Poetry and stuff

BILOXI GAMBLER

3rd PLACE WINNER

WDC TEEN CONTEST

Prompt: October-November Round:
Write apiece based on the scenario:
There's a new kid at school, and something's up with them.
Your character is determined to figure out what it is!

832 WORDS

BILOXI GAMBLER
By Lisa Noe

The fall festival was to be held at the High school where shelia went to school.
She was looking forward to working in a booth at the festival. She would be selling artificial pumpkins and scare crows. They had made these products in the art class, and shelia was a very talented artist, who wanted to be discovered and to become famous. She saw the new guy in school, who had just started that day, she called out to he and ask him what his name was? Parish, he said with a broad smile.

“I know it’s a strange name, but I come from a long line of strangeness”, he smirked.

Shelia was curious about him, he was a handsome sort of guy, with tussled blonde hair, twinkling blue eyes, very tall for his age, about 5’9 at age 14. Shelia found herself drawn to him for some mysterious reason.

“Why don’t you come over here and work my booth with me, I Can use your hands”, she flashed him a quick and beautiful smile.

Parish was equally curious about Shelia, after all she was the most popular girl in school and the prettiest.
She was not just an artist but she was head cheerleader and Class President of the 10th grade.
Don Rhodes, was watching, curiously while, the two of them , Shelia and Parish, were getting to know one another. Don was jealous because he was in love with Shelia and she had scorned him in the past.
Shelia questioned Parish about himself.

“Where are you from Parish?” She asked.
Parish looked at her and licked his lips he then looked down to the ground and said,

“I am from Biloxi, I lived there for several years.”

“What does you parents do for a living?”

“My mom is dead, and my dad plays the casinos there, he usually breaks even.
But sometimes he has to work for a guy at the casino collecting money!”

“You mean your dad is a gambler?”

“Yeah, you could say that I guess.”

“Has he ever gotten in trouble over his gambling? “

“If you want me to Shelia, I can tell you a secret.”

“Yeah, what kind of secret to you know?”

“They will be having illegal gambling going on, on the sly, this evening around 7:30 PM.”

“Where at?”

right here, they’ll gamble on the rats ! on which rat will get the cheese in the dwelling they have built.”
They will gamble also on the roulette wheel, my father is usually the big winner, and then he shares it with the men that run the games. They’ll have a poker game at midnight, blackjack at 9:00, they get buy with it because the bosses or the men who run the games, pay the law to look the other way, and they do.
A lot of money can be made, I myself even win the black jack sometimes. I’ve won
$1200 dollars playing the last time. I plan on being on hand tonight too. Some of these games we suspect are rigged but I will keep trying.”

“Why is it illegal”? asked Shelia so innocently.

Because it overtakes people’s lives. They become addicted.
It destroys their lives, and tears apart families. You may win once or twice but when you start losing everything you own and steal and cheat to be apart of the game. I’ve seen my own father hit rock bottom.
He was even accused of Murder!”

“Murder? When? Where? Why did he get accused? What happened?”

“Well it was the last place we lived in Biloxi! They found a body at the makeshift casino on the beach where my father had been running a card game every other night. A man who had lost a bundle of money at the card game accused my father of cheating, My father became enraged and threw the man out of the little club house. Later that night one of the night guards found the badly beaten body of the gentleman of whom my father had earlier been fighting with. The police were called and my father was arrested and charged with the murder of this man, Bob Wilks. They had a public trial and after five long months my father was released for lack of evidence. The jury stated that they didn’t know enough about the incident to put my father away for life or 20 years.

“But who killed the man?”

“Well it really don’t matter to me, as long as my dad is off. Because they did struggle earlier in the night.
But I failed to recall that from the stand. If the guy were killed it was because he called my father a cheater in public. My father does not cheat!”

“But does he Kill!”