Days of Future Past - Part 1: Past Tense

by John Van Stry

  I looked at the card, jack of spades. I had a royal flush.

  As the last raiser, I was the first to bet.

  "Here, let me save you both some money," I said and tossed a thousand into the pot.

  "Ha!" Phil said suddenly and called, "All you have is a flush!"

  I looked at the third guy who was now looking undecided.

  "One of us has you beat," I told him. "Best save your money for the next hand."

  "Oh? Maybe I can beat a flush," he said, looking at me.

  "He's got four queens," I said motioning to Phil. "Can you beat that?"

  He shook his head, thought about it another moment, and then tossed his cards into the muck.

  "If you're wrong, I'm going to be pretty mad at you, mister," he said.

  I just shook my head, "Want to show us your ladies, Phil?" I asked.

  "You first," Phil said.

  I turned over my cards, and everyone at the table gasped in surprised.

  "Royal flush, spades," the dealer said.

  Phil swore loudly and flung his cards at the dealer, but for some reason both flipped over as he did, and from the way he swore again, I could tell he didn't want that to happen. Sure enough, two queens.

  I looked up at him and smiled, "Hi, Phil. I'm Paul. I believe you were looking for me?"

  Several of the people at the table laughed as I raked the chips in, the pot was seventy-three hundred, of which twenty-five had been mine, so I'd made forty-eight hundred and was now past ten thousand. I tipped the dealer five hundred, just to make it even.

  "Well, it's been nice and all," I said and started to get up.

  "You can't leave yet! I'm not done with you!" Phil yelled at me.

  "What?" I said looking at him surprised. I had what I came for and he'd lost maybe twenty-five hundred to me in that hand. The sooner I got out of there, the sooner he could make it back.

  I was just about to tell him to go pound sand, when I suddenly got a very strong feeling, obviously from Coyote, to sit back down.

  I shrugged and dropped back into my seat. "Color me," I told the dealer and then I looked up at Phil, "Well, it's your money. But you may want to have the bank send over some more."

  "You just got lucky, punk. I'm going to break you."

  "It's your funeral," I said and smiled.

  The dealer finished consolidating all of my chips into five hundred and one hundred dollar denominations, and then dealt the next hand. Phil started out his usual abrasive self, but when I mucked my cards, he dropped right out.

  He did that the next three hands, so after that, if I didn't like my cards, I mucked immediately, not waiting for my turn. While normally that was considered rude behavior, as it took Phil and his heavy betting out of the game immediately no one complained.

  Around the seventh hand, I was the big blind, so I tossed my money in, but Phil didn't raise. When the flop came and I tossed in a thousand, everyone else folded. Except for Phil, who raised a thousand.

  I was holding a five and a six. The flop was a three, four, and a seven. It couldn't be more obvious that I had a straight.

  The next card was a jack, and I bet a grand. Phil raised me and I called.

  The river was a king, I felt good about it, so I just pushed all in.

  Phil swore and threw his cards in. This time they didn't flip over, but I honestly had no idea just what he had been thinking.

  I mucked mine without showing them, and just raked in my winnings.

  I mucked five more times before we had another showdown. This time he went in before the bet came to me, and I called just to annoy him. I got a bad feeling when the flop came, so I mucked my cards. But by then so had everyone else, so he didn't win anything beyond the initial ante.

  The next time he went in before the bet came to me, I went in as well. I had a pair of jacks, and the flop was a jack, ten, and a queen. I got a good feeling about it, but with three of a kind, unless I had a bad one, there was no way I'd go out.

  Phil bet a grand, I raised him another grand, and he re-raised another grand. It was only him and me at this point of course with about sixty-four hundred in the pot. The turn card was another ten, and Phil bet two grand. I got a really good feeling at that point and I was looking at a full house, jacks over tens. So I pushed all in and he had to push in all of his chips just to match me.

  I flipped over my cards and smiled, he flipped over his and I saw he had a full house as well, but his was three tens over two jacks. He'd been holding a ten and a jack.

  "Wow, sucks to be you!" I said with a smile.

  The river card was a deuce, which didn't do anything for anyone, and I pulled in the pot once again, and I was over seventeen thousand now with Phil's complete bankroll in front of me, plus some of the money I'd picked up from the others along the way.

  "So, guess I'll be going?" I said and started to get up again.

  "I'm still not done with you! Scott, give me another ten grand in chips!"

  The dealer looked up at the pit boss, who had come over to watch the last hand.

  "It will come out of your account, Phillip," the Pit Boss said to Phil.

  "Fine! Just do it!"

  The boss nodded to the dealer, who took out another ten thousand in chips and pushed them over to Phil. I just sighed and shook my head. I suddenly realized that Coyote wasn't doing this to help me, but to punish Phil.

  I looked around at the rest of the table, they were all watching with interest now.

  "Anybody mind if we just play heads up?" I asked them. "I don't think any of you want to get in the middle of this, right?"

  Everyone shook their head and I looked at the pit boss who just smiled at me.

  "Deal," Phil grumbled and our dealer did just that.

  I mucked about half of the next ten hands, and Phil mucked the other half. He wasn't playing stupid anymore, which was good for him, but not as much for me. When I finally got a pair of aces, I went in against his raise, but when the flop came, I got a really bad feeling and I mucked without thinking twice.

  The next time I went in, I had a jack, ten. And I did well on the flop, but he folded and mucked his cards then instead.

  For the next thirty or forty minutes that was pretty much all that was happening. We were passing about three grand back and forth, and while I could see he was sweating, I honestly didn't care, this was Coyote's game now, and I was just doing whatever he urged me to do.

  Two more times I went in, and mucked after the flop, which gave Phil a couple more grand, where he had almost as much as I did on the table. On the next hand I had a pair of twos in my hand, and normally I would have tossed them, but I got the feeling to stay in, so I did.

  The flop was five of clubs, five of diamonds, and the queen of hearts. Phil bet three grand and I called him, making him look rather surprised.

  The turn card was a two. Phil bet five grand, and Coyote was being insistent, so I called him again. I had about five grand left; I figured Phil had a little more than four. The river card came and it was another two. I had four deuces now, and if I was reading things right, I suspected he had a full house.

  Phil bet four grand, leaving just a handful of chips on the table.

  "How many chips you have left there?" I asked, calling for a count.

  Phil looked annoyed and then gave me a quick count.

  "Six hundred and forty five dollars."

  I nodded, "I raise by six hundred and forty-four," I told the dealer and pushed my chips towards the center of the table and looked at the dealer, "If you would be so kind?" I asked him.

  "All in, asshole," Phil said and pushed the whole pile forward.

  "I call," I replied and sat back.

  "Full house, fives over queens!" Phil said and laughed at me.

  I smiled and picked up my cards, then just flipped then over.

  "Cash me out please?" I said to the pit boss, as Phil looked at the cards and screamed.

  "Four deuces? You beat me with four deuces! And you bo
ught the last two on the turn and the river?! You stayed in against my full house with a lousy pair of twos?!"

  I stood up and turned to the pit boss who was helping the dealer gather up the chips.

  "Take out a grand and spread it around the floor crew here as a tip."

  He smiled and nodded, "Of course, Mr. Young. Thank you very much." He called over two security guards then as Phil continued to yell and rant. He was stomping around and swearing up quite a storm, but I was more interested in taking care of my winnings than his little tantrum.

  "Please help Mr. Young cash out his winnings, and escort him anywhere he needs to go for the rest of the evening."

  "Why, thank you, Sir." I said to him. I wondered if he thought Phil was going to do something stupid? Then again, everyone had been watching the game and they all knew I was walking out of there with a lot of cash.

  "You're more than welcome, and please, come back anytime."

  I nodded and followed the guards as they took my winnings over to the cashier, who converted the chips into cash. I had twenty-six thousand dollars! That was more money than I'd ever seen in my life. And about sixteen thousand more than I needed.

  I got another urge from Coyote at that point, so I just put the money in my pockets, and followed it, with my two minders in tow.

  We walked about an hour, I had no idea where I was going and the quality of the area surrounding us slowly got more and more run down, until eventually I was reminded of some of the places I used to hang out as a kid. I was a lot happier then about my two well-armed companions.

  When we eventually came to a door, I knocked on it. I couldn't read what was written above the door, but I recognized the writing. It was Navajo.

  "What do you want with Grandmother at this time of the night?" One of the guards asked. I looked at him, "Navajo?"

  "Some," he admitted.

  I nodded and knocked on the door again. A few minutes later, I heard someone walk up to it, and open the door. It was a very old woman, obviously Indian, probably Navajo.

  "What do you want? It's late!" she looked me up and down then, "and you're not one of us."

  I pulled out the wad of money, and counted off ten grand, which I stuck back in my pocket and I handed the rest to her.

  "I have no need of your money!" she said, looking at the wad of money in my hand.

  "It's not from me," I told her, "it's from Coyote."

  She looked up from the money and into my eyes, searching for a moment, but then she must have found what she was looking for, because she shook her head and took the money. "You poor bastard," she said and turned to go back inside.

  I turned to the one who had admitted to being half Navajo, "Make sure she doesn't get robbed."

  He nodded and followed her inside.

  "Who the hell is Coyote?" the other guard asked as I started to head back towards the nicer parts of town.

  "Someone you don't ever want to piss off," I said. "Think you could call us a taxi?"

  "Not until we get someplace a lot nicer then this," he said, motioning to our surroundings.

  I nodded, it was after midnight now, and all I really wanted to do was go to bed.

  - 15 -

  We would leave the city heading south. I'd gone over the maps they had, and things all looked remarkably like I'd remembered them from before, at least until I got into the details. Things like the highway designations were missing, and the roads had different names, like 'The Road to Yuma', or the 'Salt Sea Road', the later of which looked a lot like the old interstate ten, if I was recalling things right.

  The basic plan was to head south along the Road to Yuma to a town called Blythe, which was on the Salt Sea road. Then depending on what we learned there, either go north around the Salt Sea, or go south around it.

  I didn't recognize the Salt Sea at all on the map, the damn thing was huge from all accounts, and if we had to go around the south of it, it would add several days to our trip and we'd have to take a ferry across it at a narrow point where it was only about a mile wide. My best guess was that what I believed was the Colorado River had moved and created this 'Salt Sea,' and now it drained south from the sea into the Gulf of California.

  To the north, it went right up to the Salt Sea road, which then turned north and crossed the mountains into what had been in my world, the Los Angeles basin.

  Now it was all one big marsh, according to Sarah. A marsh with strange looking shapes sticking up out of it, and even stranger looking monsters and animals that came wandering out of it. I'll admit that my knowledge of the area in and around Los Angeles was never all that great. I'd only been there a couple of times, but from the crude maps they had of the area it looked like a huge portion of the city had pretty much been wiped out, and the coastline did not resemble what I remembered at all there. Neither did the coastline to the immediate north or south of it, San Diego also appeared to be gone and way up north the San Francisco Bay was definitely a different shape then what I recalled with a much wider opening to the ocean.

  Plus there was the large inland sea that appeared to run from what had been Bakersfield all the way up to Redding, with a lot of islands in it. Ken had told me about it back when I was a slave, but seeing it on the map really drove it home to me.

  So everything I was seeing on the maps really looked different from what I had grown up with. That made me worry if Pendleton was really there or not, and if it was, would it be as I remembered it from one summer of having been there while I was in ROTC? Coyote believed it was, but I had to wonder. My personal belief was that this was still the earth I'd grown up on, just sometime in the future after some massive war or natural disaster, but looking at the map of California, I couldn't see how any war or natural disaster could have changed things this much.

  It was noon, and we were getting ready to leave. I'd showed up at seven, handed Sarah ten grand in cash, and after she'd gone over the route with me, she'd kissed me and told me to go get my things, check out of the hotel, and that we'd be leaving shortly.

  When I got back an hour later with my single backpack, I found a lot of activity going on in the compound behind the offices. I just stood there a moment and looked around a little impressed. There were at least a dozen horses and it looked like a couple of wagons.

  Heather came up to me then and surprised the hell out of me by grabbing me and hugging me and giving me a surprisingly intimate kiss.

  I came up for air, blinking a bit.

  "You're not mad at me?" I asked her.

  "Why would I be mad at you?" She said with a smile.

  "Well, I did tie you to a chair after beating you up," I said, feeling a bit guilty about that myself.

  Heather blushed, "Umm, I was a little mad at first, but after Sarah and I talked it all over, I sorta had to forgive you. You got stuck between two lovers who were feuding, and you handled it the best you could."

  "Are you two happy?" I asked. I'd heard Sarah say they were, but I was curious as to Heather's take on it.

  Heather nodded and smiled, "Yeah, actually. I am pretty happy to be back with her. If I hadn't been such a stubborn bitch we could have worked this out a long time ago."

  "Then I guess it was worth it," I said and smiled down at her.

  "Maybe I can reward you sometime?" Heather said and put her hand on my chest.

  "Umm, the last thing I want to do is get you two fighting again," I said and quickly changed the subject. "So, what's all this?"

  Heather looked at me a little funny, but then just shrugged.

  "This is our expedition, being put together."

  "Our?" I asked.

  She nodded, "No way I'm going to let Sarah go without me, she's way too trusting and not all that good in a physical fight. Come on, I'll introduce you to everyone, and help you get your gear together."

  "Sure, lead on," I said and followed her over to a group of people. I sighed as my eyes drifted down to her butt in those tight leather-like pants. Bad enough Sarah was coming along, but
between the two of them I'd be feeling pretty frustrated with only being able to look and not touch.

  "Everyone, this is Paul, he's the one funding this expedition," Heather said as the group turned to look at us. "Paul, this is Jack, he's our Road Captain and everyone else here answers to him. This is Lisa, his wife and our cook, as well as the driver of the first wagon. This is Tim; he handles our supplies and inventory and drives the second wagon. Geoff, Glenn, Dean, and Terry here are all part of our security and physical fighting force. Keri is another magic user, like Sarah, and Dianne here is our healer."

  I nodded and went down the line shaking hands with each of them. Jack was a pretty big and impressive man, I'd put him in his forties. He had short sandy blond hair, a rugged build, green eyes and a quick smile. He was also heavily armed with three pistols, a rifle and more knives than I could count.

  His wife Lisa was rather buxom and a good foot and half shorter than his six foot five frame, I'd put her at about five foot tall. She had long black hair, brown eyes, a cute pixie like face, but for all of her curves, she didn't look weak and had almost as strong a grip as her husband when we shook hands. She was also wearing two pistols, but instead of a rifle on her back, she had a kukri that looked almost two feet long in its sheath.

  Tim was another big guy, six foot seven easily, and he looked more like a bear than a man. He didn't look all that much older than I was; he had brown hair, brown eyes, and looked a little like Jack and Lisa, making me suspect that they were his parents. He was armed like Jack was, though he had a fairly large kukri as well.

  Geoff, Glenn, Dean, and Terry were three guys and a gal. Geoff was about five eight and heavy set with blond hair, Glenn was a little taller and thinner, also with blond hair. Dean was my size with shoulder length black hair, compared to the military cut of the other two, and Terry was a slender five foot eight or so, with long brown hair, grey eyes, a nice figure and she winked at me as I was checking her out, obviously checking me out as well.

  The four of them were all wearing several knives, two pistols, and carrying a rifle with an ammunition belt loaded with magazines slung crosswise across their bodies. They also appeared to be wearing some lightweight form of body armor, as the long vests they had on over their shirts seemed a little thicker than what I'd seen around town.