Heavy ambled over to the slot machine she'd been playing, put in a silver dollar, & pulled the handle. He was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice that he'd hit a minor jackpot which was paying him $50 in return while all the while a variety of bells & whistles contributed to the cacophony of sounds in the casino. His reverie was interrupted by a voice softened by too many gin & tonics for that hour of the day, "Well that's a fine way to treat a new friend. I loosen her up, & you reap all the benefits."

Heavy, as if awakened from a dream, looked around to see the woman in the black cocktail dress. "What are you doing here? I thought you left with Wally."

"Oh,that was getting old. His wife kept calling him on his cell phone wanting to know why he wasn't with the team in Texas. I finally just got tired of all the deceit. He may be able to fool the average Sonic fan, but we women are a lot smarter than you give us credit for."

"I never did catch your name," Heavy blurted out, his tongue seemingly tied in knots.

"Ginny," she responded. "And yes, I know, you're Heavy," she cooed.

They shared an embarrassed laugh together, followed by an awkward moment of silence. Finally Heavy got up the gumption to ask, "Well, if you're not Wally's wife, then who ARE you?"

"Oh, I'm his nanny. Somebody has to take care of the kids."

"Yeah but you're here, & they're . . . oh, I see."

"DO you, now?"

Heavy was pretty confused by this new flood of information. He didn't want to make any false assumptions, because he'd learned a long time ago the kind of trouble THAT could get him in. But there was something about this whole situation that unnerved him. For once he wished he was back home in the security blanket of Seattle where he felt somewhat in control. Here in this strangest of strange places, with this beautiful woman, he had barely a clue as to what was happening to him. He just knew he was out of his comfort zone.

"So do you like basketball, Ginny?"

"It's O.K. I like the Sonics, but I liked them a lot better before Wally took over."

Heavy resisted the impulse to comment that she didn't look old enough to remember much from that era, but instead feigned surprise & said, "But he's your employer?!" The minute the words were out of his mouth he knew it was a major faux pas, but he never expected anything like the response he got from Ginny.

"Wally thinks he's so clever . . . & maybe he is. You know what they say about fooling some of the people some of the time. Wally thinks he can fool ALL of the people ALL of the time -- even his wife. But he can't fool me. I usually know what he's up to before he does himself."

"Oh? For instance?"

"When he traded half the team away for Patrick Ewing, he thought he'd solved our problem at center. Then when that didn't work out, he convinced everyone that he knew it all along, & he was just going for the cap space anyway. Then when that didn't turn out as advertised, he convinced everyone that Calvin Booth would be the second coming of God instead of Jim McIlvaine. And now that we see how that's turned out, I fully expect him to claim that Booth was never more than a stop gap measure at best to man the center position while Jerome James developed. And if that doesn't work, he'll have some excuse for that as well. He'll probably say something like, 'the two players combined give us the flexibility to match up well with the different kinds of centers we have to play in the talent-laden Western Conference'. Just like he'd planned it all along, when he really didn't/doesn't have the slightest idea what's going on."

A moment passed before Heavy realized his mouth was agape. There were women who understood these things? Heavy never ceased to be amazed at the things he learned from women, but this seemed to be more than that. This was a kindred soul. This was someone he could share his hopes & dreams with. This was . . . .

"Don't you agree?"

"Huh? Oh yeah, sure. I was just surprised. You don't look like the kind of woman that . . . ."

"That would know that much about basketball? Why else do you think Wally would hire me?" she smiled.

"Because you're good with kids?"

"Yeah, that too."

They both laughed. Heavy instinctively knew that this was going to be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Editor's Note: The preceding is fiction. Any resemblance to real people, events, or locations is purely coincidence.

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