Luke's Quest 01 - Prisoner Of Time (v5.0), page 7
Willie walked into the diner. He joined me for a cup of coffee. "Willie do you have anything to do today?" I asked him with a big smile.
He looked around the room for a moment, checking to see who might be listening. "I’m not in the mood to get shot at today," he said. After a few moments he added with a grin, “But, Luke, if you’re paying, then I’m available."
I persuaded him to drive me to Memphis. I agreed to pay for the gas and buy him lunch. Willie knew something was up, but he also wasn’t the type to look a gift horse in the mouth. He was thinking of the nightclubs on Beale Street where he might find a new woman, barbecued ribs and lots of fun. He and I had spent many nights walking from club to club along Beale Street enjoying the best blues music in the nation. Beale Street was the birthplace of the blues and is still a great place for an enjoyable time.
Reaching Memphis, I told him to find a place where we could buy lottery tickets. He thought that was a great idea. He had never known me to buy lottery tickets before. I knew when I saw the girl at the checkout counter that Willie would be spending time flirting with her. She was a perky, blonde-haired woman about two years younger than Willie. It didn’t matter; he was always ready to flirt.
I used the time to recheck the winning numbers in the newspaper section I had pulled from my paper while we driving over. The numbers had to be perfect if this test were to work. I only went for the major jackpot in the "Lotto Five Game." If the results in the paper were right, no one had won it tomorrow, at least no one had won it when I traveled back a day. If I were right, this time tomorrow I would be a little over $865,912 richer than today, less the taxes I would owe. Really, it was too bad for me that Arkansas didn’t have a lottery, as it would have saved me the drive to Memphis.
I was trying to get up the nerve to place the bet. I still wasn’t sure if it would work or if I were even morally right for doing this. Visions from my childhood Sunday school classes flashed through my mind, and I could imagine myself burning in hell forever because I had gambled. Then my mind's eye showed me the memories of Mrs. Campbell, my second grade teacher in the Blissville Elementary School, spanking me when she caught me cheating on a paper. Now I was about to cheat for a big score. I considered backing out.
The bells on the store door jingled as it opened. A tall, old, man walked into the store. He was clean and neat, but his clothes were old and worn. He had a dance-like shuffle as he walked from the door to the counter where I was standing. He was counting as he walked. Under his breath, he counted each step. Arriving next to me at the counter where the blank lottery cards were, he said, "Today it was seven. That is a good number. I always count the steps from the door to here. That is the first number I pick." He marked his numbers fairly rapidly. He took his money from his shirt pocket. He looked at me, "Come on," he urged with a huge smile, "If you don't pay, you don't play, and if you don't play, you can never be a winner."
He paid the girl for his ticket. "I play every day, son. I won almost $200 last year. It helps pay the bills, but it’s even more fun." He touched his hat as if saluting me and walked out.
His encouragement was just what I needed. I bought my ticket. I handed Willie a $10 bill and told him to buy some tickets so we could get back on the road. We went to Beale Street and had lunch at B.B. King's café. It always has good food and great music. As we finished eating, I told Willie I needed to do something a little stranger, if he were game.
He cocked a big eyebrow at me. That was his way of saying, "Just ask."
"I want to get back onto the highway; however, I don't want to go home," I explained, "I want to take Interstate 55 north to Missouri."
Willie looked at me as if I were crazy. I felt as if I had lost my mind, but I had to prove this to myself.
"Don’t ask, and please," I almost pleaded, "when we get back home, if things work out, don’t tell anyone. If things go right, I’ll give you a hefty paycheck for today to keep your mouth shut."
That was Willie's best trait. He knew dirt on everyone in town – at least everyone in town thought he did – but he never told a thing to anyone. I trusted him with any secret. Trust had always been important between us. I had never understood just how deep that trust was until the past few days.
Several minutes later we were on our way to Missouri. Once we crossed the state line, I bought just one ticket in the "Lotto Six Game," repeating the same steps I had done in Memphis. This time if everything worked right, I would have a little over $2 million to add to my anemic bank account.
We finished, and Willie looked at me. "I think Illinois has lotto if you want to drive over there," he said with a laugh.
"No, this is it," I told him.
"Either you’re desperate, or you know something. If you’re desperate, we can talk," he offered.
Despite the fact I have known Willie all my life, I knew that if I tried to explain how I was his friend Luke from 24 hours in the future, not his friend Luke from today, he would have me committed in the closest mental hospital.
When we got back to town, it was late. He asked if I were all right. I assured him I was. He drove off, heading home, and I started to walk into my house. Then it occurred to me, “I” was in my bed. I turned and walked to the park and slept on a bench the night. I tossed and turned some, unable to sleep as I wondered if my plan had worked. When the paper was delivered to town, the numbers would have been picked; therefore, I wouldn’t be able to win the lotteries. Would my plan work? Trying to figure out the laws of the universe was clearly more than my mind could handle. I slept very poorly that night. I dreamed of past lives and people lost in time. I dreamed of Paul and how he was trapped, destined to die without knowing the truth. I awoke in a cold sweat. In my dream, I had been there, as well. Trapped in the past would be a horrible torture, even as much as I love history. I could feel his pain and anguish.
When morning came, I knew I had to stay away from home until about 9:30. That was when I had gone to the park. I walked down to Darlene's Diner for breakfast. She looked at me. I was wearing the same clothes I had been wearing the day before. I had showered but still hadn’t been home for fresh clothes or a shave. "Don't ask," I told her with a smile.
"I was wondering who the lucky girl was. When you left yesterday, you were alone." Darlene loved to tease everyone.
"I was with Willie," I quickly pointed out to her.
She smiled. "Willie is different."
"How do you mean that?" I asked, but I had a feeling my male ego was about to take a bruising.
She sat down next to me, as I was the only customer in the diner for the moment. "Willie flirts and teases and has a lot more dates than you do, but they don't mean anything to him. He’s too scared of women," she explained.
"I hardly see Willie as being scared of any woman," I stated in my absent friend's defense.
"Really," Darlene told me with a smile, "he’s scared of commitment. Why do you think he dates any one woman no more than a few times? If he gets too serious with one, he might get married."
I laughed as I thought of Willie being scared of women in any way.
"But you," she said getting up, "you’re afraid you will fall in love with the wrong one, so you don't date enough of them to find the right one."
"I like to think I’ll know the right one when she walks into my life," I said. I knew Darlene was telling me the truth. I seldom have a date, mostly as money is too tight. I wouldn’t date a woman unless I thought I might be willing to spend the rest of my life with her. Now I accepted the possibility that I might just spend the rest of my life wondering which one was the one that got away from me because I was too stupid to realize it. Most of the guys Willie and I had gone to school with had dated the same girls throughout high school and married them soon after graduation. Most of them had families now. Maybe we were scared of women.
My depression was just starting to kick into overdrive when Willie walked in for his morning coffee. He carried today’s paper in his hand. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows in a knowingly and yet questioning way. I shook my head no, not wanting to get into the same discussion. "I was wondering if we needed to repeat our trips again today?" he said handing me the paper. "My numbers didn’t pan out." Then he asked, "How did you do?"
I took the tickets from my pocket and with Willie looking over the top of the paper at my face; he read my face as fast as I read the paper. "You did good, poker face," he said.
He was right. Both tickets had hit the proverbial jackpot. "I guess I need to call and see how to collect. However, remember our deal. You tell anyone about this, and you die."
Willie smiled and offered to drive me back to Tennessee. I told him it would take a few days to arrange the details, but we would go to the Tennessee and then the Missouri state capitals to collect the winnings. I insisted that we had been partners. I wanted him to share the winnings with me. I know he really had mixed feelings. He thought the money was mine, but at the same time, he was struggling in his business, as I had been. I could remember times when we had only enough money for one candy bar and we would split it. We even pooled our money for fishing tackle in our youth.
We were close friends, so I had to share it with him. He had risked his life to save me at Blanchard Springs Caverns without a second thought. We both knew that splitting the money gave us more than enough to stake either of us for the rest of our lives. In the end, he agreed to split the winnings 50/50. Several times, he tried to press me for details on how I knew the numbers, but finally, he gave up and trusted me. I could have kept all the money, but I felt so much better having shared it with him.
Our plan was to quietly collect the winnings. We requested the lump sum payments. Taxes came out first, but still we had a bunch left. We arranged to keep our names from the media. The authorities in Nashville seemed to understand this fully and really helped us a lot. They arranged for certified checks for each of us. We would be responsible for the federal taxes as well as the taxes in Arkansas. Funny how government officials always remind you about the taxes before giving you any money.
We drove back to Blissville with our checks from Tennessee. Willie wanted to cash them right then. I suggested we wait. I put them in the gun safe at my house. The next day we went to Jefferson City, Missouri, to collect those winnings. They were not as helpful as the Tennessee folks had been. They pressured us to be able to use photographs of us holding a big check for their publicity. I made up the story that I had a large family of cousins who, once they heard I had money, would never leave me alone until it was all gone. The Missouri officials seemed to understand that.
Both Nashville and Jefferson City were long drives for us. We had spent the night at each city. During the drive back, Willie remarked he had always wanted to learn to fly just so he wouldn’t have to make long drives like these. Now he could afford to learn. He said he still wanted to keep his business, though. He enjoyed building things for other people.
He asked me about my plans. I told him I had some research I wanted to do this summer but, other than continuing my business, I wasn’t sure. I really couldn’t understand the concept of having money. I had been poor all my life. He laughed when I told him that the day we had left for Tennessee I had received an overdraft notice from the bank. Now, we each had over $1 million to deposit.
On May 12, 2004 Willie and I met at Darlene's Diner for breakfast. We were both nervous. We each had our lump sum checks. No one in town knew or suspected anything. We knew our days of secrecy were soon to be over.
Breakfast finished, we walked over to the bank. Mrs. Abernathy greeted us. We smiled and nodded. She’s the teller and often works for a few hours a day alone. Cal Lewis is actually the bank president. Willie and I walked over to his desk. He looked up and smiled. He’s used to men stopping by to talk about fishing or hunting. He nodded and asked us to wait a moment for him to finish his paper work. It was hard to take Cal seriously. Being short and rotund, he always dresses as Santa Claus for the Christmas parade. Right now I was remembering all the years it relaxed me.
We remained silent. Soon he finished his work. "So, guys, no work today? Just our town loafers, I guess," he laughed at his joke.
"We need some financial advice and planning," I said, looking at Willie who nodded. "We want to make a deposit, but we need some special accounts, as well."
"What kind of accounts? You know I cannot make loans to either of you right now," he said looking solemn.
"Well, I don't know about Willie, but I want an account that will pay all my bills each month on a direct transfer, and I want a savings account, as well as a few CD's," I told Cal.
Cal smiled as he spoke. "Come on, Lucas. You need large amounts of money for that. The little accounts you have from the insurance your parents left you will never cover those types of accounts."
"I do have a deposit to make today," I said handing him my checks from each state.
Cal dropped the checks to his desk. "What the hell is this?" he inquired in dismay. He couldn’t believe either of us would have this kind of money legally.
I looked at him. "You can call each state,” I said handing him a letter of confirmation. “Each letter lists the telephone, so, please, verify them," I said. "Plus, they are certified checks."
Willie leaned forward handing Cal his two checks, "I have two for the same amount of money. I’m not sure how I want to invest mine." Willie has a great sense of humor. I felt this wasn’t the time for it. Willie thought otherwise. "Of course, if your bank is too small, we can drive over to the county seat at Risco and spread the money around at several banks."
Willie was joking. I knew he was joking, but Cal didn’t know Willie was joking. "Let me make some calls. I should be able to have it worked out by noon."
Willie smiled and winked at me. "I thought you would see it our way."
We explained to Cal that we wanted to deposit the money into our accounts. As soon as possible, we would transfer it into long-term certificates and bonds or whatever he thought was best. We did have one special request. When he cleared the checks and the money was actually in our accounts, we wanted my car and Willie's truck paid in full. Willie had some other loans, which he wanted paid off, as well. We wanted to be 100 percent debt free as soon as we could.
Cal quickly agreed. He told us to meet him at Darlene's Diner at noon. He would buy our lunch. We also asked that he and Mrs. Abernathy keep all of this a secret for the time being. We wanted to wait until the checks cleared before we told anyone else in town. They both agreed.
An hour later, I was in the post office to check my mail and buy stamps. Clara Fox was talking to her twin sister Mabel when I walked into the post office. They turned, smiling at me. Mabel grabbed me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. Then as she pushed her glasses back into place, she said, "I’m so proud of you."
Clara said, "I’ve always told you that you would be very successful."
"Who told you?" I asked.
They looked at each other. "We have not heard a thing," they both said in unison with a giggle.
"Not a thing," repeated Mabel, leaving the post office.
I went back to Darlene's Diner. I sat down at the counter. She poured me a cup of coffee. "I heard the news," she said. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"We were waiting for the checks to clear. Cal promised that no one would know until Willie and I told people. We were going to announce it here today at lunch."
"Cal was over here as soon as you left the bank looking for you. He is so excited. He made the calls to verify everything to his satisfaction. Since the checks are certified, I guess he considered them cleared," Darlene explained. "You know you cannot keep a secret in Blissville."
She was almost right. There was only one secret in Blissville. My gun safe at home contained the biggest secret anyone could ever imagine. A secret is only a secret if just one person knows it. If two people know it, soon others will know it, as well. Willie knew I had a secret, but he didn’t suspect the truth. I wondered how long I could keep the truth a secret.
Chapter 6
Eventually, things settled down. Willie and I persuaded the local paper not to publish an article about our winnings, and everyone else in town promised to keep it a secret. A few people did ask for loans or gifts; however, we explained Cal Lewis at the bank had threatened us. If we lent or gave away money, he would sue us for being in competition with him. He backed our story and told people the same thing, which made life easier for us.
On May 17, Darlene Brice, my surrogate mother and the owner of our favorite eating place, received a new Chevrolet Impala as an early birthday gift. There was no card, but she thanked both Willie and me for it. We had wanted to keep it a secret gift, but there was no way. She was elated to learn the taxes, insurance and first year's tag were a part of the gift, as well.
The library received many new books, although each time I walked into the library, Mabel had a list of books she thought would be helpful in my research. She made no secret about the fact she expected me to purchase them for the library.
Willie kept working odd jobs, just not as many as before. I placed a notice on my web site stating I was currently unavailable for research until further notice. I broke down and bought a cell phone. Willie, Darlene and only one or two others had the number. My house telephone line went directly to an answering machine, and if I didn’t know the person calling, I didn’t answer it. Apparently when the public learns you won a lottery, everyone thinks he should call you.
At last, I could devote my full attention to Paul and the people involved with the time travel mystery. Clearly, I needed more background information. Since I had the roster of people, including their biographical backgrounds, I could start spending time in the area around Blanchard Springs, at the caverns and in the town of Mountain View just south of there. With luck, I could observe all the people and decide for myself who were the key suspects. I needed to meet them.
As it was just approaching the end of May, several months remained before I had to inform Paul about the journal. Maybe that would be the key, if I could meet Paul socially, become friends, and then tell him about the journal. The other choice was just to surprise him with it unexpectedly.
