But the work itself was often boring. The guests were fun at night, but during the day it was slow, and the air was soggy with worry. The place crawled with workers from the massive GM plant in Janesville who spoke in hushed tones about hiring freezes and other plant closings. A group of Gary Works employees visiting from Indiana complained about job cuts due to cheaper Japanese and Korean steel imports, along with reduced demand for their galvanized steel from lower new car sales. And businesspeople complained to each other about high interest rates, “stagflation,” and lingering problems with the energy crisis. Farmers were the saddest and most anxious guests of all. Just like back home at Giles, they complained about debt and cursed Jimmy Carter for halting grain shipments to the Soviet Union. They said his name like it was an obscenity. No wonder Gloria wanted the Bunnies to smile. That’s what these worried men needed to see.

It was during those slow shifts that she could chat with the other Bunnies and learn about their hobbies, boyfriends, and aspirations. She loved hearing juicy bits of gossip about who had the clap, or who’d slept with a visiting entertainer. The Bunnies never tired of speculating about Gloria’s private life. Rhonda had heard that she’d been married three times already. Gwen said Gloria was connected to the local Mafia. Carmen had caught her crying once when she’d walked into her office and slammed the door. “It was like watching a stone bleed.”

Despite her troublemaking, Carmen was Sherri’s favorite. She was also the best person to share shifts with when the work was slow. She always had great stories from the strip club, and she couldn’t keep anything a secret. Because she’d been there a while, she had inside dirt on the other Bunnies. “Bunny Sue was paid a thousand dollars to fly to Las Vegas to take off her shoes and step on a guy’s face,” she said. “And they didn’t even have sex!” She could tell stories about the regulars, from the executives with big-time jobs who tried to hire away Bunnies as personal assistants, thinking they could “save” them, to the lonely farmers who blew their life savings at the resort. “Men don’t know how to talk to each other,” she said. “They just don’t. That’s why they come here, because they need someone to listen. Someone to smile at. When it gets right down to it, this place is lonelier than a church.”