I'd played at
Vavada casino before, on nights just like this one, when sleep wouldn't come and my brain needed a break. I liked the variety, the way you could lose yourself in the different games, the small thrill of a win that had nothing to do with the complications of real life. I deposited fifty bucks, which was stupid, which was money I shouldn't have spent, but I was past the point of making good decisions. I just wanted to disappear for a while.
I started with slots, because slots don't require thinking. Just spinning, watching, letting the colors and sounds wash over you. I found a game with a tropical theme, all palm trees and sunsets and relaxing music. I set my bet to a dollar and let it run. The first hour was nothing. Win a little, lose a little, hover around break-even. My balance touched sixty at one point, dropped to forty, climbed back to fifty-five. Just the gentle rhythm of a game that doesn't owe you anything.
Then I hit a bonus round. Free spins, fifteen of them, with a 3x multiplier. Okay, fine. The spins played out, added maybe thirty bucks to my balance, and I kept going. Another hour passed. I was half asleep, spinning on autopilot, when the screen suddenly went dark.
I sat up, thinking the connection had dropped. But then the music changed, deep and dramatic, and the screen lit up with a bonus round I'd never seen before. It was a pick-em game, a grid of palm trees hiding prizes. I started picking randomly, not really paying attention, and the prizes kept coming. Five bucks. Ten bucks. Twenty bucks. The grid expanded, more trees appeared, and I kept picking. Fifty bucks. A hundred. Two hundred.