The Bingo Hall

by Shane McKenzie

  “Come on, fool. You gonna make me sick.”

  “Shut the fuck up, you little cry baby bitch.” Jay tossed the tray into the garbage bin, licked his fingers clean, then wiped them on the back of his jeans.

  Chris noticed that the girls at Sasha’s table kept glancing back at him, all huddled together and whispering. Sasha locked eyes with Chris, and they both smiled at each other, both blushed. He suddenly felt like running out the door.

  Oscar smoothed his clothes and elbowed Chris in the arm. “You see? What I tell you? They want me, fool.”

  Then Sasha stood from the table and made her way toward the boys, a cloud of giggles swarming behind her. Chris shifted from foot to foot, ordered his eyes to look anywhere but at the approaching beauty: the crowd, the ceiling, the floor.

  Then her purple Converses came into view, only inches away from his raggedy Nikes.

  “Hey, Chris.” Her voice was almost a whisper.

  Chris finally looked up and found it hard to breathe as he gazed into her big brown eyes. “W-whassup?”

  “Nothing. Mom made me come. You too?”

  “Yeah.” He wanted to say more, but his mouth refused to form more than a word at a time. Oscar and Jay chuckled beside him, but he ignored it, didn’t dare look their direction.

  “Look…I, uh…” She bit her lip, raised both eyebrows, fiddled with the bottom of her shirt. Chris felt a hint of confidence swirl into his system at the sight of her nerves. “So, my friends, they dared me, okay? And if you don’t want to, just tell me. You don’t have to, and I—”

  “Spit it out, girl. For real,” Oscar said.

  She spun her head toward him and shot him a poisonous look, and Oscar shut up, crossed his arms.

  “It’s cool,” Chris said. “What’s going on?”

  “All right. I was wondering if maybe you wanna go to the movies? I gotta go to church tomorrow, but maybe after?” Now she couldn’t look at Chris, her eyes at her feet.

  “Cool. We can do that.” Chris wanted to jump up and down, announce his big date to the entire crowd, but he remained calm, showed no sign of emotion. He flashed her a small smile.

  “Really? I mean…okay, okay, yeah. Just…here.” She grabbed his hand, pulled a pen from her pocket. His skin burned where she touched him, and he could only hope that the ink would stick to his sweaty palm. “Just call me, okay?”

  He read his palm and nodded. “Cool.”

  They stood facing each other, though neither one of them could actually look at the other. Then Sasha finally shuffled back toward her table where she was welcomed with more giggles and chortling.

  Oscar and Jay immediately stepped toward him.

  “Told you she liked you,” Jay said. “She give you her number?”

  “Yep. Said she wants to go to the movies.”

  “For real?” Oscar grabbed Chris’s wrist and inspected the scribbled ink. “You lucky, fool. Sasha is fine as hell.”

  “You gonna try and kiss her?” Jay said.

  “I don’t know, don’t worry about it.” Chris couldn’t help but smile now. He couldn’t keep himself from looking toward Sasha over and over. “Say, y’all wanna go outside for a minute? Before all this shit gets started?”

  “Most definitely,” Jay said.

  “You lucky, fool. For real.”

  Chris had the last of his weed rolled up into a pinner, and the boys stood in a tight circle at the back of the building. Jay took a hit, coughed, passed the joint to Oscar.

  “Shut the fuck up, man, before someone hears you,” Chris said as he accepted the joint and took a hit. He looked left and right but they were alone.

  Then the back door creaked open. Chris hadn’t even noticed a door there until it swung outward, and out stepped Mr. Big, his skin glowing like the moon, his smile still stretched wide as if he’d never stopped grinning since the last time they saw him.

  “Well, well, boys. So glad you could make it.” He sniffed the air. “Smells nice out here.” He leaned his face forward and licked his teeth, his forefinger and thumb pinching like a crab claw. “You boys mind?”

  Chris hesitated, not sure what to do. The joint burned his fingertips, and he finally shrugged, handed it to Mr. Big. “Yeah…uh…that’s cool. Here.”

  The tall man put the joint to his lips and sucked in the smoke, turning the pinner into ashes in one inhale. He stood tall, held the smoke in, then finally blew it out like a burning building. He patted his boney chest. “Mmm. Thanks, boys. That hit the spot.”

  Mr. Big tried to hand the joint back to Chris, which was nothing more than a tiny roach, but Chris waved it off. “Nah, it’s cool.”

  Mr. Big tossed it away, clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “One favor deserves another, yes?” He pulled something from his coat pocket and spread the tickets like a poker hand. “Free concession vouchers. Why don’t you boys feast on some junk food, huh?”

  “Hells yeah,” Jay said, and took the offered vouchers. “Thanks, man. You’re food is the shit.”

  “Yes, yes it is. Best concession food you’ll ever have, I can promise you that.” The tall man handed the rest to Oscar and Chris, then checked his watch. “Well, looks like it’s time to get this show on the road, yes? Good seeing you boys.”

  The boys just stood there, watching as Mr. Big slid back into the building. The metal door swung shut behind him. Chris fanned out his vouchers, and the promise of another hotdog watered his mouth, sent his stomach to boiling. But then his thoughts went back to Mr. Big and his veiny white skin and dark yellow teeth and the lepers working the concession stand. A sour burn seeped from his throat and coated his taste buds, and he burped out his appetite.

  “Here, man,” Chris said as he handed his vouchers to Jay. “I’m good. You can have ’em.”

  “Yeah, me too. Go ahead, fool,” Oscar said.

  Jay smiled, stuffed the cards into his pocket. “Bet. Y’all crazy as hell. I’mma hit up some of them corndogs I seen.”

  Oscar wiped his face with his palm. “Damn, Chris, that killa is good.” He giggled. “Can’t believe that old creepy motherfucker blazed up. Shit’s crazy.”

  “I know. Took the whole thing down in one hit too. I still don’t like that guy. Makes me nervous when he’s around, you know what I’m sayin’?”

  “I don’t know,” Jay said. “He aight. Gave us free food and shit.”

  “Man, you was just tellin’ me earlier you didn’t like him,” Chris said.

  “Shit, that was before I ate the food. Now that motherfucker’s my best friend.”

  The boys all chuckled. In the jaundiced light oozing from the lamp above them, Chris inspected Sasha’s phone number one more time. Though his sweaty palm smeared it a bit, it was still legible, and he couldn’t wait to see her again. Away from here, away from prying eyes. Maybe I will try and kiss her, he thought. Or at least hold her hand.

  “Ladies and gentlemen!”

  The boys all jumped; Oscar screamed, then slapped a hand to his mouth. Chris and Jay cackled at him, pointed and elbowed each other.

  “You sounded just like a bitch,” Jay said. “Your pussy get all wet too?”

  Oscar’s face burned red, but he still smiled. “Fuck y’all. Shit scared me.”

  Chris couldn’t help but laugh, then turned to search for the speakers responsible for the amplified voice that was unmistakably Mr. Big’s.

  “Welcome to Big Time Bingo! Thank you all so much for coming.”

  Large speakers were mounted to each corner of the building, and Mr. Big’s voice exploded into the night.

  “Now who’s ready to win some money?”

  This was met by a deafening cheer that penetrated the building’s walls and vibrated into Chris’s spine.

  “Y’all wanna go inside?” Chris said.

  “I guess so,” Oscar said.
<
br />   “Hell yeah. I’mma go use some of these coupons. I’m starvin’.”

  “I 21!” Mr. Big’s voice echoed through the hall, and at once, all the adults were working their daubers, pressing them to their cards.

  “Bingo!”

  “Me too, bingo! Bingo!”

  “And me! I got a bingo too!”

  Chris squinted into the crowd and smiled when he saw his mama jumping up and down, her arm waving in the air like she was swatting flies. Since the games had started, Oscar’s grandma had won, and so had Jay’s mother and aunts. In fact, it seemed that everyone there had won. There were no scowls full of jealousy or hate, just congratulatory nods and smiles. He looked back toward Sasha’s table where she sat eating another corndog Four bare wooden sticks sat in front of her, each one with chew marks.

  “Damn, your mom won too? This bingo hall is the shit,” Jay said as he polished off another corndog. “Mr. Big gotta be rich as hell.”

  “How much was the prize—” Oscar started.

  “Congratulations to our winners! Now each one of you come to the stage to claim your one thousand dollar prizes!” Mr. Big opened his arms as if to embrace the entire crowd, then smiled wide and took a bow as the congregation applauded.

  Chris watched his mama as she whooped and hollered all the way to the stage, her mouth agape at the shock of her winnings. The other two winners, a middle-aged Hispanic woman and a bald, overweight man in a janitor’s uniform, joined Chris’s mama on the stage where each of them were handed an envelope.

  “Damn, Chris. Your mom won big,” Oscar said.

  Mama stretched her neck as she searched the hall, then her eyes landed on Chris. Her smile was as bright as a halogen lamp as she waved, then clutched the envelope to her chest as she exited the stage.

  “Let’s hear it one more time for our lucky winners, yes?” Mr. Big said into the microphone, which was followed by another round of deafening applause.

  Chris had never seen the people from his neighborhood, or even the town, so happy before. It seemed like every face was smiling; friendly chatter and laughter filled the air.

  Could every single person have really won a prize tonight?

  Chris had been accompanying Mama to bingo for years now, and he had never seen anything like this before. There were usually two or three rounds, one winner per round—that’s it. The rest of the players would go home frustrated and disappointed, their hopes of big money put on hold until the next session.

  But here, at Big Time Bingo, everyone was a winner.

  Mama came bounding up to him, wrapped her arms around him, and kissed his head like a woodpecker. “You see me, baby? You see your mama?”

  “I saw you. Remember what you said?” Chris held out his hand, grinned and blinked at her.

  She laughed. “Tell you what,” she said, pulling out two one hundred dollar bills. “Take this. I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect to win this big. We can use this money for our bills.” She pocketed another three bills. “Far as your daddy knows, we won five hundred, all right?”

  Chris stuffed the money into his pocket, thinking about the kind of time he could show Sasha now. He could even buy himself some sneakers, and the new Jordans had just come out. “Yeah, okay, Mama.”

  She did a small dance, and though it embarrassed Chris, he couldn’t help but laugh.

  Oscar’s grandma spit rapid-fire Spanish at him, her gap-toothed grin spreading more wrinkles across her face. Jay patted his belly, random smears of cheese, ketchup, mustard and meat sauce stained his shirt, but he was all smiles. His mom and aunts waved their winnings in the air and sang some out-of-tune song Chris had never heard before.

  “I want to thank all of you fine people for coming to the grand opening of Big Time Bingo, and I want to personally invite you all to come back tomorrow night, where the prizes will be even bigger!” Mr. Big took a bow, his hands spreading wide on either side of him like splayed king crabs.

  And the chattering began, everybody already making plans to come back the next night, some going beyond and already making plans to make the new bingo hall a daily ritual.

  Though Chris had a pocketful of money and he hadn’t seen his mama look so happy in years, that dread he’d felt since the first time laying eyes on Mr. Big was still present, and as Chris glared across the hall at the tall man on stage, the butterflies in his stomach grew teeth and began to chew on his innards.

  Chris woke up the next morning with a slight stomach ache. He sat on the toilet, still groggy, and loathed going to church. He wondered if he could get out of it by telling his mama he didn’t feel good, but decided to just suck it up and go. She had been in such a good mood, even when they got home and his dad wasn’t there, and he didn’t want to ruin it.

  Knock knock knock. “Baby?”

  “Yeah?”

  “We skipping church today. I got some things I gotta take care of before we head back to the bingo hall tonight.”

  Chris slapped his thigh. “Again? You’re going again tonight?”

  “Course I am. I win like that a few more times, we be outta debt before we know it.”

  “Mama, I got a date tonight. I was gonna meet up with Sasha, go to the movies.”

  “Boy, don’t you see what this means to me?”

  “Come on, Mama. Please. Just this once?”

  A light chuckle. “A date, huh? And with Sasha? That girl’s sweet, and pretty too. Her mama out her damn mind, but Sasha, she all right.”

  “So…can I?” Chris stared at the door from the toilet as if his mama could see him.

  “Yeah, okay. But if I don’t win, I’m blaming you.” She laughed. “All right, baby. I’m off to see the bill collector. Never thought I’d be happy about that.”

  Chris opened his mouth to reply, but he bit back the words when he heard the retreating footsteps and the slam of the front door. He finished up in the restroom, washed off, then went straight for the phone and dialed Oscar’s number.

  “Bueno.” The old woman’s voice was like paper being crumpled.

  “Is Oscar there?” He usually got a heavy sigh, a few whispered words in Spanish, but not this time.

  “Si, momentito.” There was the sound of the phone being set down, then a loud: “Oscar!”

  “Hello?”

  “Whassup, man?”

  “Nothin’. Fixin’ to take Grandma to the store so she can buy a new dress. She’s actin’ all weird today.”

  “No church for you either?”

  “Nope. Grandma said she has to get ready for tonight, doesn’t have time for church today. Your mom said the same thing?”

  “Pretty much. Said she had to take care of some things, pay some bills. Weird, man. Mama don’t never wanna miss church.”

  “For real. Grandma hasn’t missed church in, shit, before I was born for sure. What’s the deal with that?”

  There was a silence, but Chris could tell Oscar was thinking the same thing. It was the bingo hall. Mr. Big. It seemed silly to think that a game like bingo could get into Mama’s head like that, but he couldn’t help but feel it was…wrong somehow.

  “You call Jay yet?” Oscar said.

  “Nah, called you first. You already know it’s gonna be the same.”

  “So I’ll see you tonight then?”

  “I’m off the hook. Fixin’ to call Sasha, set up that date for tonight. And Mama gave me some of that money she won, so I’ll be ballin’.”

  A hard sigh. “You lucky, fool. I’ll be stuck at the fuckin’ bingo hall…again. Shit.”

  “I’m sure Jay’ll be there.”

  “Yeah…I guess so.”

  “Aight, man. I’m gonna holler at this girl real quick. I’ll see y’all tomorrow, cool?”

  “Yeah, cool. Whatever.” And he hung up.

  Chris stared at his palm, the phone still clut
ched in his other hand. He made sure not to wash that palm, but just as he was about to dial the numbers, his finger trembling, the front door swung open and his dad walked in.

  “Hey there, boy. You all right?” He shuffled toward the couch and plopped down with a long sigh. His face looked bruised, his left eye swollen; dried blood was caked at the corner of his mouth. “Who you talkin’ to?”

  “Just Oscar.”

  “Where your mama at? Why you ain’t at church?”

  Chris sat down next to his dad. “She said we ain’t goin’ today. She won some money last night, and I think she went to pay some bills.” He scooted closer. “What happened to your face? You…you all right?”

  “Yeah, I’m good. Ain’t nothin’.” He smiled. “You say she won some money? ’Bout time, don’t you think?”

  Chris nodded. “Think she wants to go again tonight. Some new place, same one we went to last night.” A grin crept over his face. “But me? I got a date.”

  “What? Look at my boy, killin’ them girls already. She pretty?”

  “Real pretty. I was just fixin’ to call her right now.”

  “That’s good, boy. Now go on and let your daddy get some sleep, all right?” He patted Chris on the shoulder, leaned his head back, and in a matter of seconds, was fast asleep.

  Chris sat there and stared at his dad for a few minutes. Mama didn’t seem to care that he would come home at all hours, that he was getting fucked up all the time. He didn’t hit her, didn’t hit Chris. Chris couldn’t help but wonder where the man spent all his time, wished his dad would spend more time with him, but he still loved him.

  He hopped off the couch, grabbed the cordless phone and hurried to his bedroom. His dad’s snores rattled behind him. His heart rammed into his chest as he leaned up against his door. His eyes traced Sasha’s number as his hand relived the moment she touched it, the tickle of the ball point as it slid and looped over his skin.

  Sweat began to bead up on his forehead and he had to take deep breaths to calm his nerves, then finally forced himself to dial the number. He paced the room as it rang, and though Sasha had mentioned going to church this morning, he had a feeling she would be at home instead.