Card Club Girl, Continued

When Sonia started playing cards after work, it turned out that she had not learned as much by watching customers as she thought she had. Also it turned out that she was a born gambling addict, and it did not take her long to lose all her vacation savings. After she ran out of money, a middle-aged card dealer at the club let her play on credit. Eventually, Sonia spent all her time driving the middle-aged card dealer around and running his errands, supposedly to work off her gambling debts. She found that she rarely had time to attend her classes. The errands became increasingly sinister, and more likely to involve driving around with silent, sullen men who appeared to be criminals.

Sonia felt that her life had gotten so horrible so fast that she was like a person outside of it all watching a bad after-school special on the danger of gambling. She was too embarassed to ask anyone for help. That is when my friend Mike, the friendly card club customer, became a little worried about her. He shared meals with her a few times and, without asking any embarrassing questions, told her about other job openings he heard of, in other towns or other states. He encouraged her to get out of the business.

Sonia knew that Mike was engaged to someone else, but she could not help falling in love with the only nice person in her life. When they started eating dinner together regularly during her break, she looked forward to it all day. It was also around this time that the middle-aged card dealer noticed the new man in her life, and that is when Sonia thinks the trouble started.