Connie tugged me toward an empty chair. “Sit,” she said, “there’s an opening at this table.”

“This is a twenty-five-dollar table,” I said. “Aren’t there any loose change tables?”

There were two men and two women already playing at the table. They were drinking and smoking and their faces were without expression. They looked like they knew what they were doing. They’d look at the dealer and tap the table and obviously that meant something. One of the women wanted to double. She lost her chips after that, so I made a mental note not to double.

When the hand was done Connie dropped fifty dollars on the table. The dealer gave me two chips and the fifty bucks got whisked away by the dealer and stuffed into a slot on the table.

Everyone put chips out, so I put one out, too. I looked over my shoulder at Connie. Connie was gone. When I swung my attention back to the table I had two cards face up in front of me. A king and an ace.

“Twenty-one wins,” the dealer said. And he gave me a bunch of chips.

Wow. I won. I didn’t even have to do anything.

Everyone else played out their hands and then we all started again with new chips on the table. I put mine out, too. The dealer gave me two cards face up. A six and a jack. Panic. I had to add. A jack was worth what? Ten? Okay, ten seemed reasonable for a jack. So I had sixteen. I looked around. Everyone was waiting for me to say something.

The dealer asked me if I wanted a card. More panic. I didn’t want to go over twenty-one. I had to subtract. I hate to subtract. “Sure,” I said. “Give me another card.”

The dealer asked me if I was certain I wanted another card. “You have a six showing and the book says not to take another card,” the dealer said.

I didn’t know what book he was talking about, but all the other players agreed with the dealer and the book so I decided not to take a card.

The dealer had a six and a ten on the table. He dealt himself another ten. “Dealer busts,” he said.

And I got another chip. Hot damn. No wonder people liked to gamble. This was easy.

We started a new game and I got sixteen again with the first two cards. The dealer had a nine showing. I told him I didn’t want any more cards. What the hell, it worked the first two times. Now he told me the book didn’t like that decision. Well, God forbid I should go against the book. “Okeydokey,” I said. “I’ll go with the book and take another card.”

I got dealt a king of hearts.

“Busts,” the dealer said, and he took my chips and my cards.

So much for the book.

I played another hand. Lost another chip. Everyone played their hands out and we started over. Connie was nowhere to be seen. The guy in black was behind me, watching me. I could feel him back there. The photo images of shattered skulls popped into my head. The memory of the heat and numbing blackness that followed the hit from the dart washed over me. I felt a panic attack trying to get a toehold.