Check Jacket

Chas had a good feeling about Chance Encounter. A great feeling. Chas had such a good feeling about him that he walked up to the window smiling. He was smiling and he told the white raisin hunched over the counter Good Morning. He never did that shit. He had a system, and that system was called All Business and its subtitle was known as In and Out in a Hurry. But this was how good a feeling he had about Chance Enounter.

Number 1, he overheard Check Jacket saying something about him. Chas had seen Check Jacket here twenty times at least. And he was almost always winning big. Had a blonde on one arm, and a check jacket folded over the other. Not an hour ago, Chas heard Check Jacket talking about the contenders for the one o'clock. Said, "That bitch can run!" So that was the number 1 reason for deviating from the plan.

The Number 2 reason was that Chas had recently had a chance encounter himself. Old friend from high school in town just for the afternoon, and for some ungodly reason, she wanted to rekindle something from the past. Chas didn't have the heart to tell her they had never even kindled. Why ruin the mood? They finished up their chance encounter, she called Chas "Mikey," and that was that. And finally, reason Number 3 was that his normal technique had dug a whole for him five thousand dollars deep. And that was just in the last couple months, last time he'd won anything.

Change was good for the soul. So Good Morning, smile, five hundred on Chance Encounter to win. Chas sat near Check Jacket and visualized himself counting out his thirty-six hundred dollars in dog track bills. The bell rang. Chance Encounter promptly tanked. Chas yelled over to Check Jacket. "Hey! Dipshit with the coat on his arm! What the fuck is your problem!" The day only got a lot worse after that for Chas.