"Come on, Laura. You can do it," Crystal encouraged. The next shot knocked the bottles down but only two rolled off the stand. The next two shots proved equally fruitless but on the fifth try she jumped with delight when all three bottles hit the ground.

"Choice, bottom shelf," the attendant said.

"You pick it," Laura said to her roommate.

"Naw, you're the one who won it."

"No really. You pick it."

"Okay" Crystal looked at the various stuffed bears. "The red one." It was almost a foot in height, far too big to be squeezed into Laura's fanny pack. "I'll hold it for you," she offered.

"Hold it for me? No Crystal. You keep it. You picked it out."

"You sure?"

"Sure." She reached out and took the bear, checking the seams to make sure they weren't split as so many of the stuffed toys won at fairs and carnivals were. Satisfied that it wasn't defective, she handed it back to Crystal. "You'll just have to win something for me later." "How about I buy you another beer instead? I told you, I have lousy aim."

"Tell you what. I'll buy this round and you pick out the next ride." One more beer won't hurt me. We're going to be here for a few more hours yet. They walked over to the beer cart. "What kind?"

"Miller if they have it."

"Is that what we had last time?"

"Yeah."

"That was fine." Laura turned to the man. "Two Millers."

They continued on, passing cotton candy and popcorn booths. The sun was starting to set and the Midway twinkled with the glow of multi-colored blinking lights. "Oh, look at that!" Crystal said excitedly, pointing at an open tent housing gaming tables. "I bet they have blackjack in there."

"They have gambling at the fair?"

"Yeah, look. There's a dice game. Let's go look."

Laura had no choice but to follow as Crystal quickly crossed the distance and entered the tent. Indeed the area was a mini casino, with blackjack, poker, craps, and various other games of chance. Crystal set her beer on the felt covered table and pulled up a chair. "I'm good at blackjack," she said. Laura watched as she pulled two dollars out of her pocket and set them on the table. "I'm in," she said to the dealer. He was dressed in a typical fashion, white shirt with black vest, a green plastic visor on his head. He nodded and looked at Laura questioningly.

Realizing she would have to play in order to remain sitting next to Crystal, Laura pulled out two dollars as well and set them on the table. She leaned over and quietly said to her roommate "You're going to have to help me out here."

"No prob," Crystal said, picking up her beer. "Patty and I used to play this together all the time." The dealer quickly dealt the cards, giving Crystal two jacks and Laura a seven and a four. The dealer showed a seven, the other one was face down on the table. "Ooh," the blonde said excitedly. "Double down."

"What?"

"Put two more bucks up. Chances are you'll get a face card and beat him."

"And if I don't, I'm out four bucks."

"You'll beat him, trust me." Crystal looked at the dealer. "I'll stay."

Laura did as instructed, receiving another card from the dealer. "I got a nine."

"That's fine. You have twenty, just like me. If he has a face card, he can't draw. He has to stop at seventeen and over, pull on sixteen and under." The cards were dealt to the other players before the dealer flipped his face card over, revealing a ten.

"Dealer has seventeen," he said. "Pays eighteen and over." He put two Susan B. Anthony dollar coins in front of Crystal and four in front of Laura.

"You can put your money away and just play with theirs now," the blonde said, stuffing her bills into her front pocket. Laura neatly folded hers and put it in her fanny pack. She also pulled two of the four coins back off the playing area, keeping her bet even with Crystal's. She never noticed that the table minimum was only one dollar.

The cards were dealt again, Crystal getting a ten on the first pass while Laura received a six. Both women became excited when the ace of spades was laid on top of Crystal's card. "Blackjack for the pretty lady," the dealer said before giving Laura a three. He finished dealing the cards before putting three dollar coins in Crystal's betting circle.

"What do I do?"

"Hit," Crystal answered. Laura nodded at the dealer. A quick flick of the wrist and a king of hearts appeared with her other cards. "Okay, hold there," the blonde said. The dealer, understanding that the brown haired woman was taking the other's advice, moved on to the next player. In the end he had nineteen and two more coins were placed in Laura's betting circle, which she quickly added to the two sitting directly in front of her. "This is good. Maybe we should quit while we're ahead," she said.

"Oh no, we're just getting started," Crystal said, reducing the coins in her betting circle to two. "We're still playing with their money. Come on, once we start losing we'll go, okay?"

An hour later the need for more beer and to stretch convinced Crystal to trade in her SBA dollars for paper bills. Laura kept a few for her change jar and converted the others to the more usual currency. "So how'd you do?" she asked as they headed out of the tent.

"I'm up almost forty bucks," Crystal said happily, patting her right hip pocket.

"I think I ended up with twenty. I didn't make all the high bets that you did." It was now dark out, the Midway lights all burning brightly for the fairgoers. "I'm getting hungry. Think there's anything healthy here?"

"Not unless you consider sausage and hot dogs healthy," Crystal teased, pointing in the direction of the food court, an offshoot where several tables and food carts were set in a semicircle. "Let's go see what they have up there."

Laura didn't trust anything with mayonnaise in it after a long hot day nor did she want anything deep fried. Crystal happily ordered herself a cheeseburger and chili fries along with another beer. Hoping it wasn't too oily, the writer settled on a piece of plain pizza and bottled water. She followed her roommate to a white plastic table. "Hold on," she said, setting her plate and water on a nearby table. "Let me wipe that down."

"Ah, what's a few crumbs," Crystal said, brushing her side off with the back of her hand.

"There's ketchup and something sticky there too," she said, using a squirt of her water to dampen a paper napkin. "It'll only take a minute." Laura wiped down the top and sides of the table before moving to her chair and making sure that received a good wiping as well. Crystal had already settled down and was halfway through her burger when Laura decided it was clean enough to put her food on.

"You worry about things too much," Crystal complained good-naturedly. "A dirty seat won't kill you. What are you going to do when you have to make a trip to one of the portable toilets? Squat?"

"Definitely." Laura shuddered visibly at the thought of having to use the smelly rest room. She dabbed the top of her cheese with a napkin, soaking up the excess oil. "How's the burger?"

"Good. You should try the chili fries. They're out of this world." The smile that had been present throughout the evening was still there between bites.

Laura smiled to herself and lifted the slice to her lips. She had no doubt that Crystal was having one of the best nights she'd had in a long time, if ever. Even having to breathe the second hand smoke as they played blackjack was worth it. Thinking of the money in her wallet, she smiled to realize that she was also enjoying herself more than usual. Crystal's enthusiasm was rubbing off on her, explaining why she spent over an hour gambling, something her Baptist father had viewed as a sin and strictly forbidden. The closest she'd come before was playing for chips with Jenny and the boys.

"Hey, you listening to me?" Crystal asked, snapping her out of her musings.

"Oh, sorry."

"I said you should try the chili fries." She pushed the plate across the table. "Come on, live dangerously."

"No, really. I don't think"

"I didn't think I could handle that pirate ship ride either but I did it. One fry won't kill you."

"Fine, just one." Laura poked the fork into the chili covered pile and took a bite. "Oh, that's spicy," she mumbled around the mouthful of food as she reached for the water.

"Yeah, that's what makes it so good," Crystal said. "Beer works better than water."

"I'll stick to the water, thanks," she replied, draining half her bottle in an attempt to cool down the inferno she felt on her tongue. "So what do you want to do after this?"

"We could go back to the tent." Crystal leaned back in her chair, resting her ankle on her opposite knee. "You wouldn't have a barrette in there would you?" she asked, pointing at the fanny pack.

"No but I thought I saw them somewhere." She sat up and looked around. "I think they were a prize in those crank machines." "Really?" Crystal ran her fingers through her shoulder length hair and shook it out. "I should have thought to bring one."

"Those games are a waste of money. It takes a miracle to win."

"Well, I've got a few bucks of theirs, I'm willing to give it a shot if it means keeping my hair off the back of my neck."

Laura passed over a napkin. "Better make sure you keep that cut clean."

"Thanks. It hasn't been hurting or anything and I forgot about it."

You haven't thought about any of those bad things today, have you? "Oh!" She opened her fanny pack. "You know what I have" Pushing things around, she finally located what she was looking for. "There it is." She pulled the black elastic band out and held it up for Crystal to see. "I wasn't thinking when you asked for a barrette. I've had this hairband with me the entire time."