Jingle of Coins Read Free Page B

spun and locked into position. When she'd lost about a third of her coins, she gave up and moved to a different aisle.
    She hadn't played more than ten nickels when the slot machine creaked and groaned like the first one. What the devil? Shaking her head, Emily stared at the pay line, wondering if her imagination was playing tricks on her, or if the noise actually meant something. She tried to remember how long had it been from the time the noise started until the first machine paid out, but couldn’t, so she dropped in three more nickels and crossed her fingers.
    This time the noise rose several octaves, causing her head to throb. Was it going to hit? Unable to stand the suspense, she closed her eyes and counted to ten. When she opened them, two jackpot symbols rested on the pay line in front of her, and the third reel was still spinning.
    Emily held her breath until the spinning stopped, revealing the third jackpot symbol. She'd won again! Holy Cow! She jumped off her chair and watched as the lights on top of the slot machine flashed and the music blared. Once again the familiar ting, ting, ting of nickels bouncing into the metal tray boomed in her ears. Another fifty dollars! She could do this all night!
    Once the machine stopped spitting out nickels, she glanced down at her watch. Damn. Ten o’clock, time to meet up with the rest of the group. She hurried to the payout window and slid her buckets toward the teller. The woman dumped her nickels into a square coin counter bin in the center of the room. A digital screen positioned above the bin flashed out incremental amounts, then stopped at sixty-eight dollars and thirty-five cents.
    Grinning at the teller, Emily stuffed the money into her wallet and rejoined her group in front of the casino. On the way home, she hesitantly told them she'd hit two jackpots.
    Rosie, one of the losers, summoned a smile. "Not bad for a rookie, Emily. What's your secret? Do the machines talk to you?"
    "You're not going to believe this, but they do," Emily replied.
    The group burst into laughter.
    "So, are you hooked for life now that you've hit two jackpots on your first visit?" Betty asked. She touched Emily's arm. "Be careful. There's a down side to gambling. It's easy to get so caught up in the fever that gambling becomes your whole life. I know, because as a counselor, I've seen it happen too many times. It’s the same story over and over again. People win the first couple of times out and think it's great. Then they raise the stakes and start to lose. The result is they become hooked and gamble all the time because they're so sure the next spin of the reels will make them a winner once again. Before they know it, they've lost their job, their house, and their family. I don’t want that to happen to you."
    Emily patted her fingers. "Don't worry. I'm sure my win was a fluke. I’ll tell you what, though. I sure got a kick out of hearing those nickels go ting, ting, ting."
    Later, as Emily got ready for bed, she wondered if fate was playing another cruel trick on her. Had she had a stroke of good fortune? God knows she was due one. Or…was it something else? Had her heightened sense of hearing allowed her to discern which machine was ready to pay off? It sure would be ironic if the injury that ended her artistic career turned out to be a benefit rather than a burden.
    She thought about the different machines she'd tried. The first one made noise as soon as she put money into the coin slot. After that, it was probably only ten or twelve pulls before the noise level changed and the machine paid off. The second machine, however, hadn’t made any grumbling whatsoever.
    She knew the machines were operated by computer chips. Obviously, they must have some kind of device that calculated the number of spins between jackpots. Each machine would probably be on a different payoff cycle so they didn’t all pay out at the same time. That made sense, especially for financial reasons. After all, the