the pool game

When I was in my early twenties, my date and I decided to go to the Sail Inn in West Sacramento to play pool. We'd been there before and enjoyed speaking with the bartender. I can't recall her name, but she was a beautiful, engaging woman. 

This particular night, we walked in and noticed the pool table was occupied. There was a man and woman shooting a game, so my date bought us some drinks while I watched. After a few minutes, the man noticed me and struck up a conversation with me. When my date came over with our drinks, the man asked us if we wanted to shoot a game with them. It didn't occur to me at the time that his female companion hadn't yet said anything. We said yes, so he racked up the balls, and we played against them. 

During the game, we introduced ourselves, and right after the man began asking me some personal questions that started to bother me, like where did I live, had my date and I been dating long, did we live together, etc. I noticed the man and his friend kept looking at each other. I became increasingly uncomfortable, even though the rest of the conversation was benign and pleasant in nature. Weirdly, the woman still hadn't said anything. 

When the game was over, the man asked us if we wanted to leave with them to go to another bar down the street. At first I didn't say anything. The guy asked us again, saying they discovered a cool bar not too far from where we were. 

My date and I looked at each other, and before he could say anything, I blurted out "no thanks, we have dinner plans". We in fact did not have plans, but my date didn't argue with me. I think he saw the look of panic on my face. We both grabbed our jackets and got the hell out of there. By the time we walked out the door, the hair was literally standing up on the back of my neck. 

When we got back to his truck, my date asked me what was wrong. I told him I got a horrible feeling from those people and just KNEW we had to get away from them. I told him it was weird that he asked us to leave with them when he didn't check with his date first. He shrugged and said ok. I think he thought I was crazy. 

A few days later, when I opened up the afternoon paper, there was an article in there about a woman from West Sacramento who'd been found murdered. I didn't think anything of it until I got to the page where the article was continued, and the picture of the woman practically lept off the page at me. It was the beautiful bartender from the Sail Inn! Apparently she'd been kidnapped, raped, and killed the very night I was there with my date. 

I was totally creeped out and thought what a crazy coincidence that was, and how sad it was that she had died so horribly. It wasn't until a month or so later that I realized why I had gotten so upset that night. 

A man and woman had just been arrested for the bartender's murder, along with the murders of several other people, four of whom were couples. There on the front page of the Sacramento Bee were the pictures of the killers, Gerald and Charlene Gallego,  the very couple who invited my date and I to go with them to another bar! And apparently, this was one of the ruses they used to get their victims into their van! 

My heart did flip flops in my chest as I read the article. Not only had we been targeted as their next serial-killer victims, when we turned them down, they selected another target because of ME! I have lived with both relief and guilt all my life because of this. Intellectually I know it's not my fault the bartender died, but I've always wondered how different the world would have been had she been able to live out her life, even though I would have been gone myself.  

Needless to say, that was the end of  my bar date experiences, for a long, long, long time.

Postscript: I just found out Charlene Gallego has been living in Sacramento under an assumed name. Apparently she was paroled there after serving her prison term. She has been making amends for her horrors by performing works of charity. Gerald Gallego died in prison before he could be executed. I know good old Gerry got what he deserved, but I'm not sure how I feel about Charlene living as a free woman. She claimed on the stand to have been manipulated by Gerry, which is why she went along with the killing spree. Maybe that's why she never said anything in the bar; maybe she was under his complete control, so much so that she couldn't even speak in public. I would love to have a private chat with her...
Source: Quora