Val Is the $12.99 Daughter

When we last convened, Val was having a heyday at Downstream Casino in Oklahoma. Finding pennies all willy-nilly, and hearing her two special songs on the radio while traveling, songs that she associates with her dear, departed mother.

Thursday night was our last night at Downstream. We would all be going our separate ways on Friday morning, The Pony back to college at OU, Genius to his new apartment in Kansas City to get on with his real life, and start work at Garmin on January 8th. My sister the ex-mayor's wife, and the ex-mayor himself, back home to not see us again until next Christmas, even though we live about 10 miles apart. And me back to my Backroads homestead, to while away my hours and days and weeks and years with fully-retired Hick.

The Pony conked out early Thursday night. Said he was going to bed at 10:30, to rest up for his drive the next day, but mainly to save himself from losing any money. Genius and Friend spent a little time high-drinking, low-betting. Then they went back to their room. Hick never tells me when he's leaving, but rather texts me from the room that he's back, and going to sleep. Sis and the ex-mayor stopped by periodically, to visit me at my favorite Buffalo Gold game that I FINALLY got a chance on. The story of the usurpers is coming soon.

On their last pass by, on the way back to their room around 1:00 a.m., Sis told me that the cash-out machines weren't working. "None of them! I have two tickets I'll have to cash in tomorrow. I went to the cashier, but there's a line about 25 deep, and I'm not waiting tonight."

Huh. That revelation was rain on my parade. I had a couple of big tickets to cash in. I figured that by the time I was ready to leave, the line would have shortened. So I played on. When my butt got too tired to sit and lose money any more, I headed for the cashier. Of course it was in the complete opposite corner of the casino from where I was playing. This isn't some rinky-dink operation. It's about 3 or 4 times the size of the casino that Hick and I frequently frequent back home.

First I went to the nearby cash-out machine I'd been using, and indeed saw a message that it was not giving out cash. It's not that I doubted my sister's word, but why walk all the way across the casino if you don't have to? Then I began my trek to the cashier. A casino doesn't have orderly rows and wide main hallways like my teaching career provided me. There are several games here, a round kiosk there, some back-to-back arrangements at a diagonal, gaming tables roped off, a circular bar...all set up seemingly cattywompus to each other, though I'm sure the people who run that casino paid a pretty price to a consultant about traffic flow.

It was kind of like a corn maze. You can't really see what's around the next corner. You CAN see the big letters on the outside wall that say CASHIER. So I was weaving to and fro, having not traveled this direction yet on this trip, mainly having gone around the perimeter and cut in a couple times looking for that Wonder 4 Tower.

I was moseying along by the circular bar on my left, carving out a circuitous path up front, when a cheer arose from a gaming table over to my right. I don't even know what they were playing, but they were all standing up. I turned my head to glance over then, and SAW IT!

Is this too good to be true, or WHAT? Val found a ladybug slot!!! I was dying to sit down and play it, but I had no cash. And I wasn't putting a more-than-$100-ticket in there. I couldn't even get a picture, because OF ALL THE TIMES, EVER, IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD...a technician materialized out of nowhere to work on the slot that was two machines to the left of the one I wanted to photograph.

I went on to the cashier. I pocketed (pursed, actually) my big bills, and had three twenties to play on. I wanted to put one of them into the ladybug slot. How could I NOT? The technician was gone, so I took a picture before I did anything else. It's on whatever the previous player left it at. There's no guarantee that it would have been on that column of ladybugs that caught my eye. Ladybugs. That remind me of my mom, and her drop-ceiling full of them in her family room.

It was a ladybug slot, all right. I took a close-up to prove it happened.

I put in my player's card and my $20. Seeing that it was a 40-line game, I decided to play all lines at one credit per line. That's 40 cents a spin. With $20 in, I figured I had 50 spins. Whatever (if any) money was left after that would be what I won. Of course I hit the wrong button first, and made a spin wagering ONE CENT! That's not really Val's style. So I made 49 more spins at 40 cents a spin. I hit a couple of little wins. Nothing big. After my 50th spin, there was $12.99 credit left in the machine. A lesser woman, with no self control, and a crushing gambling addiction...might have played that down to nothing.

That's not Val.

I cashed it out. Saved the ticket for the next day. I didn't feel like weaving my way through machines to the cashier again. (I'm pretty sure my PAINT skills with a spray can to remove the bar code from this photo will unequivocally assure you that I am NOT Banksy.) This ticket gave me VALidation (see what I did there) that the power of the ladybug was with me on this trip. And that I've received a promotion from Five-Dollar Daughterdom. Thank goodness my little overeager one-cent bet faux pas kept me from being a Thirteen Dollar Daughter!

Funny thing. The next morning, after breakfast and goodbyes to the boys, Hick and I walked into the casino by the Buffalo Gold machines. I told him how I had to go to the cashier in the opposite corner last night, because all the cash-out machines were not working. And that I was headed over there now to cash out my $12.99 ticket.

"Yes they were! The one I went to worked. Look. This one over here. It's working now, too." It was only one row over from the Buffalo Gold machine.

I could have cashed out there last night. And never made my winding trip past the ladybug slot machine.