Spirit Hill Arcade

Episode 25

On the other side of the Elixir Lounge was the Spirit Hill Arcade. Downstairs at the arcade was filled with kids playing pinball games, toss the ring over the witches hat and other arcade games, even darts. There was even one of those machines where you could have your picture taken for posterity. Fortunes could be had from Madame Rosa sitting in the fortuneteller’s cage.

Blocking the entrance to the stairway was a tough looking fellow. His job was to prevent the kids from joining the folks gambling upstairs. As Sonja ascended the stairs, she spied four slot machines. When she got to the top of the stairs, she turned to see a full blown casino! The crap, roulette and black jack tables were filled with the strangest characters she had yet to see in Spirit Hill. They were all gambling and having a wonderful time winning and losing lots of pendracles.

One scantily dressed, sexy lady walked around the room selling cigarettes, gum, and candy along with a few other twinkling trinkets. The room was thick with smoke. Come to think of it, this was the only place in Spirit Hill that Sonja had seen anyone smoking, except for the Devil Dog’s clubhouse where she was sure that what was being smoked was illegal!

At the blackjack table, while one fellow looked normal, he was playing against an adult set of conjoined twins wearing a plaid suit.

The crap table was surrounded by an old man with a young blonde hanging on his every word and a man with a cone head as well as his chicken headed friend. They were unusually dressed. One in a long robe and the other wore a type of dashiki with a psychedelic print and a strand of beads around his neck.

At the roulette table, another robed man resembling something from an episode of “Star Trek” took his chances with his cup of pendracles against a fairly normal appearing man wearing a smoking jacket.

Sonja had to admit that of all the places in Spirit Hill she had visited on this Halloween night, the arcade was the most interesting.

The arcade even had roof bowling. Under the starlit sky, one could either bowl or play ski-ball. The bowling pins were unusual, to say the least, for they were buzzards! While Rik and Ray were practicing their bowling for their next tournament, the only open game was Ski-ball. It had been one of Sonja’s favorite games as a child when she visited Playland at the Beach in San Francisco. She decided to stop and try her luck.

After scoring 5000 points and getting a free game, Sonja decided she must leave, for she only had a few minutes to check out the last building in Spirit Hill before going to the Center Court for the spell casting demonstration.