Page 29 of A Midlife Gamble

‘I can.' Tony smiled. 'Yes I can, but you have to be careful. You can lose pretty big, pretty quick, if you start on the wrong slot. A couple of rolls and you’re done, which won’t give you any time at all to get to know if you’ve struck a loose one.’

‘A couple of rolls? That’s only two pence… I mean two cents,’ Caro said.

‘Oh no.’ Tony shook his head. ‘No, no, no.’

One no, Helen thought, would have sufficed. Just one.

‘All the pennies are different,’ he continued. ‘You got your quarter dime penny slot, and your five-dollar penny and your ten-dollar penny…’

‘And you said a loose one?’ Caro frowned.

‘Means more chance of winning. Some slots,’ Tony winked, ‘give up easier than others.’

‘Really?’ Caro's features remained perfectly still as she said, ‘I read that they were completely random. That they’re all computer programmed.’

Tony laughed. ‘That’s a nice theory, Caro. A nice enough theory.'

With the smallest sense of unease, Helen glanced at Marianne. She was glowing, as vibrantly alive under Tony's spell as the last nurtured embers of a much needed fire. And as she watched, what she felt was worry. How vulnerable she seemed. How deeply embedded the need to still be desired was. Then again, hadn’t she perhaps felt and looked the same under Kaveh’s spell, in Cyprus? When, she wondered, would it ever leave? And would she miss it when it did?

‘Say your bankroll is fifty dollars.’ Tony interrupted her thoughts. ‘And you’re looking for a hundred bets. That’s gonna be fifty cents a bet. So in that case I’d be looking for a two credit, quarter dime slot. Like that one over there.’

They all turned to look where he pointed. Helen blinked. What on earth was he talking about? She had no idea what she was supposed to be looking at, and no idea what a two credit quarter dime equation was.

‘Ithinkwe should start with the penny slots?’ Caro said, her eyebrows making tight little arches.

‘Good choice. Penny slot will give you a hundred rolls, might be just enough to get a feel.’

‘A hundred rolls?’ Helen sighed. ‘I thought they were penny slots! How can you get a hundred rolls from a penny… I mean a dime?’ She looked at Kay in desperation. She felt like a third former in a maths class.

‘Penny slots, I’m guessing,’ Kay said, looking at Tony, ‘that take a dollar minimum bet?’

‘Exactly.’ Tony smiled. ‘Clever lady.’

‘And where might they be?’ Caro snipped.

Helen looked at her feet. ‘As long as they have a bloody chair, I don’t care.’

‘They’re scattered in betweens,’ Tony looked up. ‘Keep an eye out for the one cent sign hanging above.’

On cue they all looked up and sure enough across the aisle, like stars on a moonless night, 1c signs began to materialise, floating above the honking, flashing signs and screens of Ghostbusters, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Star Trek, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Family Guy, Friends, House of Cards, Scooby Doo, Wonder Woman.

‘Whatever happened to the bunch of cherries?’ Kay sighed.

‘I don’t understand,’Helen groaned for the umpteenth time, swinging her chair in circles, like a bored child in their parent's office. She didn’t. Caro had been playing Titanic for a good ten minutes… she guessed. She had no idea. She was in a place where intervals of space were measured not by clocks – there were no clocks – but by a thousand electronic ring-tones, or bleeps, or bells. They could be in here for a week without knowing it. And Caro, with all her fiscal responsibility and talk of random odds, didn’t look as if she was ready to give up anytime soon. Leaning forward on her elbows, she stared up at the slot screen as golden keys whizzed past, compasses, miniature Kate Winslets, stopwatches and… ‘What’s that?’ she said.

‘Rose’s hair comb,’ Caro answered without looking away.

‘How many violins do you need?’ asked Kay. She was sitting the other side of Caro.

‘It’s a cello,’ Caro muttered.

‘Looks like a violin to me.’

‘It’s a cello!’ Caro snapped. ‘The orchestra played‘Nearer my God to Thee’, Kay. It’s a cello.’ She banged her hand down on the play button.

‘When’s the iceberg coming?’ Helen said, and winking leaned back to look at Kay.

Kay laughed, shook her head and mouthed,Don’t.

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