Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

She pressed the button again. Ka-ching! Listening carefully to the sound of the machine she was playing. Almost, almost, she knew it by heart. Every nuance, every sound was a familiar melody to her. She was so, so close to a pay-off, she could feel it. There was a sheen of silver sweat on her brow, a quiver in her lip and she felt like she had been running a marathon, because in fact, she had. It had been six long hours since she first sat down at her machine. Not a machine, not any machine, but her machine where all her hopes and dreams lived and died.

It was a heady experience, feeling it in her gut, knowing she was so close, knowing she not only needed this pay-off, but she deserved it! She had put in the time and the money. Slowly watching the points rise and fall, like an never-ending tide that would soon wash over her like a waterfall. She had tears in her eyes thinking about her impending win.

"You only have to believe it to achieve it." She whispered in her own ear. Others may win by the sweat of their hard labor, or be blessed with talent or be born with the silver spoon in their mouth. She was born with gambler's luck. A luck she had inherited from her mother, and her grandfather before her. No mind that her grandfather had died penniless and turned his back on gambling and become a street-preacher or her mother sometimes didn't have enough to even pay for her milk money for lunch growing up. They were winners, they had it in their blood.

She had heard the tales. Her grandfather won his homestead in a lucky poker game, her mother came home with $10,000.00 and got her picture taken and her name in the newspaper. She remembered the story. "I just had a feeling," her mother said, "I knew today was the day." Whenever her mother told the story her face beamed with pride. $10,000 in 1970's dollars was like $50,000.00 today, maybe more. In any case, it was a lot of money and seemed to justify her endless absences from school plays, music recitals, the missing Girl Scout cookie money and a multitude of other sins that she never confessed.

Shady Sadie, she was called at the casino. Why? Well, it was just a nickname, but maybe it was because her behavior was shady as well. Borrowing a 20.00 from a fellow gambler and never paying them back, taking over a seat, even though it was plainly "reserved" for another player by a cigarette ashtray on the seat, or writing yet, another check that would likely bounce if she didn't win soon.

She listened carefully to the machine, looked at her watch, it was almost time, almost time for her machine to hit it big! Every gambler has a code, a scheme, a plan, a blueprint on how they can beat the system. Some gamblers only bet with 100 bills others only used small change, still others only used certain machines known to be loose at certain times. Sadie was smart, she was bookkeeper, a mathematician who could easily add numbers, percentages in her head. She didn't need to, however, due to her super-secret weapon. Her little black book.

The black book where she studiously entered every transaction, every win, every loss, every machine at every hour, every day until she had crafted a fool-proof plan to make her money, the $20,000.00 that was sure to be hers soon.

Her system was based on a time scheme. The machines would rise and fall with the changing of the work shifts. At exactly 3:30 PM, the loose machines would slowly let go of their money. Then there would be a huge cacophony of buzzers and bells and squeals of delight as the machines started paying off and the gamblers would start high-fiving each other!

The smart ones would leave once they got their pay-off, the helpless and hopeless gamblers, the ones like Sadie, would sadly hang on, waiting for the machines to ebb and flow again, down down and then back up, down again and up even higher for even a higher, sweeter win.

She trembled thinking about it, it was so sure, so sure to happen any second now. Just as she was imaging her winning, the impossible happened, all the stars lined up, in this case it was all the diamonds lined up in a row and there it was, a huge jackpot, a $20.000.00 win.

"Winner, winner, chicken dinner!" she squealed.

Sadie was so overcome with emotion, trembling, crying and laughing at the same time, looking around to see if everyone could see her incredible win! There were two casino employees who immediately came to her side to help her go to the cash cage to cash in her winning ticket. She was dizzy and light-headed with delight. So confident, so happy she had finally got her just rewards.

Most of the time, she had small wins, wins that would go unreported to the IRS, that didn't require a signature or any special handling. This was different, she went to cashier's window and then to a special little room, where she could get a cashier's checks for her win.

First she gave her ID, and fishing through the bottom of her purse she found her rewards card, she wanted to make sure she got her bonus points for playing. Sitting in the little room, sweating, exhausted from playing for hours she felt like she could just finally close her eyes and relax. It was so very long since she felt relaxed, happy or content. Most of the time, she felt anxious, nervous and afraid to answer the doorbell, to open the mail or to check the balance of her bank account. The dunning of accounts had started she was late with her house payment, car payment, credit card payments, pay-day loans and finally all her problems would be solved just in a few minutes!

As she sat waiting, it seemed like an eternity, what could be taking them so long? As the door open, the security guard came in, along with a police officer. Sadie looked confused. Did they need this much security for her money? Something was just not right.

The police officer, towered over her, he was young, handsome and little bit nervous. His face blushed crimson as he said, "Are you Sadie Green McGuire?" Sadie looked up and her heart suddenly dropped to the pit of her stomach and she felt ill. She turned pale, remembering her past sins, a pile of bad checks all made out to various casinos, checks she never made good on or paid back, a lifetime of crime she finally had to face.

She had never wrote a bad check at this casino, since it was her favorite and she lived nearby, but there were dozens of casinos nearby where she had, she had lost count of how many bad checks were floating out there. Technology and her greed finally caught up. The dots were now connected and her small petty crimes were all gathered together to make a felony or two.

"Sadie Green McGuire, you are under arrest for the crimes of larceny, forgery and fraud. " A high pitched tone resonated in her ears as she heard her Miranda Rights. "You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed to you.." The policeman droned on.

A sympathetic casino clerk who knew Sadie by sight sadly said, "I'm so sorry Sadie, you were on a list. Any winnings are null and void. I'm sorry you won today."

Sadie hung her head down and sobbed, "Yeah, me, too."