The Fugitive Grandma

Chapter 28 - Bingo Night

Saturday night was bingo night, the one social event at Shady Palms that brought everyone together. The dining hall hummed with conversation, laughter, and anticipation as the tables filled up with residents of Shady Palms, as well as players from neighboring retirement homes. Johnny and Stella arrived early to make sure they had good seats.

At the podium in the front of the cafeteria, Harry was plugging in a microphone and sound system. On bingo night, Harry acted as the master of ceremonies, calling out the letter-number combinations. He wore a rhinestone-studded vest with his suit and a black bow tie.

In his youth, Harry had pursued a career as an Elvis impersonator on the Strip in Las Vegas. Now, settled into a humdrum life as a small-time thug running a retirement home, his role as a bingo caller was the only chance he had to perform. During the bingo games, he played rockabilly background music as he called out the numbers in a rolling, baritone drawl.

At the side of the podium was a gold drum-shaped cage with a bright red handle and dozens of balls inside, with colors that ran the spectrum of the rainbow.

Lester and Harry had carefully designed the setup for the games they ran at Shady Palms, as well as in bingo parlors they controlled throughout the city.

With each game, the players received a fresh set of cards. Then Harry started calling out the letter-number combinations on the balls as he removed them one by one from a revolving bingo drum. The sequence of games was designed as a series of “small wins” ranging from twenty dollars to fifty dollars for players around the room, who filled their cards with single lines, double lines, squares, kites, and L-shapes.

At the end of the series of games, a huge main prize went to the player who got the “coverall” by being the first one to fill all twenty-five squares on his or her card and shout, “Bingo!”

The coverall was a massive jackpot of hundreds of dollars, and sometimes it ranged as high as a thousand. The coverall jackpot at Shady Palms was what lured in bingo lovers from all over town.

Stella was determined not to let the scuffle with Harry in the kitchen prevent her from having a good time that evening. She was also pretty sure that Harry would be focused on his role in running the bingo calls. She could just blend into the crowd with all the other gamers. Even if the two of them did come face-to-face, he’d probably have no reason to start a confrontation with her, despite the fact that she’d unintentionally splattered him with a pan full of simmering tomato sauce just a few hours earlier.

Soon every seat in the cafeteria was full and tables were covered with bingo cards sold for ten dollars apiece. Some players, such as a thin stranger with thick Coke-bottle eyeglasses sitting directly behind Johnny and Stella, purchased many cards and stacked them side by side.

“Check out Coke Bottle behind us,” Johnny whispered to his grandma. “Look how many cards he has.”

Coke Bottle had a very peculiar appearance, with greasy white hair that covered his forehead, and he sat with one hand shielding his mouth and nose. Between the hair, the hand, and the thick glasses, it was hard to get a good look at his face.

Johnny watched the man fidgeting in his chair, prepping for the game. He held a black dabber marker in his hand and seemed ready to blot a square and shout “Bingo!” as soon as he had a reason. Johnny also noticed Harry making eye contact with Coke Bottle, and then the rhinestone-studded master of ceremonies scratched his black Elvis sideburns nervously.

Then, the host kicked off the game by growling, “Let’s roll!” Harry cranked the red handle and the drum clattered as the balls rolled around.

“G forty-six, O sixty-two, N thirty-nine!” Harry shouted. As the drum spun, he plucked out colored balls one by one, and the squares on the player cards around the room began filling slowly.

Stella was one of the first players in the room to form a single-line bingo, five blotted squares across the top line of her card. She called it out and won a twenty-dollar cash prize. The series progressed until about half a dozen players in the cafeteria had racked up small wins.

All these players, including Stella, were coming within reach of the coverall jackpot. They were only a few empty squares away from filling their entire card. Harry seemed to be scanning the tables to make an assessment of who was closest. Again, Harry looked past Stella and Johnny’s table toward Coke Bottle. The master of ceremonies massaged his sideburns nervously once more.

“There he goes again!” Johnny muttered. “Harry’s scratching himself like he’s up to something.”

Stella clucked disapprovingly. “I see him. Harry’s got his eye on Coke Bottle and then he starts up with that scratching thing. I’ll bet he’s up to something sneaky.”

Harry called out another number, and Coke Bottle raised his hand, shouted, “Bingo!” and pointed to the coverall on his table. The crowd gasped, and players around the room gazed at Coke Bottle’s table, trying to get a look at the stranger and his winning card.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the man in the back corner has taken the first coverall jackpot of the evening. Let’s give him a round of applause!” Harry exclaimed, and the crowd gave a congratulatory roar.

Stella threw down her card. “There’s something fishy going on here,” she said. “Let’s go, Johnny. I’ve had enough of bingo night.”

Once they left the cafeteria, Stella said to Johnny, “I’ve never seen that Coke Bottle guy here at Shady Palms before. Have you?”

“No, never.”

“I know a tell when I see one. There’s definitely something between him and Harry. What are the odds of that guy winning the coverall? That jackpot was probably a thousand dollars.”

“What are we going to do, Grandma? You want to report it?”

“Ah, forget about it, Johnny. Who are we going to tell? Everyone already thinks that I am paranoid. Nobody’s going to believe anything I say anymore. They’ll just try to make me take more pills.”

After they returned to her room, Stella fell asleep in front of a black-and-white Marlon Brando movie playing on cable. Johnny slipped out of the room and wandered the halls.

Looking out the window in the rear stairwell, he noticed a figure moving through the moonlit parking lot, approaching a pickup truck. Johnny pressed his face against the glass to get a better view of the wiry man dressed in a black shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots. The man seemed completely out of place, yet there was something familiar about him. Why would a strange man be in the back of the building at this late hour? Questions swirled in Johnny’s head as the man drove away in the pickup truck.