"What's the most you ever lost on a coin toss?" she asked as she finished off the last chip from the snack sized bag.
The gas station attendant raised an eyebrow at the unusual question and said, "Ma'am?"
He looked up from reading the price on the cash register to look at his customer. Her long auburn hair draped over her shoulders. The florescent lights gave a glare to the large round glasses perched on her pretty face.
"The most… You ever lost… On a coin toss," she repeated slowly in a monotone voice.
"I don't know," the attendant replied after a second or two of contemplation as he slid the change for the woman's purchase across the counter. "I couldn't say."
The woman separated a quarter from the change and launched it into the air with a flick of her thumb. The coin flipped end over for several seconds before she caught and covered it with her hand.
"Call it," she said after taking a quick peek under her hand to look at the covered coin.
"Call it?" asked the attendant.
"Yes," replied the woman with a completely neutral expression.
"For what?" the attendant asked, vaguely intrigued.
"Just call it," the woman remarked casually.
"Well, I need to know what I'm calling it for here," the attendant remarked.
"You need to call it. I can't call it for you. It wouldn't be fair," the woman answered enigmatically.
The attendant furrowed his brow in confusion and stated, "I didn't put nothin' up."
"Yes, you did," the woman retorted. "You've been putting it up your whole life you just didn't know it."
The attendant blinked a few times, confusion written clearly across his face. His mouth opened and closed a few times, which made it clear to the girl that the man didn't know how to respond.
"Do you know what date is on this coin?" she asked.
"No," he answered honestly.
"1958," she informed. "It's been traveling twenty-two years to get here. And now it's here. And it's either heads or tails. And you have to say. Call it."
The attendant blinked silently a few more times, his attention fully on the woman before him. Something in the seriousness of her tone worried him.
"Look, I need to know what I stand to win," he asked nervously.
"Everything," the woman replied calmly.
"How's that?" he asked.
"You stand to win everything," she said, the neutral expression still firmly in place. "Call it."
"Alright," the attendant remarked despite his trepidation. "Heads then."
The woman slowly retracted her hand from the counter to reveal the coin.
"Tails," the woman said calmly. "Too bad."
The woman slid the coin into her pocket and walked calmly out of the gas staion.
The attendant followed her departure from the building, his eyes lingered on her legs as the hem of her short pleated skirt flapped in the light breeze outside. He watched her climb into passenger side of the battered black van she and her companion arrived in.
As the van pulled away the scruffy looking man behind the wheel tossed a small wave of his multi- ring adorned fingers at the attendant.
"Get everything you need," asked the driver in a low almost sultry voice as he ran his hand through his short spiky black hair.
As the van traveled down the lonesome highway, tall gout of flame briefly ballooned up followed by a plume of dark smoke that could be seen for miles out.
"For the most part," replied the woman as she looked in the side mirror and smiled a Mona Lisa smile.