Never Alone

By Fred Krug

Story originally appeared in “Unexpected Events”

Emma Brooks struggled, trying to lift her suitcase onto the first of four steps that led up into the bus. Paul Harris, the driver, saw she was having trouble. He put down his newspaper and called to her as he went to help.

“Hey, there, Emma. That bag’s too heavy for you. Let me put it in the storage space. How long are you gonna be staying anyway?”

“I’ll be there for three nights” she answered, with a grin. “They gave me a comp room reservation last week and I’m gonna use it while it’s still good.”

“You mean you’ll be able to stay for free? Hey, that’s a good deal. They must want to make sure you come back.” Paul feigned a smile but he began to worry. The casino didn’t give comp rooms to just anybody. Comp rooms usually went to the high rollers or, in Emma’s case, to the steady losers. If Emma received a complimentary room reservation when she was there last weekend, she must have lost more than usual. 

Paul Harris was the long time driver of the Silver Dollar Casino coach that collected people from the City of York, Pennsylvania and transported them to and from Atlantic City. He knew the regulars, most often elderly women who had little else to do. These women were looking for someone to talk with as much as they hoped to cash in on the casino floor. The company gave Paul ten dollars in casino chips and a free lunch pass to disperse to each passenger before they arrived, an inducement that always excited his travelers. Emma Brooks was Paul’s favorite among the regulars. She always had a good attitude, even after her losing weekends at the casino. She was one of the few passengers who regularly gave him a tip at the end of the ride. And she always thanked him for taking care of the people on the bus. 

 The casino floor managers knew her well, too. She traveled to the Silver Dollar Casino in Atlantic City almost every weekend since George, her husband of fifty-two years, died two years ago. Usually the floor managers looked after her. They had a soft spot for the eighty-two year old lady with the cheerful smile who always dressed up for the casino like she was going to church. They steered her into the hotel lobby if she fell too far behind playing the slot machines. Paul thought that something must have happened last week to prompt management to give her a complimentary room reservation. Maybe there was a new floor manager, somebody who didn’t know her. Or maybe, somehow, the managers just stood by while she gambled away more of the money she received from George’s life insurance. But Emma Brooks was not discouraged. She laughed when people warned her about the evils of gambling, as if she knew some secret that she refused to share. This was her time and her money to spend, she would say, and that ended the conversation. It was her gentle way of telling people to mind their own business.

“You’re here early today, Emma,” Paul said. “You’re the first one so you can pick your seat, anywhere you like. We don’t leave until 7:30, you know.”

“I know that. But I had to get here early. I had to ask my grandson Henry for a ride to the bus terminal. Martin won’t bring me anymore. He thinks I should stay home and watch the wall paper turn pale. Martin doesn’t approve of my trips to the casino. So Henry agreed to drive me here and pick me up when I come back. I’m here early because Henry’s shift at the grocery store starts at seven. If it wasn’t for Henry, I don’t know how I would get here.”

Emma’s son Martin was a respected citizen of the city of York who ran a successful real estate agency. His business acumen enabled him to rise to the upper middle class from a family that had lived on the cusp of poverty during his childhood. As a result, he was cautious about money. He disapproved of his mother’s weekend trips and never failed to tell her that she was wasting the inheritance she would need in her old age. The fact that she was already in her old age and in seeming good health did not deter him. Martin was also a deacon at the local Baptist church where his mother had taken him every Sunday while he was growing up. Until she began her foray into casino gambling, she was a dedicated church goer. But these days, being otherwise occupied on weekends, Emma no longer attended Sunday services. Martin was embarrassed when members of the congregation asked him how his mother was doing and why she didn’t come to church anymore. Most of them knew where Emma spent her weekends. That didn’t stop them from enjoying the sight of Martin’s face turning red when they asked where she was.

The bus gradually filled with casino travelers. Paul Harris greeted each of them as they entered. When the bus started on its way, he announced over the intercom “Ladies and gentleman. I’ve been told by the higher ups at the Silver Dollar this is the weekend each of you will return a winner. So hold onto your seats. Lady Luck is with you!” The passengers laughed, not because what Paul said was funny (admittedly, it wasn’t) but because he said the same thing at the start of each bus trip for the past eight years. It was the start of an entertaining morning that for the passengers was one of the most enjoyable parts of their outing.

Emma had chosen a window seat in the middle of the bus. As she watched the rolling hills of eastern Pennsylvania pass by, she thought about George and the years together on their family farm. It was lucky that they were able to sell the farm five years before George died. Nobody wanted to go into family farming anymore. The work was too hard and the profit too little. But the young couple that bought the farm was so enthusiastic! They said they wanted to get back to basics. They were tired of city living and wanted to make a new start. They reminded her of the way she and George looked at things when they were young and how, despite the toil and uncertainty of making a living in farming, it was all worthwhile.

Emma didn’t know the person who sat next to her. In fact, she didn’t recognize anyone who boarded the bus that morning. It was a completely new group. But that didn’t bother her. Emma made friends easily. She was never lonely. That morning her grandson Henry had asked her how she felt about traveling alone. He asked if she ever felt lonely, especially now that Grandpa George was no longer with her. She answered “Henry, honey, I never get lonely. That’s because wherever I go, JESUS is always with me!” Emma smiled and so did Henry. This was not the first time he heard her give this answer. It was her stock reply when anyone tried to pry into Emma’s emotions. And it always succeeded in cutting off any further snooping. Henry suppressed the temptation to ask if this was still true when she went to the casino to gamble. He tried to envision Jesus standing next to his grandmother while she played the slots.

Emma Brook’s interest in games of chance began soon after George’s death. One day, while she waited in the checkout line at her local grocery store, she bought a two dollar Pennsylvania State lottery card. She scratched the card when she got home and was thrilled to find that she had won fifty dollars. She phoned Marvin that evening to tell him the news. She told him it was the first time in her life that she had actually won something. Marvin was unimpressed. He congratulated her but told her that playing the lottery was a good way to lose your money.

If winning fifty dollars wasn’t incentive enough, Marvin’s advice ensured that she would buy another lottery ticket the next time she bought groceries. Who was he to tell her how to spend her money? When she won twenty dollars the following week, she kept the news to herself. But for the next four weeks, her luck turned. She came up empty on each additional ticket. That probably would have ended her experiment with wagering. But, as she later claimed, God had a different plan for her.

The York Senior Center was a favorite gathering place for Emma Brooks and her friends. Among the activities the center offered were trips to museums, movies, theaters, a local zoo and, when the weather allowed, an arboretum where the ladies fussed over the display of flowers. When the Senior Center planned a two day trip to Atlantic City and announced that members would have discounted room rates for their stay at the Silver Dollar Casino, Emma was the first to sign up. By then George’s life insurance company had paid the full amount of his policy. After covering the funeral expenses and the cost of an after- burial luncheon, Emma had more than ten thousand dollars left in her bank account. Plus, there were the proceeds from the sale of the farm. For the first time in her life, she was financially secure. She promised herself and George, in her occasional conversations with his lingering spirit, that she was going to enjoy whatever time was left to her.

When she entered the Silver Dollar Casino for the first time, Emma was overwhelmed by the flashing lights and the sound of alarms that signaled winning slot machines. The place was filled with people leaning over dice tables, placing bets at roulette wheels and feeding tokens to an array of one armed bandits. Scantily clad waitresses strolled across the floor with trays of drinks for the gamblers. The slot machines called out to Emma. Almost immediately she found one that interested her. All she had to do was pull the handle and hit three of a kind in a row to win. Three cherries in a row would yield a jackpot, something that was beyond her imagination and which she was sure would never happen. Win or lose the slot machines were a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, despite their bus driver’s promise, Lady Luck was somewhere else that day. Emma returned home one hundred and seventy dollars poorer than when she left. But it didn’t matter. The hotel room was luxurious. The meals were delightful. And she made some new friends. The money she lost was just the price of having a good time. There was no need to tell Marvin anything about it.

The Senior Center venture was the first of Emma’s many trips to Atlantic City. She soon learned that the Silver Dollar Casino provided free bus trips to and from Atlantic City every weekend on a luxurious bus called The Silver Dollar Special. All she had to do was sign up at the local bus terminal by Wednesday at four o’clock and she would be set to go on Saturday morning’s 7:30 express. That’s when Emma’s church attendance became sporadic and, eventually, ended. She ignored the lectures Marvin gave her when he discovered where she was going. He refused to take her to the bus station or to meet her when she returned. Undeterred, she took a cab or, if her grandson was available, she asked him for a ride. And she most certainly never said a word to Marvin, Henry or anyone else when she began losing more money each weekend than she expected.

Emma’s losing streak didn’t follow a straight downward line. There were weekends when she returned to York several hundred dollars ahead. But win or lose, she enjoyed watching the slot machine wheels spin around. She loved the suspense of waiting to see where the wheels would stop. She thrilled at the sound of coins clinking in the machine’s tray when she won and at the alarm that sounded if her win was big enough. Most of all, she was flattered by the friendliness and close attention that the casino floor managers gave her. “Such nice young men and women”, she thought. It was almost like she had found a new family. 

Gradually Emma’s weekend losses outstripped her gains. “Lady Luck” she thought “must be taking a vacation.” Each time she went to the casino she promised herself this would be the weekend when she would recover what she lost over the previous six months. When that didn’t happen, she stopped counting. How much better she felt when she made up her mind to just enjoy herself. “I can’t take it with me when I go” she told herself. And with that idea in mind, her downward spiral accelerated.

Marvin Brooks no longer spoke with his mother about her trips to the casino. That, he knew, was a lost cause. But he looked in on her from time to time. He noticed changes in her behavior. She started to show little interest in Marvin or his family. She never asked about her friends at church. She smiled less when he visited and she hesitated to join in any conversation. Something was wrong. Marvin vowed to get to the root of it. And he knew just where to start.

Marvin and Sam Baker grew up together. They were in the same class at school and played on the same athletic teams. They attended different colleges but both returned to York to begin their careers and start their families. They played golf at the York Country Club, weather permitting. During winter months they played poker on Wednesday evenings with friends whom they had known for years. Sam was president of the York Savings and Loan Association where Emma Brooks kept her account. Marvin held a Power of Attorney that Emma signed after George died. The Power of Attorney gave Marvin the right to control her bank account. When Marvin suspected something was amiss, he placed the Power of Attorney in his briefcase and scheduled an appointment at the bank with Sam Baker. 

When Marvin told Sam about his concern, Sam called up the record of Emma’s account on his computer. As Marvin suspected, over the past year Emma had withdrawn large sums from what was in the account after George died. Worse, the amount of weekly withdrawals was increasing. If Emma continued like this, the account would be totally depleted in less than a year. Marvin had no doubt about where his mother’s money was going. With Sam’s approval, Marvin withdrew all but a thousand dollars from his mother’s account and deposited the money in a new account that he would control, for her benefit, of course. He asked Sam to keep the transaction confidential. Marvin planned to tell his mother that he was going to manage her finances from now on when she returned from her weekend in Atlantic City.   

When he answered the phone that Sunday morning, Marvin was surprised to hear his mother’s voice. “Marvin,” she said. “I’m coming home early. Can you meet me at the bus station at six o’clock?” Emma’s voice was flat and solemn. She seemed to be pleading with him. Why would she end her weekend trip after only one night? Something was wrong. She couldn’t have lost the entire one thousand dollars that he left in her account. Or could she? Maybe the casino refused to extend credit when she couldn’t draw more funds from the ATM. And why call him, when she knew he didn’t want to have anything to do with her weekend excursions?

“I guess I can meet you there, Mom. But I thought you were staying until Monday. Is anything wrong? Are you feeling OK?”

“I’m OK, Marvin. It’s just that things haven’t turned out the way I expected. I want to come home. I’ve had enough of this casino. I don’t think I’ll be coming back.”

“That’s great!” thought Marvin. “She’s finally come to her senses. I guess there is a limit to how much she would lose, after all.” 

“Sure, Mom. I can meet you at six. I’ll be there. Do you want me to bring anything with me?”

“No, just come by yourself. I’ll tell you what happened when I get there”. And with that she hung up.

When Marvin reached the bus station, the heavens opened. He found a parking spot two streets away and waited there, hoping the rain would let up. His umbrella was at its usual place in the hall closet at home. If the rain continued, he would be soaked by the time he ran to the lot where the buses came in. This was the price he had to pay because his mother wouldn’t listen to common sense. The bus was late, too.  Marvin arrived at the bus station at five forty-five, in case it came in early. But it wasn’t until six thirty that he saw the Silver Dollar Special pull into the passenger dock. He ran to the terminal to tell his mother to wait there while he got the car so she wouldn’t get drenched.

 Marvin was in no mood to sympathize with his mother about her gambling losses. This wouldn’t have happened if she had listened to him. Her line about Jesus going with her wherever she went was no longer funny. He wouldn’t tell her “I told you so”, but he had no intention of saying that everything will be OK. He would drive to her apartment, listen to what she said and congratulate her for finally seeing the light. Then he would tell her that in the future she would have to consult him before making any more bank withdrawals. She won’t like it, he thought. But she’ll have to admit that he had been right all along.

Emma was one of only a few passengers who got off the bus. She said good-bye to Paul Harris, the driver, gave him a five dollar tip and thanked him for bringing her home safely.  When she turned to say hello, Marvin thought she looked grim. He decided not to be too harsh with her. After all, she was his mother. He pulled her suitcase from the storage bin and told her to wait while he ran for the car.

The rain had stopped when they reached the senior housing complex where she lived. On the way, she told him about an accident on the Pennsylvania Turnpike that snarled traffic for almost an hour. She apologized for being late. She would tell him why she came home early when they were in her apartment. Marvin’s patience was worn. He intended to visit with her for only a few minutes. He could tell her then about how he used the Power of Attorney to open a new account that he would control. She would have plenty of time later to adjust to this new arrangement.

Once inside, as always, she asked him to sit down and offered him a cup of tea. Marvin disliked tea, but she never had coffee in the kitchen so he accepted her offer. She brought the tea pot in on a tray with a bowl of sugar and a slice of lemon next to a sealed plain white envelope. She poured Marvin a cup and asked if he wanted milk. He didn’t. She sat across from him and waved her left hand at the envelope. “Open it”, she said. “Then you’ll see why I told you that things didn’t turn out the way I expected.” For the first time that evening, Marvin detected a faint smile. 

“How about telling me why you decided to come home early?” he asked.

“Just open the envelope”, she said. “You’ll have your answer when you see what’s inside.”

Without a letter opener, it wasn’t easy to open the envelope. When Marvin looked inside, he saw a rectangular piece of paper that looked like a check. He removed the check. The check was signed by the Chief Financial Officer of the Silver Dollar Casino. His mother’s name appeared on the payee line. The check was in the amount of one million dollars! .

Marvin gasped. “Is this for real?” he asked. “Did you hit the jackpot?”

“That’s exactly right, Marvin. They had a special drawing for all their guests who are over the age of sixty and I bought thirty tickets at twenty – five dollars each. I almost fainted when they announced the winning number on one of my tickets! I guess I wasn’t wasting my time going to Atlantic City after all.”

Marvin’s jaw hung down while he stared at the check, struggling to accept the fact that it was real. His mother continued.

 “Sam Baker called me after you put my money in an account in your name. He told me what you did. I know he’s your friend but I guess he felt a little guilty about it. You shouldn’t have done that, Marvin. It wasn’t nice of you. But don’t worry. I’m canceling the Power of Attorney and depositing the Silver Dollar check and the rest of my money where you can’t reach it.” 

“Oh, and thanks for the ride from the bus terminal. I won’t be going to the Silver Dollar Casino anymore so I won’t bother asking you for a ride to the bus station again. You know the expression ‘Quit while you’re ahead’? That’s what I’m doing. I’ll miss the fun of my weekend trips, but now I can travel anywhere I want and see all those places I’ve always dreamed about. And like I told you, I never go anywhere alone. In fact, strange as it may seem, when they called out my winning number, it felt like someone I know very well was standing right next to me.”

The author, Fred Krug, is a retired attorney living in Watertown, Connecticut. He began writing short stories and poetry after retiring in June 2013. He has self-published a book of memoirs entitled “My Life and Times” and a collection of short stories entitled “Unexpected Events”.  

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