Card Club Girl’s Story

I would learn later that there was no problem with the card club girl’s English.  Sonia had lived in California since she was twelve and was a semester away from a degree from Berkeley in English literature.  Our communication problem was that she was in love with my missing friend and, having caught a fleeting glance of me getting in or out of his car, mistaken me for his fiancee.

As it turned out, Sonia had known my missing friend Mike for a long time.  He was a regular customer at the card club and one of the few customers that was not obviously dangerous or on death’s door for one reason or another, and gradually they became friends.

Working at the card club was a good job for a college student, she thought at first.  She could work at night and take classes during the day, and there was plenty of slow time at work to sit and do her reading for school.  Sonia had vague thoughts of being a writer when she graduated and figured that all of the weird characters who hung out at the card club would be good fodder for a book someday.

As a pretty fresh-faced college girl in a room full of down-on-their-luck old men, she made excellent tips, even though the cusomers were not really supposed to tip anyone.  Gradually she started working more and more hours with the idea of saving enough money for an actual vacation after graduation.  Then she started playing cards, since she had learned a thing or two from watching all the customers.  Then she got a little down on her luck, and that was when my friend Mike intervened.