David Boothe is a desperate man. He hasn't seen his wife Joan for a year as she's been on a gambling spree that has degraded her t to clip-joint B-girl in order to finance her obsession. She's been badly beaten after using loaded dice in a crap game in a sordid Chicago alleyway and lies unconscious in an intensive care trauma unit. Boothe knows that family guilt lies at the core of Joan's compulsive gambling habit, and he begs the cynical trauma physician to recommend suitable rehabilitation for his addicted wife. In an effort to convince the jaded doctor of the severity of her condition, he retells the circumstances of the couple's fateful trip to Las Vegas only a little over a year before.
—duke1029@aol.com