Casino scene
Rings of machines. Cheers of triumphant patrons. Groans of disappointed ones. It’s the same every time she enters the Bellagio, and these sounds have made up the symphony of her life for the past five years. Hopping behind the bar to start her shift, she spots her regulars already at their favorite machines and tables. Retired Gladys is nursing her vodka martini (based on the time and the chips in her bucket, probably her third). Slippery Sal is playing blackjack at a table directly behind the bar, where he hopes to avoid the gaze of the bouncers as he slips chips into his waistband. Unforgettable Gianna is making her rounds in a strategically chosen cocktail dress so she can dazzle her targets for the night. Las Vegas is known by several different names, most notably Sin City, but Cat prefers to refer to it by it’s lesser known nickname: the City of Second Chances. The city is filled with so many different characters and people that it’s the ideal city for reinventing yourself. Behind the bar, she watches people do it all the time.
When Cat first met Retired Gladys, she portrayed herself as the fun granny. The one that tells all the kids the family gossip, isn’t afraid to tell the adults exactly what is on her mind, and is riding the thin line between sane and batty. However, through the jokes and the stories she was telling, her eyes remained shadowed— no sparks of mischief, no twinkles in her eyes. She told story after story of her husband and her family, each more ridiculous than the last, but eventually ridiculous stories turned into reminiscences and her tone begun to match her eyes. Eventually, she revealed that she had been a nurse during the pandemic, and as with all healthcare workers, the pandemic wore on her as she watched it ravage her home, her family. The pandemic eventually took so much out of her emotionally that she had retired after the first wave of vaccinations. She was the only one left, but she couldn’t be alone, so she came to this city to be around the people and the noise to help her forget what she has lost.
Slippery Sal (true to his name) remains a mystery. He dresses like he belongs on Wall Street, talks like he’s from the bayou, and gestures like an Italian. One night after one too many, he let slip that he doesn’t really steal the chips, just likes to test our security. When I asked why he bothered with it, all he did was wink before leaving to go back to his table. So of course Cat didn’t believe him. That night, she asked the dealer when the table closed if any chips were missing and she shook her head. The following night she tried everything to find out what he was up to, but all he did was inform her not to ask questions of him and in return he wouldn’t ask questions of her. There’s more to Slippery Sal’s story, just like there’s more to mine, but I’ll let it slip through my fingers. Everyone is entitled to their secrets. Even so, it’s become part of my routine to ask the dealer at Sal’s table this same question night after night, but the answer never changes.
Unforgettable Gianna’s story is a tale as old as time. She came from a small Midwestern town hoping to make something of herself in LA, fell into the wrong opportunities, and decided to live out the rest of her time in Vegas. She knows how to become the favorite of every male patron. She asks the right questions, laughs at all the right times, and flirts just the right amount. They don’t even notice when chips from their piles go missing, nor do they notice that she disappears before anything can go any further. It’s been said that in a casino the house always wins, however in this house, Gianna always wins.
These three are Cat’s favorite patrons to watch and favorite to emulate. She takes Retired Gladys’s past, Slippery Sal’s mystery, Unforgettable Gianna’s techniques, and from them makes the core of her new self. Her passing patrons are used to enhance the persona— a story there, a mannerism here— and suddenly there’s not a trace of the girl she used to be. She’s in Las Vegas, the city of second chances, and she’s taken it.