Smith's Monthly #4 Read online

  She kissed me before I had time to even say anything.

  And let me say, after thinking I was alone, stuck in the past, that kiss felt wonderful, even better than normal, which was going some with kissing Patty.

  THREE

  STAN CLEARED HIS THROAT. “Sorry to break this up,” he said, “but I’ll be back in about one minute and we have to be very careful this is not seen.”

  “The past you?” I asked.

  Stan nodded.

  “And you have the other me in a time bubble waiting somewhere for this to finish up?”

  “Got it,” Stan said.

  “You were cute,” Patty said, smiling at me.

  “Am I going to need counseling after waking up with an older woman?” I asked her, smiling.

  She whacked me and laughed. “You might.”

  I turned to Stan, my Stan from the future. “So what do I do?”

  “I can’t tell you a thing,” Stan said. “At least not at this point. It has to play out. And it concerns this time.”

  “Isn’t this part of it playing out?” I asked.

  “All we can say at the moment,” Stan said, shaking his head.

  “Watch yourself there as well,” I said. “This might be to get me out of the way.”

  “Good thinking,” Stan said.

  But I could tell he didn’t give it a second thought. So this had nothing to do with a threat in 2014. It was completely about something here in 1999.

  “See you in about fifteen years,” Patty said, kissing me again.

  “Be nice to the other me,” I said.

  She winked. “Oh, I will.”

  Then they were both gone and the time bubble was gone. The sounds of the buffet came crashing back in.

  I sipped on the last of my orange juice, thinking about her last joke. I sure couldn’t be jealous of my girlfriend spending time with me, even though it wasn’t really me. At least not the me of now.

  I was pretty sure, from my memory, which seemed oddly blank for this time period, I hadn’t been allowed to remember what had happened.

  A moment later another time bubble formed around me, plunging me back into silence and the young Stan appeared. Actually, he looked exactly like the Stan in fifteen years. I even think he was dressed in the same sweater and slacks.

  “The other you is in your time in the future,” Stan said, sitting down.

  Around us everyone remained frozen, some in stride, others with a mouthful of food.

  “I know,” I said and he looked surprised, again losing his normal poker face.

  He started to ask a question, but I waved him off.

  “Only thing that could happen. I can’t think of one reason I would be brought back in time.”

  “To play poker,” Stan said.

  Now it was my turn to be surprised. “Not something you could handle. You are as good as I am, if not better.”

  “I am told I am not,” Stan said.

  Again I was surprised.

  “Laverne switched you out last night,” Stan said. “The window was so tight for the transfer that she did not have time to warn you. She sends her apologies.”

  “Window?” I asked, getting more confused by the moment.

  Stan nodded. “The entity who is setting this up needs to think you are not a superhero yet. When Laverne learned of what was to happen, she only had a few seconds to act.”

  “I’m to play this entity?” I’d done that a few times, the most memorable being an alien who looked like a snake. Actually, it was the same snake alien who messed up the Garden of Eden.

  “No,” Stan said. “You are to play another professional poker player.”

  Now I was getting very, very worried. And not about playing another professional poker player, but about the stakes. This was a lot of trouble to go through to set up a friendly game. And clearly Laverne was worried about it as well.

  “So what kind of alien invasion is this going to stop if I win?”

  Stan actually laughed. “Don’t I wish?”

  Now I was beyond worried.

  “If I lose the world ends?” I asked.

  Again Stan just laughed and shook his head. “Wow, you develop a wild ego, don’t you? I hope your poker is as good as the ego.”

  “Better,” I said. “So what am I playing for?”

  “My job,” Stan said.

  I kind of opened and then closed my mouth.

  “So you are actually playing for your job as well,” Stan said, half laughing. “Since I hire you.”

  All I could do was sit there and think over all of the times my team and I rescued the entire planet. I really was playing for everything. The survival of the entire world. But Stan, this Stan, would have no way of knowing that.

  And I didn’t dare tell him.

  No wonder Laverne had sent me back here.

  “So Bernice, the God of Keno, is the entity that set this up?” I asked.

  It was Stan’s turn to open his mouth, then shut it. He nodded.

  “And a lot of betting is going on among gods right now. Correct?”

  Again Stan nodded.

  “Bernice makes a run at me a few years after you hire me to get your job that way. She tried using all her ‘charms’ on me and failed.”

  “Wow, you turned down those looks?” Stan said.

  Model looks, a soft voice, and huge breasts didn’t much do it for me. And her laugh sounded more like a baying donkey anyway. She was the best-looking of all the gods in classical beauty, and I didn’t blame her for wanting to get out of the dead-end world of Keno. Only problem was, she had the brains of a Keno player.

  As poker players like to joke, a Keno player is a gambler who has lost the will to live.

  Why she kept making runs at Stan’s job was beyond me. But if she got it this time, she would never hire me and the world would end at any number of different points in the next fifteen years when me and my team were not together to save it.

  I was going to have to win this.

  One way or another.

  FOUR

  “SO I HAVE TO PRETEND I have no powers and don’t understand what is happening? Right?”

  Stan nodded.

  “And no one has seen this time bubble?”

  “Laverne’s been blocking this,” he said. “She feels it’s critical that you win this.”

  Now I was puzzled again. “Isn’t she the boss? Can’t she just kill this entire idea?”

  “I could,” Laverne said, appearing next to the table in the time bubble. In the future, Laverne, known as Lady Luck, was always in my floating office over Las Vegas and was treated like one of the gang.

  She had on her standard black business suit and her dark hair was pulled back, making her face seem all business.

  1999 Stan scooted back and stood. He clearly didn’t spend much, if any, time around one of the most powerful gods and his boss at this point in time.

  Laverne dropped into a chair and faced me. “If I have to, I’ll pull rank on this. But it will damage my power base at this point in time.”

  “Bernice has been sleeping with a number of gods who would like a little more power, huh?” I asked.

  “She may be as dumb as this fork,” Laverne said, nodding, “but she can manipulate men. And she’s dangerous.”

  “Does she have any idea what she’s risking with this?” I asked.

  Laverne glanced at the stunned look on Stan’s face, then shook her head. “No, she would have no way of knowing. No one at her level in this time period would know. Just win this match.”

  “Can I use my powers?”

  “Just the ones you had at this point in time,” Laverne said. “Safer. A lot of gods will be watching.”

  I nodded. “I’ll win it. But you already know that.”

  “Honestly, I don’t,” she said. “This entire thing is a side timeline on the normal timeline and I’m working to figure out who’s doing this. And how and why. This did not originally happen in 1999 to you.”
>
  “No wonder I have no memory of any of this.”

  She nodded and said nothing.

  “I’ll still win it,” I said, doing my best to keep my stomach from twisting right out of my side with sudden fear.

  “Thanks,” she said, and vanished.

  I took a deep breath and glanced at the shocked look on Stan’s face.

  “So where and when?”

  “You need to get to Vegas in two days,” he said. “Special room set up at Binion’s Horseshoe.”

  “Who am I playing?” I asked.

  “Doc Hill,” he said.

  And my stomach twisted one more twist tighter which, up until that point, I didn’t think it could. Doc Hill was the best No Limit Hold’em player in the world. Even in 2014 I didn’t often play against him, since he was mostly a tournament player. But in 1999 he was coming off of two years as Card Player Magazine Player of the Year and he had won more World Series of Poker bracelets than any person alive.

  My future just looked a lot dimmer. And my promise to Lady Luck sounded like bluster instead of fact. Doc Hill was going to be damn hard to beat.

  I hoped Lady Luck and my team in the future could figure who was doing this and why before I had to sit down across from Doc.

  FIVE

  I HADN’T BEEN on an airline since I had learned how to teleport. And after the two hours in the airport and the four-hour flight to Vegas, I didn’t miss airports and the lines and the waiting. Not in the slightest. And I swore they had put the seats closer together. Even in first class.

  I took a cab to Binion’s Horseshoe Casino and Hotel in the downtown area. At this point in time, Fremont Street had not been covered with the light show and the area had a feel of being rundown.

  Binion’s hadn’t seemed to change. There were low ceilings and far too much smoke in the air. I felt the power from the casino fill me as I walked in, but then a moment later I coughed. My lungs were just not used to all the smoke. It was amazing how much that one detail had changed in fifteen years.

  I headed through the clouds of smoke and past the small poker area toward the hotel front desk.

  And there, standing behind the desk, was my future girlfriend, Patty Ledgerwood.

  I damn near fell flat on my face. In 2002, after I had been a superhero for a number of years, I would come here for the last time the World Series of Poker was held in this casino. And I would meet Patty at the front desk, just like this.

  And she would become my sidekick and my girlfriend.

  She was dressed in the Binion’s Hotel uniform of the time. Brown dress slacks, a white blouse, and a light brown vest with a nametag on the vest.

  Somehow, I was going to have to talk with her. I was going to have to be very, very careful.

  And not trip over the ropes that blocked off the front like I did the first time I met her.

  As I approached the desk, she looked up and winked at me. “Enjoy the flight?”

  I was stunned. I leaned in over the counter and whispered, “Patty?”

  She smiled and I knew it was my Patty from the future. “Laverne has the entire team back here,” she whispered, “trying to figure out who’s doing this.”

  Then she said in a normal voice, “Would you like to check in, sir?”

  “I would,” I said, and gave her my real-world name.

  “Flying sucks,” I whispered and she laughed that wonderful high laugh of hers as she checked her computer.

  “We have you in a suite,” she said, sliding me the paperwork I needed to sign. “Laverne has it blocked,” she whispered, “so we’ll all see you there later with an update.”

  “Wonderful,” I said in my normal voice.

  She handed me my key card and I took it. “Thanks for the great service.”

  “Oh, that comes later,” she whispered without moving her lips.

  It was everything I could do to not laugh and not trip over the ropes on the way out of the front desk area.

  I couldn’t begin to say how relieved I was that the team was here.

  And how much I was in love with that girl behind the front desk.

  SIX

  PATTY, STAN, SCREAMER, AND BEN all appeared in my suite about an hour after I had settled into the place. You could tell the suite had seen better days, but I knew that in a few years the entire hotel would be remodeled and would turn out wonderful.

  Patty was still in her Binion’s uniform, Stan looked the same in both timelines, Screamer had on his standard jeans, sweater, and tennis shoes, and Ben was dressed like an old librarian, only without the tie.

  It felt fantastic to see them again. Not only were we all a team, but they were my closest friends.

  On the long flight down, I had come up with a few conclusions and I wanted to run them past the team. I had no idea where the Stan of this time was. Or where any of the 1999 members of the team were. Not sure I wanted to know.

  Patty hugged me, then kissed me, then we all gathered in the suite’s living room area.

  I looked at Ben, who was the oldest member of the team and was now a god in the book and reading area. He had a memory of every fact about the gods known or not known.

  “Who is the God of Time?” I asked Ben as we settled in.

  “Chronos,” Ben said.

  I nodded. I sort of had known that.

  “Does he have a younger son he’s training?”

  “He does,” Ben said, nodding, but looking puzzled. “Two of them, actually.”

  “You don’t think Tick or Tock have anything to do with this?” Stan asked, his face very serious.

  “Tick? Tock?” I asked, trying my best not to laugh. Never a good idea to laugh at the gods. “Nicknames I hope?”

  I glanced around, but not one of my team seemed to think those names odd or funny in any way.

  “No,” Ben said, also very serious.

  I took a deep breath to calm myself to keep from laughing, then asked the next question. “Which one has an outsized interest in women? Or reputation as a woman chaser?”

  “Tock,” Stan said. “It’s gotten him in trouble more than once over the centuries. But I don’t see why you think he might have something to do with this. It was Laverne that brought you back from the future.”

  “I know,” I said, nodding. “But how did any of the gods of this time even know who I was?”

  Stan started to open his mouth to answer, then shut it.

  “You don’t recruit me for almost a year,” I said. “At this point in time I’m just a good local grinder. So only someone with the ability to see through time would know about me,” I said.

  “But Doc Hill could beat just about anyone of this time,” Patty said. “If Bernice is behind this, why pick a player that might actually have a shot at beating Doc?”

  “Because she and her boyfriend don’t really know me,” I said. “But his dad would be able to see the problem if Bernice became the God of Poker.”

  “And he would pick the player,” Stan said.

  “And give Laverne enough time to switch me out,” I said, nodding. “And put this entire thing off in a side loop in time without anyone knowing.”

  “You being here is finally starting to make sense,” Stan said and everyone was nodding.

  “Only one more question,” I said, “that I can’t figure out.”

  Everyone looked at me, waiting.

  “Why did Doc Hill agree to this match?”

  Silence from my team.

  “He wouldn’t,” I said. “He’s richer than I am and that’s going some, so money isn’t a factor. And I’m an unknown at this point in time, so there’s no fun in playing an unknown player heads-up. He would never agree unless…”

  “Tock and Bernice are holding something over him,” Screamer said.

  I nodded. “I know this much about Doc Hill. At this point in time, he doesn’t care about his father. But he and his mother and his grandfather are very close. And his best friend is his lawyer. Any of them in danger would forc
e him to agree to this.”

  “I wonder if Tock’s father knows about this?”

  “I doubt it,” I said.

  Stan nodded and looked at me. “Well, he’s going to. Stay put. The match is scheduled to start on the second floor in three hours. We have work to do.”

  They were suddenly all gone.

  I looked around. Since Stan didn’t want me leaving, that meant I couldn’t go to the great steak restaurant on the upper floor. But I could go for room service.

  If I ended up having to play Doc Hill, I wanted to at least go into it on a full stomach.

  SEVEN

  I HAD JUST FINISHED with my steak and fries and was sitting back watching 1999 news, which seemed both fresh and strange at the same time, when Stan, Patty, Laverne, and Doc Hill appeared in my room.

  They were all smiling, except Doc, who just looked stunned.

  “All wrapped up?” I asked as I clicked off the television.

  Laverne nodded.

  I was surprised that they had brought Doc. More than likely his memory would be erased. He had no powers and no real reason to know about any of this sort of thing.

  He was looking around, clearly having troubles getting grounded. He was a tall man and clearly young. If I remembered right, he had only left college a few years ago just short of a doctorate in something, which is why they called him Doc. He had long, sun-streaked brown hair and a deep tan. He rafted summers in the Idaho wilderness and seemed to be naturally good at anything he did.

  “I am pretty sure I don’t want to know how you did that,” Doc said, looking around at the room before looking at Stan.

  Stan nodded. “You don’t.”

  “Great seeing you again, Doc,” I said, moving to shake his hand, then realized he looked even more confused. “Great meeting you, at least.”

  “And who are you?” Doc asked.

  “I’ll become known as Poker Boy,” I said. “I was the one you were supposed to play. Have you met the others?”

  He shook his head. “Patty Ledgerwood,” I said, introducing Patty. When she shook his hand I could see him visibly calm down. I loved that power of hers to do that.