Atlantic City: The City of Second Chances

By LB Robbins

A little surf, a little fun and great excitement to reward four years of hard work! Everyone looks to the Jersey Shore to provide the party. It turned out to be a lot more than that.

Just a quick stop in the lobby of the casino to check on her resume, Elaine got more than she asked for; she got the adventure of a lifetime. Now, all she wan

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOPLINK PUBLISHING, LLC
• Release date: Aug 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781733360333

LB Robbins

I've been a resident of New Jersey and the shore most of my life and enjoy the summers here. I wish to live nowhere else but on the Jersey Shore. I've experienced many hurricanes and Northwesters. They are unique to the shore, but build character.

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Atlantic City

The City of Second Chances

LB Robbins

Copyright © 2019 by LB Robbins.

Paperback:    978-1-7333603-2-6

eBook:              978-1-7333603-3-3

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Chapter 1:    Back Overseas

Chapter 2:    The Caller

Chapter 3:    A Trip to the Casino

Chapter 4:    Yet Another Phone Call

Chapter 5:    At the Employees Entrance

Chapter 6:    Brunch

Chapter 7:    In the Room with a View

Chapter 8:    A Ride Through the Neighborhood

Chapter 9:    In Hiding

Chapter 10:  Some Glimpses into Elaine’s Past

Chapter 11:  A Picture of Things in Her Flash Drive

Chapter 12:  Taking Refuge in the Diner

Chapter 13:  At the New Jerusalem Church

Chapter 14:  The Huddle

Chapter 15:  The Missionary

Chapter 16:  The Getaway

Chapter 17:  In the Casino Lobby

Chapter 18:  On the Twentieth Floor

Chapter 19:  Back in Room 212 with No Luck

Chapter 20:  Elaine

Chapter 21:  Aunt Grace

Chapter 22:  At the Airport Again

Chapter 23:  The New Missionary

Chapter 24:  Up and Away

Chapter 25:  Here Comes the Judge

Chapter 26:  The Final Solution

Chapter One

Back Overseas

There was a magical stillness around the old pond, the familiar escape from the dregs of winter. The ice was solid and sure, new ice skates were forming familiar patterns made by the equally strong and sure legs of young Maria Antoinette as she lifted her face to kiss the swirling snow. She is busy imagining a solitary heaven wherein no evil could enter; a vision of pixie dust all around.

It was 1914 and rumblings of war were being sounded all around eastern Europe by old and young alike in Zokowo Poland. Zokowo was just close enough to the seaport of Gdansk to make war news relevant, to make the old timers sigh Here we go again!

Tonia, as she was called, let the ice chrystals remain on her mittens as long as she dared, hoping to turn them into tea leaves, but to no avail. She hadn’t the gift of the old gypsies, she reminded herself sadly, as she noted her mother headed toward her in clear view. She recognized urgency in her step and thought it might be time for chores again. Once again her sanctuary was being invaded with Tonia, Tonia, come inside, you’re going to America!

Tonia knew the story all too well. Her mother had been sent to America some twenty years ago as part of a vast immigration scheme, to be linked up with a citizen of Poland (who had emigrated successfully to America and was now a legitimate citizen. It had cost a whole field of spring crops). She served a three year term of her sentence of domestic housework and headed back to Zokowo, one year old Tonia in tow. America wasn’t a bad place, but very lonely indeed. She longed for the old medieval steps and smells of her old town, and was content here all these years. If only another awful war wasn’t breaking out!

These town folk knew it well, the familiar sound of distant shells much too close for comfort, hadn’t they heard it for thousands of years, as fortune had made them neighbors both on east and west of aggressive bullies who were flexing their muscles again.

Once again they were about to drag off the brightest and best of them to fill the ranks at the rifle ranges, and to molest young ladies at the same time.

Well, Tonia thought as she was escorted swiftly back to her hone, that explains the storm of embroidered Ns on table linens, the hasty building of a storage trunk in the shed, and the piece de resistance, the linen wedding gown draped by beaded pearls.

The gown that had no select recipient for all of its beauty, now had an object in mind.

Yes it was being built for Tonia. So why was she suddenly shuddering as never before, even on the magical icy pond.

She knew the story, she knew of no other sixteen year old who fit the gown and fit the eligibility of bypassing Ellis Island and going straight to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania to meet up with a coal miner. That seemed to be the fate of the latest few émigrés. To Tonia, there was no choice of parental disobedience, unheard of in her lifetime. She was to be attached to a couple who were taking their chances of Russian roulette with the agents of Ellis Island.

I was descended from an immigrant. although I’d never been made aware of anything but pride for my ancestry. You might have guessed already, this was an account of my grandmother’s arrival in the USA. It was rather exciting to be part of a culture with background.

Wherever my thoughts were headed at the time, I was back in the present with the shriek of a cell phone, and my curious mind answered the call to the urgency of the moment.

I lovingly stroked the linen undergarment, which had been restored by my step daughter, and placed it back in its plastic storage container. Would it have a place in the future history of deep family secrets in south Jersey?

Chapter Two

The Caller

The caller turned out to be my friend Grace from church. How would you feel about going to the casino tomorrow?

The casino? I repeated. She could probably tell from my voice that I wasn’t a fan of Atlantic City’s biggest business. Or maybe not! She was clearly upset about something. Why the casino, of all places?

Well, it’s like this… Grace said.

I settled myself on the deck chair and listened as Grace described her niece from Terre Haute, who had just gotten a degree in accounting and moved out here to the East Coast.

She was always such a beautiful girl, Grace sighed. She’s my sister’s youngest, and her mother worries about her, particularly when she heard she would be sharing an apartment with a couple of stewardesses…. Faith is such a worry-wart. She’s not worldly, like me, you know…

I’m sure she’s not, I agreed diplomatically. But I