Life is a Gamble

She was carded that night, sitting at the slot machine, trying to order a vodka soda, she snickered, unable to recall the last time she had been carded.

“Must be the mask,” she teased the cocktail waitress.

She rummaged through her bag, searching for her ID, wondering if it was a ploy for the waitress to receive extra tips. Making middle aged women feel young again was a welcome thought and deserving of a small tip. If that was the case, it worked.

She placed three dollars on her tray when she dropped off the drink only ten minutes later. Another five dollars landed on her tray when she returned shortly with a replacement, without ever having to ask.

The youthful age of twenty-one was far in her rearview mirror as tomorrow she would be forty years old, tomorrow. Almost, over the hill as her younger sister had teased her that morning.

She considered fifty to be over the hill, but it was starting to weigh on her. When she had her hair done last week, something she truly missed during the pandemic closures, her grey hairs seemed to pop with unwelcomed brightness these days. She read an article regarding celebrities who didn’t get their big start until after forty. She recalled the article claiming Vera Wang hadn’t had her first runway show until after she was forty. Of course, she was the youngest editor of, Vogue, before that.

She still had time. She wrote down some of her inner feelings that night in her journal, which was given to her by her therapist last year.

“Each day you should think of a high and a low. Meditate on the high. Try to find a way to turn a low, into a high,” he suggested.

At the time it seemed like rubbish to her, but she tried to do it once a week. Fumbling through the pages of her book one night; she noticed she had been journaling once a month not the advised once a week. Maybe her lack of dedication could be why journaling wasn’t helping her anxiety and depression.

That night she decided to start anew. She would commit to writing in her journal each day. She tossed the little black notebook in her luggage the next morning.

She sipped on her vodka soda, checking her phone messages. There was just one message and it was from her husband.

Kids are in bed. Everything is great. Win big! Love U

She was rhythmically pushing the spin button on the slot machine, hoping for a bonus to appear on the brightly lit screen. Anything exiting…

“How’s it going?” her sister asked.

“Not much action on this one.” She replied, “I was actually thinking of moving machines, but the cocktail waitress here is really on it.”

Her sister revealed her winning voucher.

“I just won two hundred bucks!”

“I’ve already had two drinks within the last half hour. Plus my feet are tired from all the walking around. I feel like we’ve walked a million miles. Maybe we should just go to bed.” She pleaded.

“You sound old already!” her sister teased, “We have two more hours till you turn forty, so you better buckle up. Let’s try to find a, Wizard of Oz, machine.”

Her sister was right, time to move on. She cashed out and pulled her mask down in order to suck down the remainder of her vodka soda. They wandered around the casino searching for an Oz machine but there was not one to be found, so they settled for Wheel of Fortune.

She reached in her bag for her voucher when she heard it - The screaming, the bells ringing and all of the commotion. She knew exactly where the jubilant sounds were coming from.

She turned towards the machine she just left.

“Oh my God! It was my first spin!” the woman screamed, jumping up and down in her seat.

The numbers were bold, gold and flashing on the screen…

$20,000.00!