One Last Ride

Michael seems to have everything going for him. A great marriage to his wife Gina, who any day is about to deliver their first child, a secure and successful career as a salesman in the garment district of Los Angeles, and Carmine, his childhood friend whose common sense is slightly off kilter but who would go to the ends of the earth for Michael. Yet what seems to be a perfect world on the outside for Michael is only a facade for the demons that live and fester well beneath the surface. Unlike other dysfunctional diseases, a compulsive gambler becomes a master of illusion, hiding the beast that lives within and turning his soul into the bowels of hell. Michael dumps his entire paycheck on what he believes to be the horse tip of the century. But when he realizes he’s been duked by the jockey, Michael is unable to control himself, turning an ordinary day at the race track into a Keystone Comedy. As Michael begins to struggle with the demons inside, a debt begins to mount, sending him spiraling down that deep dark gambling hole. Desperation rages and it’s not long before he begins to sell his soul, stealing from his boss, hocking family heirlooms and forging his mother-in-law’s check to make good on a $41,000.00 obligation to an uncompromising loan shark named Tweat. After listening to Carmine concoct some hair brain scheme to come up with the cash, Michael’s desperation forces him to accept from Tweat what he believes is a one time harmless job to pay off his mounting debt in full. But all is not what it appears to be as Michael and Carmine find themselves in deeper than their wildest imagination could have dreamed of. For the first time Michael realizes what he has truly become as he comes face to face with the beast that lives within.