Trucking Out of the Trailer Park

Sue pulls into her driveway, parks her car, and sits there while the radio plays. The song hovers just beyond her comprehension the same way it does every night when she gets to this part of her routine. This night has been long, though nothing unusual for a Saturday night. She’s just so tired…

Sure, she may never fully adjust to the late hours and demands of working at the casino. Home life is also very exhausting with all the happenings and messes that accompany her two daughters, a one year old grandson, two dogs and a cat. There’s something else though, something far worse than any of that stuff. Each time she enters or leaves her driveway she must pass the home of a demon.

She met him when they were teenagers. He was the drummer in a band. Naturally, she went for the singer/guitarist.

Over a decade later they ran into each other right after she went through a divorce. Guess what? He had learned how to play the guitar! They started to spend a lot of time together. He played while she sang. She loved every moment of it.

She loved it so much, in fact, that she overlooked his shortcomings, mainly alcoholism. She dealt with his drinking for years because she had a lot of fun with him, and he helped out a lot with her two daughters, ages 3 and 1 when they first got together. He volunteered to watch them when she had errands to run, or when she needed a sitter for work. She believed him to be a blessing.

His drinking kept getting worse. They fought a lot about it, and eventually split up for good.

About a year later, her older daughter Jade, now age 12, told her that he had abused her sexually since she was very small, pretty much the entire time they were together. It was a blow like none she had ever experienced. She would never be able to shake the guilt she felt for allowing him into their lives.

To make matters worse, he was questioned and released. Too much time had gone by, there was no evidence to prove anything happened, and he refused to speak without a lawyer.

Jade had many therapy sessions, but still had a very rough time. She had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Not being able to handle public school, she switched to home school and graduated a semester early.

In addition to this, Sue had started a new job dealing blackjack and bought a home for the first time. It was a mobile home, but it was the first three-bedroom home she and the girls had ever lived in. The girls could finally have their own bedrooms! Her credit wasn’t good enough for a bank loan, but a family member believed in her enough to loan her the money. Things were finally starting to look up for her family.

A few years after they moved into the trailer she saw him right down the street. He was moving in with his wife and three children. A mere four trailers separated them. She couldn’t believe this was happening. What had she done to deserve this? There must be some sort of reason for this. Everything happens for a reason, right?

It has been two years now since he moved into the trailer park, and she hasn’t been able to think of a good reason yet. She has imagined so many scenarios to seek revenge, but knows deep down that isn’t the best thing to do. Someone would more than likely die, and the other would be in prison. The girls are still dependent on her, and she likes her freedom, so she avoids him and dreams of a day when they can afford to move out of this place.

These thoughts loom in her head every day, especially when she comes home after work and passes his place right before pulling into her driveway.

She pulls her thoughts together and goes inside. Everyone is sleeping as usual except for Sophia, the cat. “Sophiii ii uh, you’re such a sweet girl. You know I love you pretty kitty...” She sings to her in the tune of “Cecilia” by Simon and Garfunkel. This is also routine. Sophia answers with her usual purr while allowing her human to pet her and offer treats.

Sue’s phone, keys, box of strawberry mints mixed with ibuprofen, and a little black book all came out of her pockets. She placed them on her dresser and changed into pajamas.

Not quite ready to go to sleep, she picked up the black book and sat down on her bed. She started carrying this book around when she became a supervisor at work. Within its pages are all kinds of helpful information. It has steps to follow in their computer system for different situations. It shows when she must call a manager and/or surveillance. It contains many names of regular players so she can rate them without asking for their card. These players are grouped based on the game they normally play.

When she got to the baccarat section she slowed down. These people share her love of this complicated, but at the same time very simple game. There are as many different strategies to play as there are people who play it. She has made an addition to this section of her book containing some of these strategies and likely outcomes, including some of her own.

For players, baccarat is simple. You bet on either banker or player and have a 50-50 chance of winning even money. There will also be optional side bets. The house always has the advantage on all side bets, so Sue doesn’t bet on them. She also avoids tables that charge commission on banker wins.

The object of the game is to bet on the hand that has closest to nine points. The banker and player hand both receive two cards in the beginning, which are totaled together. Any tens or face cards count as zero. If, say, a 6 and 7 were dealt to the player hand, the player would have a total of 3 since the ten’s place isn’t counted at all. If either the banker or player have a total of 8 or 9, the hand is over and there will be no draw to either hand. This is considered a “natural.” When no natural is present, a third and final card might be added to one or both hands, depending on their totals.

The rules for the draw are complex. Player will draw a third card if its original total is 0-5. If the player did not draw third card, banker will draw a card if its original total is 0-5.

If the player did draw a third card, this third card would help determine if the banker receives a third card. If the banker’s original total is 0-2, it would receive a third card. If the banker’s original total is 3, it would receive a third card unless the player’s third card is an 8. This is known as a “38 special.” If the banker’s original total is 4, it would draw a third card if the player’s 3rd card is 2-7. If the banker’s original total is 5, it would draw a third card if the player’s third card is 4-7. If the banker’s original total is 6, it would draw a third card if the player’s third card is 6-7. Finally, if the banker’s original total is 7, it would not draw a third card.

The results of each hand in a shoe of 8 decks of cards are kept on a grid filled with colored dots: red for banker, blue for player, and green for a tie. Starting at the top left of the grid, the first hand winner will be marked with the appropriate color. If the banker had 3 hands in a row, then a player, the board would show a string of 3 red dots in the first column followed by 1 blue dot in the second column. There is a column change each time it switches from one to the other. Ties will show anywhere they occur without starting a new column. Sue uses the grid to plan her bets.

The strategy that has worked the best for her is one she came up with herself. This bet progression allowed her to win money on runs that were 1, 2, or greater than 4 in a row. If banker or player had either 3 or 4 hands in a row, she lost money. All ties and dragon bonuses (banker bets neither win nor lose when a dragon hits) are ignored when counting the hands in each string of dots. The bet progression is as follows: $25 each time a new column begins betting against the last winner, $40 each time there are two in a row betting against the last winner, and $75 each time there are 3 or more in a row betting for the last winner.

Betting this way, you can easily calculate your winnings and losses. For each single dot in a column, you win $25, For 2 dots in a column, you win $15. For 3, you lose $140. For 4, you lose $65. For 5, you win $10. For 6, you win $85. For 7, you win $160, and so on adding $75 for each additional winner in a column.

Sue was getting sleepy, so she closed the book and placed it back on her dresser. Tomorrow was a big day with a big drive to another casino where she wold be entered into a baccarat tournament with a grand prize of $20,000.

The next day she entered the tournament. Throughout the game she won plenty of hands, and was way ahead of her original amount of money. The problem was that an older Asian fellow was much further ahead at the last hand. He had more than double the amount of money that she had. He placed a minimal bet on banker, knowing he had this game in the bag. Sue did the only thing she could think of at that point, and placed all her money on tie. To everyone’s astonishment, the hand was indeed a tie, which paid 8:1, and in this situation, a $20,000 bonus.

She knew two things would happen now. The first thing is she would write her story down and deliver a copy to the demon’s wife, which just occurred to her might be the reason for her predicament. Perhaps the wife needs to know for her own family’s protection. They do, after all, have three children. The other thing is her family would finally lose these trailer park blu ooo oo oo oo oo ooooos, and find a home better suited for them.