getting it on, the grandmother in a wheelchair using her cane to whack the backside of a cocktail waitress, a group of men fighting over the one woman or rather girl, with them and the time and the good-looking woman who looked straight into the surveillance camera and flashed him her boobs and then winked.

Tonight, it is slow. Not many beautiful women to watch. Sometimes there are some amazing women to watch in dresses well low cut and nice legs crossed as the play a machine.  Been told to watch out for prostitutes but has never seen anything that a security guard should be alerted. Sure, now and again, there are hookups between one of the ladies and some man but always hard to tell if the lady had been simply waiting for her husband or boyfriend to arrive so little concern when the now, couple, meet and leave.

This evening, he is lucky. Molly is working the section and he loves to watch her. She was so damn fine. Her smiles, the long blonde hair, how well the waitress outfit hugs her body. Wishes and thoughts about her. Wishes that will never be, but watching her makes the time pass.

Chapter 5

“She bothering you?”, Molly says, putting down the glass of whiskey beside John. “Since they let go the doors guard, people come in here and hang around and hang around and try to get winners to share. I can call security and have her removed.” “No, I think she is gone now, but thanks for the offer and the drinks” and hands Molly another hundred-dollar bill. “Your really are a nice guy, John. Too bad you are married.”

 John looks at her pretty face, pretty, smiling face, her eyes locked into his. A wave sweeps over him and he has to look away. “Waitress, I need a drink”, is shouted out from somewhere and Molly turns and leaves. John watches her go and then she turns and looks directly at him over her shoulder continuing to move away. 

Finally, alone, John loads up the machine with credits and begins to max bet spin the wheels. Nothing after nothing on the pay line. Getting nothing is the usual happening on a slot machine as although he had gotten $4000 out of it so far, he still can not tell the status of the machine and how long it might be before it even begins to consider another large payout. Spin and nothing, spin in nothing. “Rejection. Got to be able to accept rejection, lots of rejection.”, John thinks looking up and not finding any ‘winner’ light flashing or bells going off anywhere. Quiet. It is now 9:30 and the high roller section is as packed as it is going to be for the evening. 

With initial credits gone, John leaves his player’s card in the machine and walks over to the cash cage. “Could you have an attendant lock my machine please, I want to take a smoke break.” “Sure, say Harry, the cage cashier and uses his radio to send out the call.

 Chapter 6

When John enters the smoking lounge, Ming, is in the back corner crying, alone. 

John stops moving, but he really needs a cigarette and sits down by the door as far away from her as he can get. 

He lights a cigarette and through a glass panel, watches the well-lit hotel entrance and cars arriving and leaving. A steady stream to include a limo or 2 with some celebration party of young men and women, getting out and scampering towards the lobby entrance.  

“Can I have one of your cigarettes?” She is seated by him again and he pulls one from the pack and hands it to her. She places it in her mouth and then looks at him for a light. He lights it and looks away.

“The money you gave me, all gone. I try to win big jackpot up front, you know the penny big one but nothing. $1000 and nothing. I am so tired.”

 “How far away is home?”

 “I have no home. Husband kick me out of home when he found out gambling debts. Living with son now but I steal from him today, so no home. I am a bad person.”

“How far is home away?”

 “4 hours”.  

She closes her eyes and lays her head back into the seat.  He watches her for a moment and can tell that she is more than tired, she is down, depressed, out of hope, and then out of nowhere, “Look, I know this is sort of off the wall, but I am staying the night here at the hotel and if you want, you can stay with me. You are in no shape to drive 4 hours. You will have your own bedroom.  Just a place to sleep that is all.”  He is startled by what he has just said. She opens her eyes, looks at him and then slowly shakes her head: ‘yes.’  “She is so tired,” she says again. 

“Look, I have to get back in the casino as I had an attendant lock up the machine I was playing and he is waiting on me, so come along and then we will go up to the room and get some room service food and a key to the room for you and you will feel better,” and gets up and heads to the door leading to the casino.  At first, she does not move and he thinks perhaps he has been too forward with his suggestion but it is now up to her. He does not care one way or the other.  He just did not know what else to do.  

When he gets back to 10X, the same attendant that hand paid him his only hit. is waiting.  

“Thanks for holding it. False alarm. I have to go to the hotel for a while. Sorry.” 

“No problem. Slot host came by looking for you. You done on this machine?”  

“For now.”  

John pulls his credit card style players card out of the machine and with Ming in tow, heads back through the casino to the hotel elevator. 

The casino is hopping now, packed and 2 of the 3 small stages have some local talent playing 1970’s pop. All three craps tables are crowded now and apparently whoever is rolling the dice at one,  is on a hot streak as cheers ring out over and over. 

To him, seems like it has taken forever to finally get to and push the ‘up arrow’ of the elevator. He holds the door and Ming steps in and places herself in a corner. He pushes the penthouse floor button and leans against the elevator wall. “You not going to murder me, are you?”, Ming looking down at the floor. John does not know how to respond. “Look, I am going to my hotel room. You can come in, we can get some room service and then you can leave or stay, I don’t care. Do think you need some food no matter what you decide and ‘no’ I am not going to murder you.” 

 “But I am a bad person.” 

When John opens the door of the suite, the lights automatically come on in the living room and Ming looks in and then takes a step back. “What you some millionaire? You have all this just for you? I never seen such a place in my life.” John holds the door open for her.

Chapter 7 

Down on the casino floor the evening has begun to take its toll on the losing gamblers, the free beer drinkers and even the slot machines. A truck driver, sleeping according to his log book entry, has punched his fist through the glass of one slot machine and is being escorted out the door. Grandma is sitting, staring at the displayed $490, 321 jackpot of one of the 20 penny progressive machines after having played all her social security check for the month. In the high stakes poker room, in a game that has been going on for hours, there are only 2 players left and the pot is now over $50,000. Bill, on his way home from a 3-year stent with Boeing in Seattle is has just been dealt 2 ‘Jacks’ and thinks he has it this time. Max, a local, lays down 3 ‘Queens’. The 3 on-duty machine technicians have been busy all night unjamming bill validators and have noticed and reported to security that the number of counterfeit $20 bills is well above any normal night and that someone or a small group is working the entire floor, trying to laundry fake bills. Video security is alerted and any video showing the machines that rejected and even accepted some fake bills are to be found and all player faces are to be screen captured for later examination. 

In the dollar slots section, 3 ‘winner’ bells are ringing with the largest being a $10,000 payout and there is a photo op session ongoing with a slot host handing the winner a fake large check for the full amount while another host is taking pictures of the smiling winner. 

In the high roller section, Mr. Wills, the tall, well dressed black man, is waiting for his hand pay of $42,000 with the full intent of leaving for the night. 

And one of 2, $20 per credit, 2 credits for the full jackpot, is just about to clock time into a new ‘session’ having not been played for almost 30 minutes. Like many machines, it has both a special ‘begin’ and ‘end’ game. When a new session begins, the duck pond game is slightly adjusted to allow greater odds of a payout in the first 30 or 40 spins. Completely legal: the idea is a payout will entice the player to stay and play. The same is true for the end game. If enough credits have been played and are about to be exhausted, the machine slightly increases the chance of a payout, to once again, entice the player to insert more money and perhaps get that jackpot on the next spin for the spin after that. 

All evening, every slot in the casino has been teasing players with large amount winning symbol or image combinations landing just above or below or somewhere near any of the game’s play lines. Teasing is not illegal but encourages a player to think, “It is almost ready to payout. Just a few more credits.” 

Molly and Susan, both, have had to have security called on 2 different groups of young men, drinking to much, cursing out load and way to hands-on when they serving them. Of course, no tips either group. 

Mike in video security has been watching a young woman who came into the high roller section over an hour ago and has yet to play a machine, instead she seems to be going from single male player to player, standing or sitting next to, talking for a while and then moving on. She is young, very young but at least 18 or she would not have been able to get into the casino, but Mike wonders if she is a prostitute? Certainly not a pro but maybe a college student short of cash or a local in some sort of money trouble. So far, he has not seen her leave with anyone and so he lets her slide. Pretty enough to watch but too slim and young for his tastes. 

“Where did John go? Thought he said he was going to be here for a while?”  

Harry, in the cage, looks up from his cell phone and the baseball game. “Molly, you came to see me! I miss your smiling face.” 

“Harry, don’t start. Where did John go?”  

“Left with some woman a while ago in a hurry. Had his machine locked and then came back and said he had to go to the hotel. Strange for John.” 

“A woman? John?” 

“Yep, and not much of a looker if you ask me.”  

“Not John, he doesn’t cheat on his wife. Does he?” 

 “I never seen him leave with anyone other than the few times his wife has been here. Always the first time for everything, I guess.” 

It is now 10:15Pm.

Chapter 8

“How about some food? Here is a menu and we can eat it right here.” Ming does not reach out for the menu and John drops it on the sofa near her. “Well, I am doing a steak. See they have shrimp. You like shrimp?” “Not hungry.” “Look, stay here tonight or go home but either way, you need some food. Shrimp OK, with some rice?” Ming does not answer.

John calls room service and places his order. “With lots of napkins please.”

Ming crushes out one cigarette, reaches for John’s pack and starts another. “I am a bad person”, looping in her head.

“What you want from me? Sex? Why you being so nice? I am a bad person. Husband kick me out of house and son probably going to when he finds out about check I cash.”

“You cashed one of his checks?”

“I have hard life. Parents deaf and I have to take care of them my whole life. Other kids make fun of me having dead parents and I have to go with them everywhere and make people understand what they want. Hard living in Korea with deaf parents.” John says nothing. He does not know what to do with her. He has driven 3 hours to get here and so far he has had very little time to simply sit and play. Why or why had he offered her a place to sleep the night?

When the knock comes at the door, John has a sudden fit of panic. Maybe she is part of some team and when he opens the door, some guy is going to stick a gun in his face and demand all his money. He looks out the door peep hole and sees Molly and opens the door.

“Molly?”

 “Room service! Here with your steak and shrimp.”

“Molly what are you doing here. How did you work it? Who is taking your place on the floor?”

“On my break and when I heard you had ordered room service, well, I just had to bring it and see if you were OK. Heard you left the floor in a hurry and just wondering.”

Molly pushes the linen covered dinning cart into the room and sees Ming on the couch. Now she is really confused. Maybe some old friend of his?

“Right there will be great.”

Molly, opens up the cart to form a round table, size enough or 2 and moves chairs away from the dining room table to places them at the round table. Reaches under and pulls out various silver plates and fills the table with John’s plate of steak and several bowls of shrimp, rice and rolls.

“Molly, this is Ming”, pointing to Ming, still sitting on the couch but has now brought her legs up against her on the sofa in some sort of defensive position.

Molly does not say anything or even look over at Ming.

“Anything else?”

John looks the table over. ‘Nope, that will do it, thanks. I will walk you to the door.”

Outside the door, John hands Molly 2 hundred dollars bills but Molly says nothing.

“She is a compulsive gambler and in a bad way. Husband has kicked her out of his house and today she forged a check on her son’s bank account. No where to go and no money and 4 hours to her son’s place. Did not know what to do, so offered the second bedroom here and some food.”

“John, she is not your problem.”

“I know, just sort of happened. Still hoping she will eat something and then leave.”

“John, maybe I can help. What say if she still here, hanging around at midnight, you call me and I will come up and pretend that I am going to spend the night with you. Maybe that will force her to leave?”

“Molly, ah, no, I couldn’t.”

“Don’t mean I going to stay John, just move her along, that’s all. Here is my number”, handling him a piece of the room order slip he has just signed.

Molly walks off and he watches as she goes down the hall, stop at the elevator and then turn and smile at him.

Chapter 9

John finishes his steak and sees that Ming has just been pushing food around her plate. “You really ought to eat something. If not the rice, some bread?”

“Rice no good. Shrimp no good. I not hungry”

She continues to push around food on her plate and finally takes a bite of another shrimp and he gets up and goes the chair she was sitting in before he began to eat and lights a cigarette.

“You know,  going to one of those gambler meetings may not really hurt all that much and if it got you back with your husband, that would be good, wouldn’t it?

 “I wish I was dead,” she suddenly thinks to herself.  “I have lost all the money and now I am thinking of having sex for money. I am too bad to be alive.”

Suddenly, she is standing up.  “Let’s go back down and play some more,” she says.  She has to get out of this room before she asks him how much he would be willing to pay for her to have sex with him. 

 “Ok,” he says, “But I think it would be better if you stayed here, took a long bath or shower and laid down for a while.  Honestly, you are not going to win some big amount of money down there tonight to fix all your problems”.

She does not respond but instead grabs her purse and heads for the door.  “Ok, ok,” he says, “I’m coming”.

When John and Ming reach the casino floor, Ming bolts out of the elevator and starts towards the high dollar slot area, almost at a run.  John, startled at how quickly she is moving, yells after her to slow down.  To him, it is almost as if she needs a fix, a drug fix of spinning wheels and cannot wait any longer.  John speeds up his pace but does not run and eventually, Ming slows down enough so he catches up to her.

“There are some high dollar slots at the other end of the casino we could try,” he says, pointing away from the area they met in.  She says nothing in response but the suggestion seems to kick her movements into overdrive.

When they reach the high dollar area, she immediately points out a machine.  “Try this one, this one.”  He sits down and puts in a couple of hundred dollars and spin after spin draws up exactly nothing, her eyes glued to the spinning wheels like it was some sort of drug and when he sees this connection, addiction, it scares him.  He wonders if he could become like her?  Is he like her now and does not even know it?

“Ok, maybe this one,” pointing to another machine and he willingly obeys and moves to the slot machines she has pointed out.  “What has he gotten himself into with the woman?  Going to be a lot of fun spending the evening on the casino floor with this crazy woman looking over my shoulder and telling which machines to play!”

She watches as he loads the next machine with several hundred dollars and again, spin after spin, comes up dry.  “It’s him!  He is bad luck!”, she thinks to herself watching him.  “If he had not sat down beside me to start with, I would have won.”

”Let’s go other section. We win there now, I know. You give me some money to play with?”

John is now helpless and hopeless and hands her $2000.  He cashes out, gets up and off they go across the casino to the other high dollar machines.  About half way there, John feels a hand on his shoulder and when he turns, it is Ming and she is on a cell phone trying to talk to someone over the noise of the casino.  He cannot hear what she is saying but wonders who it could be that she is not trying to shield the noise of the casino from the caller.  “Guess it was a caller and not someone she called,” he thinks.  Then she is off the phone and turns to him.  “I have to go home now.  When I left my son’s house this morning, I took the only set of house keys and now he has gotten home and cannot get into his own house.  Oh why did I bring the house keys with me?”

 “You going to be ok driving home now?”

 “Oh, I will be fine,” she says and heads towards the casino exit. 

 “Here, I will walk with you,”  and takes up one of her arms as an escort. 

 When they reach the casino exit, they push through the door and out onto the sidewalk and she turns to him.  “Thank you for being so nice to me,” she says and gives him a hug. 

 “Ming, it was nice to meet you but remember, do not ever go to a casino again and think about those gambler anonymous meetings your husband suggested,” hugging her back and then she releases her hug, turns and heads out towards the parking lot and her car.

John turns to go back inside the casino and breathes a sigh of relief.  “At least I am rid of that woman.  Do hope she gets home safely though and gets some help,” he thinks, making his way back through the casino to the high dollar slots area. 

When Ming reaches her car, she does get in but sitting there thinks about the $2000 in her purse that John gave her. $2000 will not solved my problem and proceeds to get out and walk back into the casino using an entrance as far away from the high dollar slot area as possible.  “Perhaps without bad luck John around, I can finally win.  Please God, let me win and make it all right,” she says to herself.  And what will she say to him, if she runs into him?  “Oh, my son called me back and found a spare key and she had looked for John but could not find him!  What does she care?  She did not owe this man anything!”  Once inside the casino, she makes her way to the Progressive penny slots with its advertised $509,412 jackpot. “Just need this one. Have to make it right.”

Chapter 10

John does not hurry back to the high roller section. After that woman, he is not sure he even wants to play anymore and thinks about just heading to the hotel.

When he gets to the high roller section it has now thinned out with only 5 or 6 players. He looks around at all the machines and does not have a clue.

Finally, he settles on the old 10X machine and begins to feed in bills.

“Paid $50,000 about 30 minutes ago”, Molly handing John a drink.

“Crap!”

“Where is your lady?”

“On her way home, I hope.”

“So you don’t need me to come up to your room tonight?”

John hears it.

“John, Lisa told me that you used to do photography of models. Nudes, sometimes?”

“I did, but that was several years ago and after a while got to be too much to deal with.”

“What you mean, too much?”

“Torture. Being that close to a beautiful woman and not touching her, not having sex with her. Don’t know how professionals do it, I mean, you know, the pants getting tight. Torture. It got to be torture for me.”

“Is that why you never asked Lisa? She was pretty put off you never asked her to model after you told her you did nude photoshoots.”

“Lisa. Oh, God, that woman has the most raw sexuality of any woman I have ever met. Would have driven me crazy trying to shoot her nude. Sorry I ever mentioned it to her.”

“And me?”

“And you what?”

“Could you shoot me nude?”

John is now simply a lump of Jell-O. First, Ming, the nightmare from hell and ‘his’ jackpot gone for the evening and now this.

“John, if you don’t want to, I understand but honestly I would love to have some nice nude photos, you know, while I still got it. Be fun.”

John looks up at Molly, “I am married.”

“Yes, John, I know.” Smiling and locking eyes with him.

“I don’t work again until Monday night.”

A shudder passes through him and then the urge.

Chapter 11

From 2am until 4am and casino closing, the casino is pretty thin of gamblers.  At this time of morning, only some locals and those staying in the hotel are still on the floor.  All have the perception, belief, that the machines  pay off this time of morning as the machines have been played all day.  This belief is no more accurate than the idea that slot machines are more likely to pay off when the casino first opens each morning but this does not deter some gamblers from only visiting the casino early or late.

At 5 minutes to 4, the announcement comes over the casino loudspeaker system that the casino is closing in 5 minutes and players should cash out any credits they have now and exit the building.

At 4am, the casino’s central computer sends out a “freeze” order to all slot machines, locking them for further play and begins polling or requesting each machine’s play data to include money in and money out and length of each play session.

By 4:10am, the casino is full of cash box attendants with their wheeled carts, opening machines, pulling the machine’s numbered box that holds all the paper money that has been inserted and putting in an empty box having the same machine number and locking the machine.

After all boxes have been exchanged, in come the cleaning crews and the machine technicians to get several machines running again that have failed for one reason or another and could not be repaired during casino hours.

The casino will open its doors for players at 6am.

Chapter 12

At 9:30, John wakes up next to Molly and finds her awake.

“Breakfast in bed?”

Molly turns around facing him and smiles. Her eyes are so amazing. “Sounds perfect and then what? You know we never got around to those photos last night.”

“Still want to do it?

“Yeah, I do.”

“No place to be today?

“Nope, off until Monday night.” John, gives her a kiss and feels an urge.

“Want to stay until work?

Molly only smiles and moves her body close to him.

“I will call the front desk and keep the suite.”

John now knows what is next for him or at least for a while.