American Hustler

Untitled Part 1

American Hustler

By: Lucas A. Weinacht

As the sun rises I begin my day by opening the door to my shack made out of sheets from a bed from the dumpster. As I open the door I get a terrible smell of body odor hits me in the face. I need to be sure to wake up my roommate because we leave central park early in the morning to go panhandle in Times Square. This is a very busy time of the year here in New your but there has not been much going on since the stock market crash a year back. The people that I take with me are the guys I me a few months back in the Hooverville. Every day we go and we panhandle in Times Square so we can try you afford food for the day.

            I lost everything I had a few years back when my parents were killed in a car accident. Ever since then I have had to support myself and my little brothers and sisters. I used to work in a local grocery store until the store closed and ever since then I have been out of work. I also used to live in a nice house in upper queens until my apartment got foreclosed on a little over a month ago. I had to send my sibling away to my aunts because they shouldn’t have to be homeless in New York City.  Every day is a struggle and it’s hard to make it by, so when night rolls around I hustle pool.

            At night I normally go into the speakeasy’s and gamble all my money I made panhandling that day. I often go into the speakeasy, and play pool with all the wealthier men and hustle them. I accomplish this by betting little money at first, and losing a few games. But then as the more money we bet I actually start to try and hustle all of their money away. Most of these men get really upset and realize they have been hustled by a homeless person, but they know if they do anything to me I will tell the police about their speakeasy so most times I am able to get away with it. On average I can hustle one or two people a night before they start to catch on, and usually double my panhandling money from that day in just a few hours of playing pool. I often stay out all night playing pool then sleep until the early afternoon the next day which is the perfect time to go panhandle.

            I got all of my pool skills from my father. He was always an excellent pool player and I remember growing up that I wanted to be as good as he was. Back when I was a kid we were a wealthy family and enjoyed many things. People often think that just because I am poor now I have always been poor. I remember as a kid going on vacations, and eating at the nicest restraunts. I often think to myself how did I end up like this, or how did I let myself get to this point. I think about it every night and what I would do differently if I could do it again.

            One night a few weeks ago I walked into one of the speakeasy’s and there was a very large rich looking man in there when I walked in. I sat down at the bar and had a few drinks before I was going to do some hustling. Once I sat down at the bar he came and sat next to me. He told me his name was James and was from Las Vegas and used to own a casino. He said his casino went bankrupt a few month back and he came to New York looking or some more opportunity. He said that he now works as a bootlegger in New York and makes good money doing it. Then I began to tell him my story and that I hustled pool for a living and panhandled in central park. Then he wanted to see me do work.

            So after a few hours in the bar a very drunk wealthy looking man stumbled into the bar, and I knew he was the perfect target for me to hustle. I went and bought him a few drink, and asked him if he wanted to play a game or two of pool with me, and of course he said that he wanted too. We played pool and bet little sums of money at first but then the more we played and I let him win a few games, and got him to believe that he was better we began to bet more and more money. After a few hours of playing and after I let him make a few dollars off of me we decided to play for even more money. That when I actually started to try. And that game I won and he got very upset and threatened to kill me after I hustled him for all of his money.