The Fever CHAPTER 8

I cringed when my alarm went off a little after three in the morning.
I had to be into work by four, and I had definitely not gotten enough
sleep the night before with a late poker game. But, on the other hand,
I did come back five-thousand dollars richer- one of the best nights
I'd ever had. That was the thing about gambling; I very rarely lost.
Actually, so far I had never lost money on a night. I played too
conservative. It almost wasn't gambling- I played my odds perfectly.
Either way, being to work at four in the morning was not one of the
best things that couldhappen on a Monday morning.
Once arriving at work, I found my bus already outin the parking lot-
something not usual or routine for my type of work. I walked up to it,
finding it idling. I walkedup the steps and found a large, metal case
in the back of the bus.
I shifted into drive and started to pull out of the parking lot. I
couldn't help but feel sorry for thepeople running up to thebus stops
on the way to my destination, only to find out that I wasn't stopping
to shuttle them around the city.
Finding my destination was simple enough. It was a casino that I had
played poker and twenty-one at only a few nights before. As soon as I
pulled in, four men in allblack were there, simply walking through the
doors that I opened for them, grabbing the case, and leaving. A fifth
man came through the door and handed me an envelope. I was signaled
out of the casino parkinglot and pulled into a Wal-Mart to open and
read the letter.
Congratulations, you have just assisted in your first crime for the
biggestthug in all of Chicago! I hope you enjoyed your job and you
will be contacted in the future for jobs since you offeredto do
anything to help out your precious little family. If you are
readingthis letter, you have successfully completed the job that was
asked ofyou. You can go on with your pathetic little life. Tell no one
or you and your family will die. Have a nice day!
I nearly puked in my mouth when I read the letter. The sarcastic tone
was nearly unbearable. I couldn't help but imagine what I had just
done as I drove back to the station to clock in. I completely ignored
the people again running to the bus stop to try to catch my bus to a
different part of town.
Life did get interesting once I got back to the transit station. I
pulled in directly after my boss anda few coworkers. I parked the
vehicle and inits designated spot and got out to find disgust onmy
boss's face.
"Where the hell were you?"
"Umm, I noticed a flat tireyesterday so I came in early to go get it filled."
"You know we have an air-compressor in the garage?"
"Yes, I know. I couldn't get it to work."
"Was it out of gas?"
"I don't know, I'm usuallynot one to use it."
"There is gas in the shelving above it. Go fill it up." I left to go
to the garage, knowing that I had just dodged a bullet. Once finding
the air compressor, it was indeed empty of gas. I lucked out, and
found some gasoline to fill it up again. The mechanics here were lazy
anyways; it's not my job to fill the air compressor and checkthe
inflation of the tires.
After the early morning incident, the day went fairly smoothly. I
picked up all the people on my route that I had avoided earlier in the
morning and took them around the city to their desired destinations.
The day went on just as normal. No one knew what had taken place
before then sun rose that morning. When I got home, everything was a
different story.
"Where were you this morning?" Jen inquired as soon as I had opened the door.
"The office called me in late the night before. I had to run a special
routeto the casino with a bus full of tourists."
"At four in the morning?"her voice was questioning.
"I only do what I'm told."
"Well, give me some heads up next time so I'mnot at home sick all day
worrying about you. All I heard from the twins today was "where's
Daddy? Is Daddy playing hide and seek?" I didn't know what to tell
them because you weren't scheduled to go in until almost noon."
"Don't worry, Jen."
"Don't worry me, Paul."
"It won't happen again," I lied. I knew deep down that it would
definitely happen again. The good thing was that I was getting better
at lying. Everything made sense and no one asked questions. Of course,
that was part of gambling, making everyone else think that you were
about to do something else.
The rest of the night went fairly smoothly, andfor the first time in a
few months, I stayed home for the night. It didn't raise the same
thrill as winning large sums of money, but I was very relaxed and the
night was calm. I went to bed early and got a good night's rest.
I couldn't stop.
The next night I was at it again, throwing away the money that I had
earned that week for my paycheck. But I wasn't throwing it away; I was
investing it and growing it exponentially. Tonight, so far, I had
nearly come up with a quarter of the money that I needed to pay off
the rest of my debt. I had just surpassedthe two-hundred thousand
dollar mark when I cashed in my chips for the night.
Eventually, my class of gambling improved. I started going to clubs to
gamble, wearing suits and gambling thousands of dollars at a time. I
hid the suit at work, not letting Jennifer know of my dual identities.
She didn't need to know. The less she knew the better. Yes, she's my
wife, but this was my responsibility. I told myself, after I had
raised the money, everything would be over.
But it was never over. It was like a bad drug that had taken control
of my life. It became an every night ordeal. I easily slid past the
mark that I needed to hit and kept going. I had earned a reputation as
one of the cunningest gamblers in the city. I played other drug
traffickers, businessmen, anybody with money. I played at casinos,
gentlemen's clubs, private boats, mansions, and once a week at my
co-worker's house. And I always won. I always won. I never lost a
game. And when I started falling behind, I got myself back in the lead
quickly. I was the best. And to everyone who thought they knew me, I
was a simple, middle-class husband living paycheck to paycheck.
I tried stopping on a few occasions, but it never happened. I couldn't
everstop. It was the best thing that had ever happened to me. Money,
money was what made life worth living. But I always wanted more...
And I did odd jobs along the way. Most of the time, it involved
transporting money across the city. It was simple, it was easy. I got
caught once and I paid off the cop and that was the end of that.
Everything was beautiful.It couldn't get any better.I had more than
enough money and I was close to the date I had to be at to pay back
the money. No problem, piece of cake-