This is the 72nd in a series of 365 Flash Fiction stories I’m writing. You can find out more about the challenge here.
The Alignment, by Jonathan L. Lawrence, 11th February 2013
Word count: 520
The story:
“One roll of the spin more, just one more,” the gambler said to his long suffering wife.
“Come on honey,” she said,knowing that getting angry and making a scene didn’t work, “We’ve got a restaurant booking at the top of the tower at half past ten.”
“I know, I know,” he said putting the last of his chips on the table, fifty dollars on zero no less.
“Aww hun,” she said as the dealer set the wheel running.
“I feel like my lucky stars are in alignment,” he said.
The wheel ran and ran, bouncing around the spinning wheel. It felt like an eternity, and then it slowed and slowed.
Bop bop bop.
Then it stopped, there was an intake of breath, then the few people around the table began clapping. It took a few moments for both man and wife to click what had just happened. The ball had stopped on zero.
Then they both erupted into a joyous jumping.
“Let’s go,” the husband said, not wanting this moment to be wasted.
“No,” she said changing her mind, she grabbed a chip that the croupier passed over in a neat pile. “If luck’s on our side, we shouldn’t pass it up.”
She put a one dollar chip, on twenty five. Several others around the table decided to join her, a few hedge their bets on the corner places.
The wheel span, the wheel bounced.
“Twenty six,” the croupier called. There were several groans.
“Aww,” the gambler’s wife said.
“Luck wear’s multiple masks,” the gambler said, with well worn wisdom.
“Right,” she said, “Let’s go, the night’s still young, and I think we can afford something nice at the restaurant.”
The gambler collected his winnings, a tidy seventeen hundred and ninety-nine dollars.
They went to the restaurant, and had a three hundred dollar meal with a fantastic view, and they got a cheap, well expensive thrill from leaving a generous tip for the waiter. Then they went drinking, hopping from Las Vegas bar to Las Vegas bar.
They went to sleep that night, after a passionate but drunken clinch.
Their holiday was over the next day, but they left feeling over the moon.
The next day they fell into their holiday with renewed vigor, with only a short time left they went everywhere and saw everything, or at least it felt like it. By the time they got to their hotel they were too exhausted What had started off as a good holiday, to celebrate their tenth anniversary had become a fabulous experience.
They landed back in at Heathrow still feeling giddy. It wasn’t a vast amount of money, truth be told, but it not only did it make their holiday the most special they’d been on. They would still recount that story into their old age, and told their grand children. Yet neither never gambled again like that again, (of course their was always the lottery, but the only time lucky stars aligned for them was with family, friends, and a good life), the gambler had found his fix, and his wife was happy enough with what she had.
Aspiring 