Broken (15 page)

I nodded.

“
Later, if
you decide to start your own business we will arrange for any
finance that you need to come out of the investment account.”
Misses Phillips said. “So, if at any stage you need more than the
daily one hundred and fifty Rand you can discuss it with me.
Okay?”

“
Yes.” I
said. “But why only a hundred and fifty Rand a day?”

“
A hundred
and fifty Rand a day equates to four thousand five hundred Rand a
month.” Misses Phillips explained. “Remember that you don’t have to
pay rent or for the domestic who cleans the house and does your
washing and ironing. Nor do you have to pay for water and
electricity and rates and taxes. All these expenses will be paid
from the investment account. A hundred and fifty Rand a day for
food and other personal things will be quite ample. But I still
want to see your monthly credit card statement to see that you’re
not wasting the money.”

After Misses
Phillips had left I began to think about the sixty thousand Rand in
the investment account. If I could get my hands on that I could
live like a king! I had to find a way to access the
account.

My
snooker-playing friends, Ian, Bruce and Vic were highly impressed
when I told them about my inheritance.
Although I didn’t tell them the exact amount of money that
I’d received I made it very clear that it was quite considerable.
Shortly after this I noticed that their snooker skills improved
dramatically and the stakes that we played for increased tenfold.
They were careful not to overdo our gambling and although I began
to lose money to them consistently, I failed to see that they were
actually exploiting me. Whenever we played in pairs, my partner’s
snooker deteriorated and inevitably we lost to the other two. All
three of them commiserated with me whenever I lost and assured me
that my luck would soon change and I would win all my money back. I
was just too naïve to see that they were manipulating the games and
taking my money surreptitiously.

My
friends
also began borrowing money from
me, promising to pay me back with interest, but whenever I asked
about the loans they had some or other excuse as to why they
couldn’t pay me back. They also constantly reminded me that when
I’d been at school they had paid my share of the money needed to
rent the snooker tables and play pinball. Then one Monday morning
they told me that they were planning to go to the Gold Reef Casino
on the following Friday night and asked whether I’d like to go with
them.

“
You’ll have
a great time.” Bruce told me. “There are plenty of beautiful girls,
the food’s out of this world and, if you’re playing roulette, the
drinks are free. You also don’t have to take a lot of cash with
you. They are very happy to give you cash from your credit card if
you need it. But playing roulette is the easiest way to win and
none of us has ever lost any money at the tables. It’s the machines
that are stacked against the visitors. You won’t believe how much
money people make playing roulette!”

“
How long
will you be there?” I asked. “Maybe I’ll take my girlfriend with
me.”

“
No.” Ian
said. “No girls. They’re too much of a distraction, and they have
no idea of how to gamble. They’re always losing money because most
of them play the machines and that’s where you can lose all your
money. We usually get there at about nine in the evening and seldom
get back before the sun’s up the next day. The secret to successful
gambling is never to give up. If you’re losing, you have to just
hang in there; your luck will change. It always does. I remember
one guy who was down a thousand bucks and then his luck suddenly
changed and he eventually walked away from the roulette table with
forty grand!”

“
Forty
grand!” I exclaimed. “Wow! That’s a lot of money!”

“
It’s
actually chicken feed.” Vic said. “There are guys that win hundreds
of thousands of Rand regularly. It’s almost as if the casino’s
giving away money!”

“
But don’t
you have to be eighteen years or older to gamble?” I
asked.

“
Yes.” Ian
said. “But nobody ever gets asked to show the management their I.D.
books unless they’re obviously under eighteen. You’re a big guy for
your age so you’ll easily pass for someone over eighteen. Don’t
worry about it.”

“
Okay.” I
said. “Count me in.”

When I told
Cindy that I was going to the casino with Ian, Bruce and Vic I
could see the worry in her eyes.

“
How long
will you be there?” she asked.

“
Probably the
whole night.” I said. “That’s why I can’t invite you to come with
me.”

“
Please be
careful, Garth.” Cindy said. “Those places are set up to take
people’s money. The odds are heavily stacked against the visitors.
That’s why they are so plush. We always hear about the people who
make money but we seldom here about the majority who lose money
there.”

“Don’t worry.” I said. "I’ll be
careful. Besides, Bruce, Ian and Vic will be with me and they’re
very experienced. They won’t let me do anything stupid.”

I had been thinking about the
sixty thousand Rand investment account and how I could get my hands
on the money. Somehow I had to get the daily limit on my credit
card changed, and the only way I could think of to do this was to
forge a letter to the bank on a Child Welfare Department letterhead
instructing the bank to increase the daily limit on my credit
card.

I took the
letter that Misses Phillips had given me advising me that the
Department would be handling my affairs and placed a blank piece of
white paper over the bottom part so that only the letterhead was
visible. I then placed the document in my copier and printed it.
The result was a perfect replica of the Department’s
letterhead.

I composed a
letter addressed to the bank manager instructing the bank to
increase the daily limit on Master Garth Gilmore
’s credit card from one hundred and fifty Rand to five
thousand Rand, explaining that he was in the process of starting
his own business and needed to purchase machinery and materials. I
carefully typed the letter onto the blank letterhead and then spent
an hour practicing the signature that was on the Department’s
letterhead. Once I was satisfied that I could copy it exactly I
signed the forged letter. It looked exactly like the original
letter. I addressed an envelope to the manager of the bank, placed
the forged letter inside, and sealed it. I went to the Post Office,
purchased a postage stamp and dropped the letter into the post
box.

For the next
two days I waited anxiously. Would my letter be accepted by the
bank or would I suddenly find Misses Phillips and the police at my
front door? By the morning of the third day, when I hadn’t been
visited by Misses Phillips and the police or heard from the bank, I
went to the bank and spoke to one of the tellers.

“
I’ve
forgotten what the daily limit on my credit card is.” I said as I
handed the card to the teller. “Can you please tell me what it
is?”

The teller took the card, swiped
it through her processor and studied the screen of her
computer.

“
The daily
limit on your credit card is five thousand Rand.” she said as she
handed my card back to me.

Trying hard not to show my
excitement, I thanked the girl and left the bank. It had worked!
The bank had accepted my forged letter! Now I had access to all the
money that I would need to live like a king! And when I went to the
casino on Friday night with Ian, Bruce and Vic I would have plenty
of cash!

The glitz of
the casino dazzled me. There was obvious a great deal of wealth
here. Music blared, lights flashed and the banks of slot machines
glowed with the promise of easy money. Pretty girls in short skirts
and plunging necklines were everywhere; serving drinks and
pampering the patrons. Plush carpets covered the floors. And Ian
was right. Nobody took any notice of me and nobody queried
m
y age or asked to see my I.D. even
though I saw several uniformed security personnel mingling with the
crowds.

“
So, what are
we going to play?” Ian asked. “”Let’s go to the roulette
tables.”

“
I don’t know
how to play roulette, poker or any of the other games.” I said. “So
I’m just going to play the slot machines.”

“
Slot
machines are so boring.” Vic said. “But if you don’t know how to
play any of the other games then we’ll leave you to it. Let’s all
meet at the reception desk at twelve o’clock. Then we can assess
our financial positions and have something to eat. After that we
can decide what we’re going to do for the rest of the
night.”

Ian, Bruce
and Vic hurried away. I went to the cashier’s booth and withdrew
five hundred Rand from my credit card account. I was given the
money in five-Rand coins in a large white plastic cup. I selected a
slot machine and began feeding the coins into it. I used up more
than half the coins before the machine made a jingling sound,
lights flashed and I got just on half my money back. Suitably
encouraged I continued to feed coins into the machine.
Unfortunately, my luck didn’t hold and in an amazingly short time I
had used up all my coins. I went back to the cashier’s booth and
withdrew another five hundred Rand. I chose another machine and
began feeding coins into it. Within an hour I had lost all my money
again. Still convinced that my luck would change I withdrew another
five hundred Rand. By the time I went to the reception desk to meet
Ian, Bruce and Vic I’d lost just under five thousand Rand and had
reached the daily limit that the bank had set on my credit
card.

“
How did you
go with the machines?” Ian asked.

“
I’ve lost
just over a hundred Rand.” I lied, ashamed that I hadn’t won
anything.

“
Don’t feel
bad. We’re also all down.” Ian said. “But I’m sure that our luck’s
about to change. So let’s get something to eat.”

I could see that my friends had
been drinking quite heavily. I had been too absorbed in playing the
machines to even think of having a drink. We found a small takeaway
and bought hamburgers. When it came to paying for the food my
companions looked at me.

“
Will you pay
for the food, Garth?” Ian said. “We’re completely out of cash. Can
you lend us some money? I promise I’ll pay you back. On Sunday I’m
getting money from a guy who owes me ten grand.”

“
I don’t
think I’ve even got enough money for all three of the meals.” I
said. “I’ve reached the limit on my credit card.”

We all scrounged through our
pockets and just managed to find enough money to pay for the
meals.

“
I thought
you’d inherited so much money?” Ian said.

“
The bank put
a limit on my credit card.” I said. “It doesn’t matter how much
money I inherited, I can’t withdraw any more money from my credit
card.”

“
But you said
you’d only lost about a hundred Rand.” Vic said. “How much is the
limit on your card? A hundred Rand?”

I realised that I had trapped
myself by lying about my losses.

“
Okay, I
lied.” I said. “I’ve actually lost five thousand Rand. That’s the
limit on my card.”

“
You lost
five grand playing the slot machines!” Ian exclaimed. “That’s
crazy! If you’d lent us some of that we would probably be rich
right now!”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“
So, how much
did you guys lose?” I asked.

“
We only had
two hundred Rand between us to start with.” Ian said. “So, as none
of us has any money we might as well go home.”

Suddenly Vic looked at me, his
eyebrows raised.

“
Garth.” he
said. “That limit on your credit card. Is it a daily
limit?”

I nodded.

“
In that
case,” Vic said, looking at his watch. “The five grand that you
withdrew from your card was withdrawn yesterday. So you used up
yesterday’s limit. It’s now just after twelve so there must now be
a new five grand limit on your card. Go to the cashier and see if
I’m right.”

I was reluctant to use any more
of my money but the possibility of winning back my losses was too
strong. I walked over to the booth.

“
I want to
withdraw a thousand Rand from this card.” I said to the girl. “But
I’m not sure if my daily limit has been renewed. Can you please
check for me?”

The girl took the card and
swiped it through her device. She typed something into the little
machines and nodded.

“
The card’s
good for five thousand Rand.” she said. “Do you want the thousand
Rand?”

“
Yes.” I
said.

I took the cup of coins back to
where Ian, Bruce and Vic were standing.

“
You were
quite right, Vic.” I said “The limit has been reset for
today.”

“
Great!” Ian
said. “So now you can lend us each a grand and I’ll pay you back on
Sunday. I know our luck’s going to change so we’ll probably be able
to give you your money back tonight. Besides, you don’t want to
spoil our night. Do you?”

I hesitated,
but when I saw my three companions glaring at me, I went to the
cashier’s booth and withdrew three thousand Rand. I handed the
money to Ian.