The sun rose again for the second time on Friday, May 17, 1935. Today had a hint of rain forecasted for later in the morning.
Alice was busy in her kitchen, cooking pancakes and coffee for their paying guest.
She placed pancakes on five plates with five cups of coffee. “Breakfast,” she called out from the doorway of the kitchen.
Dirk, Marge, Clark, Jerome, Peter, and Carl all rushed into the kitchen with growling stomachs. They immediately crowded around the kitchen table and started eating their pancakes and drinking Alice’s fabulous coffee.
Clark ate and couldn’t help but stare at Alice. He couldn’t believe that he was seeing his great grandmother in person. He had seen a picture of her when she was old and couldn’t believe how she was an attractive woman for her age. Getting old sucks. He thought to himself while he eyed Alice and drank his coffee.
After the Beaumont gang finished with their breakfast, Dirk paid Victor an extra twenty dollars for their hospitality.
Victor shook hands with the Beaumont gang.
Clark surprised Alice and everybody by giving her a good-bye hug. He couldn’t resist.
The gang left the kitchen and headed off to the barn.
Peter, Jerome, and Carl got situated in the backseat of the Cadillac.
“You can start by driving,” Dirk told Clark then handed him the car keys.
Clark was looking forward to sitting behind the wheel of this Cadillac for the second time. “Okay,” he said while he opened up the passenger door and sat behind the wheel.
Marge got in the front and sat in the middle of the seat next to Clark.
Clark liked the feeling of Marge’s left leg lightly rubbing against his right leg. He put away nasty thoughts of being alone with his sexy and intriguing woman.
Dirk sat in the front next to Marge and closed the passenger door. “Let’s get out of here,” he told Clark.
Clark started up the Cadillac and drove out of the barn.
Clark drove the Cadillac down the driveway and stopped at the end by the road. He waited for directions from Dirk.
Dirk frowned at Clark while he reached over and smacked the back of Clark’s head knocking his Fedora hat off his head. “What the fuck was with you hugging that woman?” he said.
“He hugged her like she was his mother,” replied Jerome from the backseat.
“That’s what I thought,” added Carl.
“Or maybe he likes older women as lovers,” said Peter then blew smooches into the air.
Jerome and Carl chucked over Peter’s air smooches.
Clark glanced over at Dirk and wondered how to respond. “I thought that if I showed some compassion, they would definitely keep their mouths shut,” he said as that was the only excuse he could come up with. He knew the truth wouldn’t be well received.
“Compassion? Giving them cash is compassion for keeping their mouths shut. We can’t go around hugging people. Might make us appear soft. You got that?” said Dirk looking serious.
“Got it,” replied Clark, still glad he got the chance to hug his great grandmother.
Dirk looked out his door window to his right and then to his left to make sure the law wasn’t heading in their direction. “Turn left,” he told Clark.
Clark picked up his Fedora hat off his lap and placed it back on his head.
He turned the Cadillac left and drove east on RD 4.
Jerome handed Dirk a map of Texas over Dirk’s left shoulder.
“You got a lot to learn kid. A lot to learn to fucking learn,” said Dirk taking the map from Jerome.
He opened up the map, and it took a few seconds to find their location.
“I’ll tell you when to turn, Jake,” said Dirk then he placed the map down on his lap.
Clark was in heaven while he drove the Cadillac down RD 4.
After he drove three miles down RD 4, Dirk had him make a right turn onto Route 890.
He headed south down that two-lane country road.
Meanwhile back in Austin, Wallace gave up with locating Clark and figured if he got into trouble by trying to hook up with some outlaw, it was his own doing.
He spent all day yesterday walking around Austin discreetly snapping pictures with his Nikon COOLPIX S32 digital camera.
He walked up and stood by the entrance to the University of Austin. He was a little nervous but really wanted to chat with Dr. Elmer Evans. So he stood there and pondered how he would introduce himself to this professor. He couldn’t tell him that he time traveled all the way from 2014. Doing that might have the police questioning Wallace as a crackpot and lock him up in a mental institution.
Wallace walked away and tried to come up with the perfect greeting.
He stopped in his tracks, turned around and headed back to the entrance of the University of Texas. Wallace removed his digital camera out of his suit pocket. He snapped a few pictures of the entrance to the campus since it had changed over the years.
He walked away, practicing his perfect greeting for Dr. Evans.
Back on Route 890, Dirk glanced over at Clark. He reached inside his suit coat and removed his Colt 45 with his left hand.
He reached his left arm around the back of Marge’s head. He pressed the barrel of his Colt 45 just below Clark’s right ear.
Clark’s eyes widened the second he felt the cold steel of the barrel of that Colt against his skin. He swallowed hard and wondered if he would be dead in a matter of seconds. But then again he realized that Dirk wouldn’t risk having a car accident and getting the front of his beautiful car all bloody.
“Now Mister Jake Johnson, I sure hope you’re not going to cause me any grief.”
Clark started to shake a little and Marge could feel it in Clark’s right leg.
“No, sir. I wouldn’t dream of causing you any grief,” he said and silently prayed Dirk wouldn’t put a bullet into his brain after they got to their destination.
Dirk pressed the barrel of his Colt 45 harder into Clark’s skin. “Cause if you do, then a bullet will end your life in a matter of seconds. Cause I insist my members are loyal and can be trusted beyond a shadow of a doubt. Do you understand Mister Johnson?”
“Yes, sir. I’ll be loyal and trustworthy,” Clark said and fought from peeing in his pants.
“Good,” Dirk said when removed his Colt 45 away from Clark’s head.
Clark sighed a sigh of relief.
Jerome, Peter, and Carl all chuckled from the rear seat.
Marge discreetly placed her left hand and lightly patted Clark’s right thigh to let him know things will be okay.
Dirk reached over and turned on the AM radio of the car. It was a Motorola 5T-71 radio, and Dirk had it installed last year in the glovebox with the speaker under the dash. The cost was fifty-five dollars, and it was worth every penny. He wanted it for the enjoyment of listening to music while on the run. Also, he wanted to hear for news reports about his gang. He loved being in the limelight.
The Tumbling Tumbleweeds song by Gene Autry played.
“Here on the range I belong, drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds,” sang out Dirk with the radio. And of course, nobody had the guts to tell Dirk he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. So they just tolerated his singing voice.
He’s awful. Clark mouthed the words.
So the drive became a little longer down Route 890 while the gang was forced to listen to Dirk’s nauseating singing to the Tumbling Tumbleweeds song.
Back in Austin, Wallace paced up and down the street by the front entrance of the University of Austin. He was nervous for some reason with confronting Dr. Elmer Evans.
After he walked past the entrance for the eighth time, he decided to be brave.
He rushed off through the front entrance and rushed into the campus.
While Wallace walked through the campus, he was in awe of how small it was back in 1935. He snapped some pictures to record his historic event.
He finally walked to the Physics department building that was actually built in 1901 and had a stone exterior. This wasn’t the same building Wallace worked in during the present day. The existing building was torn down in 1955 because of an experiment that went south and caused a fire. He remembered that day, but he wasn’t the cause of the fire.
It was caused by a clumsy classmate.
Wallace went to the red wooden front doors and entered the building.
Once he stood in the front foyer of the building, Wallace looked around and saw a few students heading off to class. He was impressed with how they dressed in suits and not shorts and sandals like the students of his University of Texas.
He heard a door slam down the hallway near him. Then he heard footsteps and saw a young student walking down the hall in Wallace’s direction. “Excuse young man, I’m looking for Doctor Evan’s office.”
“Down the hallway to the right then take the hallway to the left. His office is down in the middle on the right side,” the young student replied.
“Thank you,” replied Wallace, then he headed off to the hallway to the right.
Wallace walked off down the hallway then made the left turn and headed down that hallway.
After he made it to the middle of the hallway, he saw a closed door, with opaque window with “Dr. Evans, Physics Professor” painted on the glass in gold letters. Wallace knocked on the door and took a deep breath to calm his nerves. No response from inside the office. He knocked again. No response from inside the office.
“Doctor Evans is out today,” said Agnes Reid, a secretary for the Physics department.
Wallace turned around and saw Agnes, a middle-aged woman with a stack of test papers in her hands.
“When will he return?”
“He’ll be back tomorrow morning. Would you like to make an appointment?”
“I would indeed,” said Wallace before he had a chance to chicken out.
“Follow me, please,” said Agnes, then she headed down the hallway.
Wallace followed Agnes into the office of Dean Gerry Albertson.
After Agnes sat down behind her desk, she opened up the appointment book she kept for all the professors and the dean. “Let’s see, he has an opening tomorrow at ten. We’re only here for half a day to grade papers and get ready for the upcoming week,” said Agnes.
“Ten tomorrow morning is fine.”
“What’s your name?” asked Agnes with a pencil ready.
“Doctor Wallace Burns. I’m a physics professor here,” he said the stopped when he realized he was starting to say the wrong thing. “I’m a professor from the University of Ohio,” he said.
Agnes jotted down that information in her appointment book. “We’ll see you tomorrow morning at ten, Doctor Burns,” she said with a warm smile.
“Thank you,” replied Wallace then left the office while Agnes returned to her work.
Wallace walked back down the hallways and headed to the front doors of the building.
He saw that it was raining outside and forgot to bring an umbrella.
So he turned around and decided to walk through the hallways and check out the students hard at work.
The rain stopped thirty minutes later.
Wallace walked out of the front entrance to the university and headed off into town to do more exploring with 1935 Austin.
Clark drove the Cadillac south on Route 1120 heading toward San Antonio.
It was quiet inside the car, as the rainstorm that hit Austin was also wetting this area.
The song I Want to Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart by Patsy Montana and the Prairie Ramblers played on the radio. This time Dirk gave everybody’s ears a break and didn’t sing along. His mind concentrated on his next heist to get more easy cash.
Dirk looked at the map in his hands. “Turn right at route three ten,” he told Clark.
Clark nodded in agreement and watched for signs of that road.
Clark made a right turn on Route 310 and headed west.
After fifteen minutes of driving down that road, Clark made a left turn per Dirk’s direction onto a dirt driveway almost invisible hidden between bushes and other vegetation.
He drove the Cadillac down the long dirt driveway and soon drove upon an abandoned farmhouse. Jerome knew of this place from his father who knew the farmer. He and his family left Texas last year and headed to Los Angeles in hopes of better opportunities.
“Drive over to the barn,” Dirk ordered Clark.
Clark drove off through the unkempt yard and headed off to the barn located to the left.
Clark stopped by the doors of the barn.
Jerome and Carl got out of the back, ran over and opened up the barn’s double doors.
Clark drove the car into the barn and turned off the engine.
Dirk, Marge, Clark, and Peter got out of the car.
“Take the stuff to the house,” said Dirk then opened up one of the rear passenger doors and reached inside. He grabbed the two cases that had Thompson machine guns.
He grabbed Marge’s left hand and walked her out of the barn.
Jerome and Carl walked into the barn and joined Carl while he opened up the trunk of the Cadillac.
They removed four small suitcases. One for Marge and Dirk and the other two for Peter, Jerome, and Carl.
Carl closed the trunk then he looked at Clark. He didn’t trust that stranger, and he was a little jealous that Clark was a better mechanic.
Clark walked out of the barn with the three outlaws.
“Close the doors,” Peter told Clark.
After they got outside, Carl, Peter, and Jerome waited while Clark closed the barn doors.
The four headed off to the farmhouse.
They entered the house from the front door that wasn’t visible from the main road.
They met Dirk and Marge in the living room and set the suitcases on the floor.
Clark handed Dirk back his car keys.
“Rooms are upstairs. Go find a room then we’ll meet down here in a few minutes,” said Dirk then he looked at Clark. “You’ll sleep in my room for starters until you build up my trust.”
Clark nodded that he agreed.
Marge grabbed her suitcase and headed off into the kitchen.
Dirk, Jerome, and Carl grabbed their suitcases.
Clark walked with them up the stairs, and they made a claim with their sleeping quarters.
Marge was in the kitchen removing some plates, utensils, coffee pot and cups out of her suitcase. The only other item inside her suitcase was another dress, panties, bra and her cash from the previous heists. She always traveled light, as did the other guys in the gang.
Dirk and everybody met back downstairs in the living room.
Clark looked around at the furniture of the living room that was over thirty-five years old. The entire house was furnished through the Sears Roebuck catalog by the farmer and his wife.
And all the furniture was now showing over thirty-five years of wear and tear.
Dirk looked at Clark and then at Marge. “I want you two to head into Garden Ridge for some food.”
Marge and Clark nodded.
“And act like a couple so that no one will get wise to us being here,” said Dirk then he reached in his pants pocket and removed a ten-dollar bill and his car keys.
Clark glanced over at Marge and smiled inside with Dirk’s order.
Dirk walked over to Clark and got in his face. “It’s pretending so you better not take this a little too far.
Understand?” he said in a threatening tone then shoved the ten-dollar bill and car keys into Clark’s right pants pocket.
“Yes, sir. I won’t take this too far,” said Clark while Dirk gave him the glare.
“Okay, at the end of the driveway, turn left, and that road will take you into Garden Ridge,” Dirk told Clark.
“Got it,” said Clark.
“Head out,” said Dirk then he watched while Clark and Marge walked out the front door.
“Break out the shine for a quick drink,” Dirk told Peter.
Peter, Carl, and Jerome smiled, as it was a long drive and a drink would hit the spot.
Carl rushed up the stairs then came back down in a few minutes with a Mason jar of Moonshine in his hand.
Dirk, Jerome, and Peter gathered around Carl while he opened up the jar.
Carl took a swig then handed the jar to Dirk.
Dirk took a healthy swig then handed the jar to Peter.
Peter took a drink. “Do you think you can trust that Jake guy with Marge?” asked Peter after the Moonshine finished burning its way down to his stomach. He handed the jar to Jerome.
“Yeah, Marge carries her own forty-five in her purse,” said Dirk while Jerome took his drink.
Jerome handed the jar back to Dirk who took another drink.
Carl, Peter, and Jerome all had another drink.
“That’s enough. I want you guys alert for tomorrow’s heist,” said Dirk after Carl took his drink.
Carl reinstalled the lid to the Mason jar then took it back upstairs.
Clark and Marge were in the Cadillac heading down Route 320. It was quiet.
Clark decided to break the ice. “Listen, between you and me, I think what Amelia Earhart did was a great thing. And if a woman wants to set records in the sky with an airplane, well, I’m okay with that,” he said.
Marge looked at him and smiled. “You really believe in that?”
“I do, I don’t believe that a woman’s sole job is in the kitchen or between the sheets. I believe that a woman can also go for her dreams. She can do anything her heart desires,” he added.
Marge glanced at Clark. “Between the sheets. I like that,” she said and smiled. She really started to like this stranger.
It was quiet during the rest of the dive into Garden Ridge for Clark and Marge.
But they did the occasional glances at each other.
Clark parked the Cadillac in front of Gus’s grocery store.
Marge and Clark got out, and they met at the front of the car.
Marge placed her left arm around Clark’s right arm to give the appearance they were a couple.
They went inside the store.
Inside the store, seventy-year-old Gus worked behind the cash register.
“Hello there,” said Gus when he spotted Marge and Jake.
“Hello,” replied Clark.
Gus looked at the couple. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
Marge and Clark stopped and looked at Gus.
“No sir, we’re from Cotulla passing through heading to Dallas for a new job,” replied Clark.
“Well, thank you for stopping in my store,” replied Gus.
“We just got married and Willy my husband here is goi