Leaving Las Vegas

Saturday afternoon I made my way down The Strip to the Stratosphere where posters just inside the bridge to the casino give you “A Warm Slot Welcome.” I’ve been feeling just a touch on the moody side so I took the elevator to the Top of the World Lounge (imagine!) and ordered a glass of wine from my waitress, Selena, and watched as the sun slowly set over the mountains to the West.

Sipped my wine, listened to “The Magical Mystery Tour” playing over the sound system, and looked down The Strip as smoke rose up into the darkening sky from the pirate show at Treasure Island. Farther down was the narrow top of the Eiffel Tower, the spires of the Chrysler Building, and the black peak of a pyramid. My wine glass shuddered, the red wine rippling as if from an earthquake, as a roller coaster circled the bar overhead.

My mind was having trouble putting all these disparate visuals and sounds into a semblance of order: pirate fights, Paris, ancient Egypt, 60s music, the desert, a thundering roller coaster, Sinatra, red mountains, my father.

I ordered another glass of wine from Selena, a tall, stately blond who tells me she is a student at UNLV and wants to go to law school.

“Selena,” I said, “I feel like this building is slowly going around and around.”

“It is,” she said. “It rotates.”

“That’s good to know. Because I was starting to feel a little bit like Nicolas Cage in that movie.”

“What movie?”

“Leaving Las Vegas.”

“Never heard of it,” she said.

“You never heard of Leaving Las Vegas?”

She shook her long blond hair. “How old are you?”

“Just turned 23.”

I try and remember when that movie came out. Was it ten years ago? No, had to be longer than that. Maybe 15 years ago. Or longer. Jesus. Selena was just a kid. Why would she have seen a movie about a man who decides to commit suicide by slowly drinking himself to death?

“You look a lot like Elisabeth Shue,” I said.

“Yeah? Who’s that?”

“Nobody. It doesn’t matter.”

“You want another glass of wine?”

“Sure. Why not? What else am I going to do?”

The last of the light disappeared from the sky as all up and down The Strip the neon lights lit up the city, the Top of the World Lounge slowly spun in a circle, and a coaster up above me thundered about like angry angels.