He installed heat pumps for a living and knew all four riverboats by the quality of their free coffee. The banning itself was not dramatic. A very large, very polite man carried him out under the awning at 4 a.m. while he was still explaining the math. They took his picture at the podium; he sneezed on the count of three, and nobody offered to take another.

The photograph traveled. It went to the two other properties owned by the same company, then into a laminated binder behind a valet stand three states over. Within a month a hostess he had never met greeted him with the flat apologetic smile of someone who has already seen his face. Eleven years he had spent being nobody in particular in those rooms. Now he was recognized everywhere, for that.