Let this be the first post of ‘The Open Manhole’ category and let it be known that it may or may not be true, that it may be the lost wanderings of a deranged mind or the lost, deranged mind has achieved this level due to the insane actions of people that come into the daily life of the writer. Names will be changed but tales will be told. If you don’t like the tale, and you feel it pertains to you, then change your life and actions to a more pleasing ‘life performance’ and the trend of writing will gradually change as your actions change. As in all things, perception is only the view of the person on stage; it could be distorted or twisted or it could be very factual, without prejudice. Take The Open Manhole as you wish…or leave it. Either way works quite well for the writer.
An open manhole can be very dangerous; tripping over it, falling into it, or trying to close it can create an array of hazardous events. If you know the manhole is there, are you tempted to make it your daily quest to continually fall in and see if the results change? One day you break your leg, another day you hit your head on the side as you fall through, another day you land on your feet and laugh at fate. If you don’t know it’s there and you trip, is that something you should have foreseen and kept your eyes open for? If you try to cover it to keep others from tripping or falling into it, are you depriving them of living their lives and experiencing their own setbacks and life jolts? Are we predestined to look for things that destroy our lives and social/economic structures rather than looking for ways to improve ourselves and the world we live in? We are human…capable of thought and planning, capable of change, able to adapt – but do we?
So begins one of the tales, it started about 20 years ago. Scobie arrived in Las Vegas fresh out of a small town in another state. He was young and healthy and ready to take on Sin City. Scobie knew how to deal poker. He applied for a job at the Gold Coast Casino and was hired to deal their daily tournaments as extra-board. Very few hours, very little money later, Scobie didn’t want to go out and look for another job; one that would give him full-time hours, he had hit the comfort zone and had friends that had the same habits he had. It took him about a year and a half to achieve a full-time job and many nights of sleeping on a friend’s couch or where ever he could find a place to lay his head. The road was filled with many manholes. Scobie liked to gamble, not just poker but pit games kept him broke most of the time. And Scobie discovered drugs, crack was one that kept him wrapped like a tight wedding ring on a fat man’s finger.
Scobie was one that was never close to family and always had a penchant for Dungeons and Dragons and fantasy series novels. He ran so hard that he was late for work at times, and too thin to be the kid that came to take on Sin City a few years earlier. For some reason, one day he woke up to the fact that he couldn’t control his crack addiction. He called the only person he knew that would talk to him about it and he wouldn’t get fired for talking, Sally. Sally grew up with Scobie, feeling the beats of many blows that life dealt out, she could associate with his stress and situation, although she couldn’t associate with the drug factor, she knew he was in trouble just from the tone of his voice and what he said. She agreed that if he called her at any point, she would drop what she was doing and go pick him up. He felt that if she came to his aid, he could turn his back on the next crack attack that he knew would hit.
Scobie confessed that he dreamed about crack, that if one of his roommates had it, he would have physically tried to beat them into the floor to get it so Scobie could smoke it. He lived with two other guys his age and they all dealt at the Gold Coast. One of them did not do any drugs but they kept him broke buying their groceries when they spent all their money on crack. Scobie did not want to go to drug counseling which was offered to employees of the Gold Coast because he felt it would jeopardize his job in the long run.
A few months later Sally and Scobie rented a two bedroom apartment together and Scobie managed to stay away from crack. That is not the end, nor was it the beginning of Scobie’s drug experiences. Scobie had been in Germany during his term of service with the US Army and had problems there with drugs, it went as far back as high school where he dropped out of school and ran away from home at the age of 16. Scobie decided to join the Army when he was 17 and off he went. He signed up for an additional term and when he returned to the US, he worked as a satellite installer in the southeast part of the US for a few years before learning to deal poker.
A few months after Scobie and Sally began rooming. Then Scobie met a little beauty named Anita…although Scobie’s eyes were always open when it came to the fair sex, he brought this one to live with him. Anita was a $20-$40 Limit Holdem player and played frequently at the Mirage. She had also worked for companies in gaming that handled blackjack cruises and other things. Scobie explained to Sally that Anita needed a place to stay for about three weeks until she got settled and that’s about how long it was before Scobie told Anita they were not going to make it as a couple and the relationship was over.
Anita took this badly, continually calling Sally and crying over Scobie, explaining that he broke her heart and she was in love with him. Sally listened and tried to get Anita to move on. As life goes, the manhole cover slid into place and Scobie was once again out checking out the girlies, dealing poker, gambling, and running, but crack free.
To be continued…