Lizzie looked at the startling numbers flashing on the progressive slot machines. The amounts were dizzying. Which one, she wondered, would Marble Rose pick? Would she home in on the $906,000 one or the one that clanged away with flickering numbers that read $1,111,111? All those 1's. Totaled, they numbered seven. Wasn't the number seven considered lucky in gambling circles? She didn't know. She held her breath when Marble Rose stopped at the million-dollar-plus machine. The air around her stirred, but Marble Rose moved on.

Lizzie looked away from the machines and saw Cosmo Cricket staring at her from across the aisle. He winked at her. Winked? Suddenly she felt flustered. She knew she was supposed to do something, but she felt like she was in a time warp. She wanted to respond to the wink, but she had to keep her eyes on Marble Rose. The hell with Marble Rose. She let a seductive smile play along her lips and made a kissing/smacking motion. She wiggled her index finger in Cricket's direction. The sudden realization hit her that she was flirting with the big man. She tried to remember the last time she'd genuinely flirted with anybody, but no time or date would come to mind.

Marble Rose stopped at a machine whose flickering numbers read $7,202. To Lizzie's stunned surprise, she sat down and pulled a twenty-dollar bill out of her pocket and fed it into the machine. The air stirred again, and the phalanx of security moved off.

Lizzie looked down at her watch. Twenty minutes until she had to head upstairs to the meeting. The slot machine was whirring and singing its own song as cherries, bars, and something called SECRET BONUS appeared, then disappeared. The machine chirped—a sound that indicated Marble Rose had won forty dollars. She continued to hit the SPIN button and won another ten dollars. Within seven minutes she'd gambled away her fifty-dollar winnings and was still down twenty dollars of her own money. She pressed the SPIN button again and three SUPER BONUS symbols appeared. She leaned back and waited for the machine to quiet down. She'd just won the $7,202 jackpot. She cashed out her winnings and headed to the cage, where she would redeem the slot machine slip for real money.

While the teller counted out the bills, Marble Rose turned to Lizzie and said, "I'm ready to go now."

"Where would that be?"

"My car is loaded, and I'm headed east to New York. I'm going to bunk with a friend until I can find a place of my own. They need teachers up there. I did call my mother, Ms. Fox. We talked and are going to get together over the Christmas holidays. It didn't feel right, my going there now. I need some time to think about it. I don't want to make a mistake."

Lizzie nodded in approval. "It's a start. I hope good things come of your meeting. Just be open, Marble Rose."