Chapter 12
It was later that Friday.
Alone and scared from being chased, John slouched on a barstool at the Outlaw Steakhouse. He rubbed his forehead with his cold, wet beer bottle.
Behind the bar hung four thirty-inch HDTV's from the ceiling that gave all the patrons at the bar something to watch.
John watched the Channel 5 news from the nearest TV.
Then on one of the TVs, Channel News Reporter Tony Martinez reported from outside the Wild Cactus Saloon. It was a recording as told by the News Anchor Leah Anthony.
John sipped his beer while he watched the TV.
"We have a report on three recent shooting incidents in Apache Junction. The first one involved two cowboys who fired their pistols in the air outside the Wild Cactus Saloon. The second one involved those two cowboys on horses chasing a Ford Mustang. The third one involved the same cowboys in a gun battle outside the Wild Cactus Saloon. They were shooting at a Clint Bartley who claimed to be a Marshal. Injured in the gunfight was an Apache Indian. Witnesses stated that during the first incident, one of these cowboys wanted to kill someone called the Kissing Bandit. The police are reviewing amateur video taken from the Saloon shooting to identify the two cowboys. The Marshal was arrested, and the injured Indian was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital," Tony Martinez said from the TV.
John took a drink from his beer when his cell phone rang. It startled him, and he jumped, and beer poured on him. He answered his cell phone.
"Angie?" John answered
"No, it's Richard, your boss," he replied from John's cell.
John sat straight up on his bar stool.
"Yes, sir," John said.
"It's like this. You didn't show up for work today and didn't call. It was even nice to allow you to take a few days off this week without the proper advanced notice. You're fired. Turn in your uniform and truck keys immediately," Richard said then disconnected his end of the phone call.
John looked devastated, then mad as he put his cell away.
He glanced up at the TV and saw an amateur video of Bart and Charlie on their horses outside the Wild Cactus Saloon.
"Yeehaw! Kissing Bandit! We're coming to kill ya!" Bart yelled out then he fired his pistol in the air again as what was recorded on the amateur video. Then the video zoomed in on Bart and half of a right ear was visible.
"Crap!" John screamed out, then threw his beer bottle behind the bar. It smashed into some booze bottles on some glass shelves, which also shattered. There was silence in the bar while all eyes were on John.
The bartender got furious when he saw the smashed glass shelves.
John cringed when he realized he was in deep trouble.
The manager of the steak house rushed over to the bar and saw the damage.
The bartender and the manager rushed over to John. They each grabbed an arm and snatched him off his bar stool.
They escorted John to the front doors.
The manager opened one of the front doors, and they threw John outside.
"Never come back to this establishment!" the manager yelled.
They went back to the restaurant.
John got up and walked to his parked Mustang.
He saw the bullet holes in the trunk area and a shattered taillight. He got inside his Mustang and started it up. Then his eyes welled up while his life started to fall apart.
At his ranch house, Rusty watched TV and saw the news report with Tony Martinez. He thought Bart and Charlie looked familiar but couldn't place a finger on it then he shrugged it off.
An hour later, John drove a 2000 brown Toyota Corolla out of Albert's Used Car lot. He sold his Mustang and used some of the cash to buy the Corolla.
He drove off down the street.
John drove straight to Angie's apartment complex. He parked his car and walked to her apartment. He took a deep breath then knocked on her door.
The door opened, and Angie appeared.
"Can we talk?" John begged.
Angie debated in her mind if she should let him inside.
"Okay," she said but was still angry with John.
John entered, and they walked over and sat down on the couch. She had a forty-two inch HDTV in a beautiful entertainment center against the wall.
Angie looked at John. "All I wanted was a relationship and maybe marriage, but your behavior has been too much to bear," she said.
"I know, and there will be no more outlaw stuff. I promise!" John said, and his eyes showed he was serious.
Angie's anger melted away when she felt he was serious, and she hugged him.
"So, who were those two guys this morning dressed like cowboys?" Angie asked curiously.
John glanced at the TV, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw Tony Martinez in front of a police station. Behind him, two police officers escorted Clint to the station.
"One of the cowboys was arrested from the earlier gun battle at the Wild Cactus Saloon. His name is Clint Bartley, and he claims to be a Marshal wanting to arrest a John Mathers, alias the Kissing Bandit for murder," Tony said on TV.
John got up pale and broke out in a cold sweat. Angie watched while he paced around the room.
Then on the TV, Channel 5 replayed the video of Bart. "Yeehaw! Kissing Bandit! We're coming to kill ya!" Bart yelled out then he fired his pistol in the air.
Angie stared in shock at the sight of Bart and Charlie on the TV.
"Those were those two guys looking for you at the office," Angie said.
"Can I stay here?" John asked.
"What's wrong with your place?" Angie replied.
"You gave my address to those outlaws who want to kill me. Now a Marshal wants to arrest me, the Kissing Bandit, for murder. I could hang for that in eighteen eighty-three if he drags me back there."
"Kissing what?" she asked, not sure she heard him correctly.
"The Kissing Bandit. I kissed a girl when I left a robbery," John said then cringed when it dawned on him that he should have kept his mouth shut.
Angie got up with fire in her eyes, then she stormed over to John. She slapped his face hard, and it left her handprint.
"Get out!" she screamed and pointed to her door.
"But they want to kill me!" John replied with fear in his eyes.
She slapped John again. "Get out and never come back!" she screamed again.
John moped to the door then he looked back at Angie.
She plopped down on the couch and sobbed.
He left with a feeling his life was over with. He figured he would be dead by sundown.
That night, John drove around town, as he was too scared to go back to his apartment. He didn't know if Bart and Charlie waited for him there and didn't want to take that risk.
Bart and Charlie hung out at the house of the Devil's Cowboys located at the northern edge of Apache Junction.
Inside the house, the Devil's Cowboys sat around and drank beer with Charlie. They also watched the Hells Angels on Wheels movie with Candy, twenty-eight years old, Melinda, thirty years old and Sadie, twenty-five years old. Charlie would watch the movie then sneak a peek at the girls. Their tight jeans and tops that showed off their cleavage gave him an instant erection.
Outside on the back porch, Bart and Bear drank beer.
"So here's my thoughts on how we can get rich. We sneak back to eighteen eighty-three, rob some banks, stagecoaches, and trains, and then run back through that time portal and hide out here in two thousand and five," Bear said.
Bart thought about Bear's offer, and he smiled. "Well, since we saw on that thing you call a TV that Marshal Bartley got arrested, I think your plan will work. He was the toughest Marshal in these parts back then. So this will be easy like licking butter off a knife," Bart said then they tapped their beer bottles to seal the deal.
In a Wal-Mart parking lot, John parked his Corolla. He got in the back seat and lay down. He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep, but he couldn't. The events of the past weeks ran through his mind and kept him awake. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop thinking about how he screwed up his life.
The sun rose, and it was another morning in the Phoenix area. It was Saturday, September 2nd, 2006.
In one of the Phoenix police stations, Clint sat in a jail cell bench. He was baffled as this was the first time he was arrested and considered a criminal. He also felt naked and powerless without his pistol.
At the other end of the bench sat Butch, a big brute, who glanced over at Clint. Butch sniffed the air then smiled at Clint.
"You smell dirty. Real dirty," Butch said with a romantic interest in Clint. Butch slid down the bench and sat next to Clint then he winked at him. "Can I give you a scrubbing?" Butch said and blew a kiss at Clint. Butch leaned over and rubbed Clint's inner thigh with a horny grin and gave another wink of the eye.
Clint's eyes widened in shock over a guy doing that to him, so he jumped up and reached for his pistol. It wasn't there, so he stood with his hand pointed at Butch as if it was a pistol.
Detective Alicia Hernandez was a thirty-year-old beautiful Mexican American, with shoulder-length black hair, and memorizing brown eyes. She walked up to the cell bars with a folder in her hand. She's been with the Phoenix police department for ten years now.
She saw Clint standing with his hand aimed like a pistol at Butch. She knew Butch was up to something he shouldn't be doing, as he's a regular in their station.
"Butch! Get your tongue off the floor and leave him alone!" Alicia yelled out.
Butch pouted while he scooted away down the bench.
"Bartley. I'm Detective Alicia Hernandez. Can we talk about what just happened outside that bar?" she asked.
Clint kept a watchful eye on Butch in case he tried something. "Yes, Ma'am, it would be a pleasure for me to explain what happened," he said.
"Wow. That's the first time a criminal called me that," she said while she unlocked the door and opened it.
"I'm not a criminal," Clint said while he exited the cell.
"They all say that. Follow me," Alicia said, then closed the door.
Alicia escorted Clint away down the row of jail cells.
They left the room of jail cells and entered a hallway.
"Ma'am, can I go to the outhouse?" Clint asked.
"Outhouse?" Alicia looked confused when she heard that work. Then it dawned on her what he meant. "Oh, the bathroom. Sure."
Alicia escorted Clint down the hallway then turned down another hall. She walked Clint to the Men's Room.
"Here's your outhouse," she told him. "It's indoor."
Clint looked at the door and wasn't sure about it, but he was in the future where things were obviously different. He slowly opened the door and went inside the Men's Room.
Alicia waited outside the Men's Room door.
A detective walked out of the Men's Room with a bewildered look. He saw Alicia. "Is that your man inside there?" he asked her.
"Yeah, what did he do?" she asked a little concerned.
"He had no idea how to use a urinal. Is there something wrong with him?" the detective asked. "He watched me piss to know that's what a urinal was for," the detective added.
"I'm starting to wonder about him myself," she said then looked at the folder in her hand.
The detective walked away down the hallway, and Alicia heard a urinal flush numerous times from inside the Men's Room.
Clint walked out of the Men's Room, amazed. "That's one fancy outhouse!" he said while he looked back at the door.
Alicia looked concerned while she escorted him down the hallway.
Out over at the Wal-Mart parking lot, John's Corolla was still there.
In the backseat, John was curled up under a blanket that he purchased in Wal-Mart late last night. He finally dozed off two hours ago.
A car backfired in the parking stall behind his Corolla. John woke up started that Bart and Charlie fired a pistol at his car.
He cautiously peeked above his backseat.
He looked around the parking lot and saw nothing but other people and cars.
Bart and Charlie were not visible, and he got relieved.
He climbed over and got in his front seat.
A couple walked by his window.
The woman was obviously upset with her man and stopped.
John curiously watched the couple.
"I'm sorry honey. I can't undo what's already done. If I could go back in time, I would. But I can't," the man pleaded with his wife.
"I never want to see you again!" she said, then stormed off.
John watched as she stormed off while the man chased after her.
John's eyes widened as this stranger's comment to his girl got him to think of a way out of this mess. He smiled and started up his car. He knew his plan would fix everything, and he could make his life normal again.
Back at the police station, Clint sat alone in the interrogation room.
Alicia entered with that folder in hand. Hector Carlson, a fifty-year-old detective, six months away from retirement, walked in behind Alicia.
"Mister Bartley, this is my partner detective Hector Carlson," she introduced him.
Clint got up, walked over to Hector, and stuck out his hand. Hector almost slammed Clint into the wall thinking this cowboy was a threat, but his instincts stopped him.
"I'm Marshal Clint Bartley," Clint said.
Hector looked at Clint's hand then shook it.
Clint walked back to the table and sat down.
Alicia sat down across him. She laid the folder on the table and opened it up. He removed a pad of paper from the folder and a pen.
Hector leaned against the wall and eyed Clint still leery of him.
Alicia sniffed the air then looked at Clint and looked sick. She finally caught a whiff of his body odor. She removed a piece of paper and read it, then she looked baffled. "You expect me to believe you were born in eighteen forty-two and you're the Marshal of Oak Creek?" Alicia asked.
"Yes, Ma'am," Clint replied.
"We got a nut job on our hands," Hector said quietly to himself.
Alicia looked at Clint with doubtful eyes.
"Who are these cowboys you were shooting at outside the Wild Cactus Saloon?" she asked.
"Outlaws Bart Stone and Charlie Chandler," he answered.
"Outlaws. I haven't heard criminals being called that," Alicia said while she jotted down those names in her notepad.
Alicia opened the folder and removed the wanted poster Clint had on him that the police confiscated. She looked at the wanted poster.
"Do you know who this Kissing Bandit might be?" she asked.
"John Mathers. He rode with Bart and Charlie," Clint said.
"What about this wounded Indian we have at the St. Joseph's Hospital?" she asked.
"He's Merijildo. An Apache tracker and one of the best in this territory," he said.
Alicia wrote all that down on her notepad.
"We have witnesses that stated you didn't shoot first, but can you tell me why they started it?" Alicia said.
"Just the life of a Marshal as I'm always having outlaws shoot at me. Anyway, I was after Bart, Charlie, and John for robbing the Oak Creek National bank and killing my deputy, Elmer Filson. I entered Crazy Hole and ended up here. In your town," Clint told her.
"You ended up here, in my town. Okay, I understand," Alicia said. She then motioned at Hector to meet him outside in the hallway.
"I'll be right back," she told Clint.
Alicia got up with the wanted poster. Clint stood up like a gentleman should when a woman leaves the room.
"Ma'am, what year is this and what's the name of this town?" Clint asked her.
Alicia looked surprised at hearing that question. "Don't you know?"
"No Ma'am."
"It's two thousand and six, and you're in Phoenix, Arizona," she told him.
Clint looked amazed.
Alicia looked bewildered while she left the room with Hector.
Angie and Hector stood in the hallway and looked at Clint from the interrogation room window.
"Get still shots from that saloon video of those two cowboys, and check the local nut houses for escapees. Then please have him take a shower and get his clothes washed," Alicia told Hector.
"In work," Hector said then walked down the hallway.
Alicia watched Clint through the window of the interrogation room.
She looked at the wanted poster then back at Clint inside the room. She hoped he wasn't an escapee from a mental institution because something about him had her intrigued.
John stopped off at an Army and Navy store and bought a used duffel bag.
He left that store and drove his Corolla to all the coin shops and antique stores where he sold the coins, rifles, and pistols he stole in 1883. He bought back all the gold and silver coins he could. To do this, he had to buy currencies of lesser quality to afford the quantity he needed. He figured this was the only way out of this mess.
In the Desert Tattoo Parlor, Bart and Charlie sat in chairs with shaved heads. They also wore modern Levi blue jeans and tee shirts with the standard Devil's Cowboys jean jackets.
The tattoo artist walked up and sat down by Bart.
"He's Bart, and the other guy is Charlie," Bear told the artist.
The tattoo artist nodded that he understood and grabbed his needle gun. Bart looked at the needle, he whipped out his pistol and pressed it deep into the crotch of the artist.
"You best not cut me!" Bart snarled at the tattoo artist.
The artist swallowed hard. "No sir," he replied, then started up his needle gun. He cautiously started on the cowboy cartoon.
Charlie, Jesse, and Billy looked at Bart's arm. Their eyes crossed and they fainted to the floor.
Bear and the rest of the Devil's Cowboys chuckled at the sight of Charlie, Jesse, and Billy on the floor.
John walked out of a coin shop in Scottsdale, and he bought back all the coins he previously sold.
He walked to the nearby parking lot and got in his Corolla. He started it up and drove off.