On the Brinks by Sam Millar

Author:Sam Millar [Sam Millar]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847176561
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2014-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

I was now living in Queens, New York. With me was my girlfriend Bernadette, who had been introduced to me by Dad, in the hope that such a quiet and lovely person would help keep me out of trouble. With over 100 ethnic groups settled there, Queens is the most ethnically diverse, as well as the largest, of the five boroughs that make up New York.

I had finally taken Dad’s advice and gone for a short holiday, telling him I’d see him in a week. Little did I know, but it would be well over a decade before we saw each other again.

In Manhattan, I was training to be a croupier at a local casino. I had come in early, just to get some extra training done, when I decided to take a ten-minute break on the second floor. Cobalt smoke drifted upwards, spiralling before dissipating into the high-rise ceiling. Below me, people clustered around the tables, trying to match luck against skill, skill against luck. Thousands of dollars exchanged hands in the blink of an eye.

I watched, fascinated by the dealers’ prowess, boxer-speed coupled with arithmetical perfection. In Belfast, we called it twenty-one, or pontoon. Here, they called it blackjack.

The card tables were half-moon shaped, covered with lush green and large enough to seat seven customers. There were ten tables, all going full tilt. Behind the seated customers stood more customers, waiting for a seat or jockey-betting – placing their bets alongside those in the seats.

“Where da foick is Nicky!” screamed Bronx Tommy, one of the managers. Money was leaking from the casino at a terrible rate. Nicky was the casino’s best dealer, with a knack for rescuing, but from the way the customers were winning, I thought it more appropriate to call on the help of Saint Jude.

“Where da foick is he?” Bronx Tommy repeated, his one good eye scanning the entire floor. I was sure he was looking straight at me, so I quickly stepped back, out of sight, just in case he was thinking of getting me involved.

Except for the oohs and ahhs of victory and defeat, blackjack is a quiet and unnerving game, most of the communication done by slight movements of the finger or hand. A finger motion asks for another card, while a slicing motion means the customer will stay with what he or she has. These rules are strictly adhered to. Once the dealer has released a card from the ‘shoe’ – a long Perspex housing unit – it can’t be returned. Therefore, a customer must be wary of getting an itch at the wrong time or waving to a fellow player – an unwanted card can be the punishment.

The casinos were known as after-hours joints in New York City. They were mainly large houses, converted and styled to resemble Atlantic City casinos, albeit on a much smaller scale. What they lacked in size, though, they more than made up for in their cosiness and chic, although that was only part of the reason for their popularity.

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