The Rookie Bookie

  Earl sat in Brewer’s office, recollecting the events as he saw them transpire. He felt that sharing his insights to this secret world of ‘gambling and bookmaking’ might make a difference for someone else.  Earl was a recovering compulsive gambler, so anytime he shared life therapy———————it helped him grow stronger. 
  Lloyd Brewer was a master at listening for hours at a time.  People were convinced that if he hadn’t been such a great writer, he would have made a great shrink.  Earl spilled his beans from the beginning.  Earl spoke to Lloyd like he was narrating a documentary.  “Heading into my senior year in high school I had it all:  good grades and captain of both the football and baseball teams.  I had great friends, numerous girl friends, and a great future. For anybody else it would have been enough: for me, I wanted a whole lot more.  I spent all that summer trying to find new ways to improve my life.
  In the end I decided to be a bookie.  I started watching gambling specials. I even ordered a videotape on how operations were run.  My first act of business after all of that was to phone my best friend Larry Prackell. Larry loved get-rich schemes more than anyone.”
  Lloyd Brewer would later  write this information into narration for the story.

   (NOVEL'S FIRST PAGES IN AUDIO, FROM THE DESK OF LLOYD BREWER, AUTHOR NARRATIVE OF ‘1993 FORMATION OF THE GAMBLING RING’)

  “Larry Prackell was ecstatic as hell when Earl told him they were going to run a gambling ring together. He knew his school was the best location for this sort of thing.  Earl and Larry lived in the richest district in the state.  The previous year, Earl had formed his own betting club at school with some kids and these guys all had money and liked to gamble it away.  Their parents were mostly professionals like lawyers and doctors.  These guys also knew local lotteries ripped them off. 
  CRENSHAW, USA was a town with a population of Seventy-Thousand people back then, and it is located in the mid-southwest part of California.  There are two joining towns: Hadley which has Fifty-Thousand people, and Milestone which has Twenty-Eight Thousand people.  By far the wealth was all in the Crenshaw area.    
  Earl and Larry had researched the demographics, and knew that the average salary per household was A Hundred and Seventy-Five Thousand a year in Crenshaw.  A rich area with rich kids, it was a great place to have a gambling ring. 
  Earl was indeed popular at school, a superior athlete, and an all around stunning, intelligent kid.  Earl had a ripped physique, golden blonde hair and blue eyes.  He tanned easily and walked with the quiet confidence of a star athlete.  Earl never shied away from attention. After all, his easy manner, and good humor, made it easier to interact with the ladies.