Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain.
—Ezekiel 22:27
Edwin paced the floor. This last race had to pay off or he was done for. This was all the money he had left, and there was no way he could go home totally busted. Desiree had asked him about his check, which he had spent the majority of Thursday night at the track. He didn’t understand what could have happened. Never had he lost like that before. Sure he had bet more than he normally would on the races last night and tonight, boxing six out of eight dogs almost every race, which cost $120 each time he did that. But that was because he needed desperately to win some big money.
This evening, Desiree questioned him about all her bounced checks. Of course he denied knowing anything about them. He wasn’t stupid. But come Monday, when she talked to the bank, she would learn just how much he really did know about those missing funds. He had only a few days to make things right, or she would know he had been the one who had caused the account to be grossly insufficient.
“Come on, you stupid dog!” he yelled as the last group of dogs raced toward the finish line. “Get up there, three! You sorry dog, what’s wrong with you! Get up there! Yeah, come on! That’s right! Go! Go! Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank You, Lord! Thank You!”
Edwin let out a yell, which was something most bettors tried not to do too often following the end of a race. People watched you to see if you won, and you never knew who might try to jack you later in the parking lot on your way to your car. But he couldn’t hold his joy inside. This race would be paying some big money, and he could take these winnings home to Desiree to replace the paycheck money he’d lost, plus cover the bounced checks, fees, and the penalties. If it paid what he thought it would, he could even give Desiree a little extra, which would probably be the only way he’d be able to smooth over her anger. He looked at his ticket and smiled. “Eight-four-three,” he said as he kissed his ticket and shook his head. “This should pay big! Really big!”
“Ladies and gentlemen, please hold all tickets. We have a photo finish for third place. Please hold all tickets while we review the photo finish.”
“What?” Edwin said. “Photo finish?” He turned to his friend, who had come and stood next to him. “What are they talking about? That three dog clearly beat that one dog. This is a rip-off here. They just know they’re going to have to pay some big money if that three dog came in third instead of the one. These folks need to quit!”
“So you have that one?” his friend asked.
“Yeah. I boxed six numbers. I just didn’t have a one in there anywhere. Where did that one dog come from anyway? They must have juiced him up or something. That sorry one dog has come in last place the last five races he’s run. And now all of a sudden, tonight, he decides he wants to try to win?”
“So you didn’t have the number one dog?” his friend asked as he pointed to the monitor. They were showing the replay of the race again.
“No.” He looked over at his friend. “Don’t tell me you had it?”
His friend smiled. “Yep. I had it. I figured it was about time that dog did something. Besides, the last five races he ran, he was out of his position. That one dog is an outside dog. They had him on the inside all those other races. That’s why he lost when he did. I had the eight, the four, and the one.”
“I still say the three beat him,” Edwin said.
Just then the monitor flashed up the winning numbers: 8-4-1-3. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have the official results for this last and final race. Eight-four-one-three.”
“Oh, they’re full of it!”
“There’s the photo finish on the screen. The number one dog beat the three by a nose.” His friend grinned as he started walking toward the tellers’ windows.
Edwin couldn’t believe this had happened. How could he have lost? What was he going to tell Desiree? She wasn’t going to let go about the missing paycheck he hadn’t put in the bank yet. On top of that, now he didn’t even have enough money to buy gas to get back and forth to work the next two weeks. As he walked past the ATM machine, he stopped and pulled out his wallet. He could take out an advance on one of their credit cards. It wasn’t like he hadn’t done it before. He had three cards; one of them had to have enough cash left on it to make up for his squandered paycheck and the money Desiree needed to make those bounced checks right. It wasn’t like he didn’t intend to put the money back in two weeks after he got paid, and then go down to Mississippi, where he was sure to win.
He looked at how close he’d come to winning this last race. It paid $6,183 if you had the trifecta straight, $3,091.50 any other way. He almost had it. All he needed was one good win, and he would be back in the game. Tomorrow, he would come back during the matinee. He would stay all day if that’s what it took for him to win at least some of his loss money back. If he could just break even with what he’d lost, he would be happy.
Edwin put the credit card in, keyed in his pin number, keyed in the amount he wished to withdraw, and waited. When it came back that he couldn’t get that amount, he tried a lower figure. That didn’t work. Finally, he put in for $20 and learned he couldn’t even get $20 off that card. Same thing with the other two cards. He thought about the number of times he had withdrawn money from those accounts and realized he had probably already maxed them to the limit. These may have also been the checks paid that bounced.
There had to be a way to get some money from somewhere until he could find his winning streak again and straighten out this whole mess.
Meanwhile, there was Desiree. He would still have to deal with her first thing in the morning. What was he going to tell her? Another lie? Try to bully her again?
“Hey, man,” he said with a huge smile to his friend as he walked past him. “So you got that trifecta. Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
“Listen, can I talk to you for a second?” Edwin said with a rather serious look.
His friend smiled. “If it’s to hit me up for a loan again, forget it. I don’t know if you remember, since you’ve been pretending like you don’t, but you haven’t paid me back from the last time you ‘talked to me for a second’ and ‘borrowed’ a few bucks.”
“I know. But you know I took off from being here a while and when I returned, I’ve had a little trouble getting back into my groove. My stride is a little off, that’s all.”
“What stride? You were losing before you took off on your little hiatus. That was when you had to borrow that money from me, remember? Well, my brother, the Good Book says you reap what you sow; you didn’t sow my money back to me, so you don’t have any grace to reap from my harvest now. Good luck with your old lady, though, when you get home. If you ask me, man, I’d say you have a serious gambling problem, and you need some help.” He laughed loud and hard. “I’ll put in a little prayer for you on my way home. ’Cause from the look on your face, I’d say you’re going to need all the divine help you can get from above.” He strolled away with an extra pep in his step.
Edwin looked around to see if there was anyone else who either owed him money or would be willing to spot him a few bucks until he could win some when he came back tomorrow. Everybody he did see that he knew, he realized he owed them money as well.
“God, how did I get myself in this mess? Look, Lord. If you’ll help me out this time, I promise you, I’ll start going to church every Sunday. God, please. Now you know Desiree is going to hit the ceiling. Have a little mercy on me down here.”
He left the building and headed for his car. He didn’t walk fast; no reason to be in a hurry to get home. He had a pretty good idea what probably awaited him when he woke up in the morning. And it in all likelihood wouldn’t be loving, forgiving, or pretty.