Chapter 16
Later that Monday and the sun settled to the west with a beautiful orange and purple sunset.
John walked to another Circle K convenience store in Mesa. He walked up to a payphone, and he deposited some coins and made a call.
"Frank."
"It's me, John," he responded.
"What's going on with you? I heard Richard fired you. Plus, a detective was here asking questions. Am I going to see you on America's Most Wanted?" Frank answered from the phone.
"Listen, I can't explain it right now, but I need a huge favor. Do you still want to sell old pickup with that trailer hitch?" he asked.
"Sure, but what's going on?" Frank asked.
"It's an urgent matter of life and death, and I don't have time to explain. Can you meet me with the truck? And make sure you have a ride home as I'm leaving town," John said.
"Am I going to be arrested for accessory to some crime?" Frank asked, concerned.
"No. You don't have anything to worry about. Trust me," John replied.
"Okay. Where should I meet you?" Frank asked.
"I'm at the Circle K on Southern Avenue in Mesa," John said.
"Okay. I'll be there in thirty minutes," Frank said, then he disconnected his end of the call.
While Alicia drove to her house in Marley Park, located in Surprise, Arizona, she, along with Clint, got Angie up to speed on the recent events involving John. Angie sat stunned in the backseat while thinking that time travel was for real.
"There's no way John would kill anybody," Angie said.
"Bart claims that John shot and killed my deputy and friend Elmer," Clint replied.
"Bart's lying," Angie said with confidence. "John was obsessed with old western outlaws, and I think he went back in time to place himself in the history books. But I will never believe he would kill another human being," Angie added.
"Well, I don't care about that, I want to bring John, Bart, and Charlie before Judge Peter Peabody. He'll determine who is the guilty one," Clint said.
"Why did John run?" Alicia asked Angie.
"He's scared. He thinks he's a bad outlaw, but inside, he's a chicken," Angie said.
"Well, I wish we could find him before those outlaws do. Then we can get to the bottom of this whole mess," Alicia said.
Angie looked out her window and wondered where John could be hiding.
Alicia's cell phone rang, and she answered it.
"I found out the Devil's Cowboys operate a whorehouse called the Devil's Playpen. I have that place under surveillance," Hector told Alicia over her cell.
"Great," she said. "Let me know if those two outlaws have been spotted."
The Devil's Cowboys drove their Harleys to their house, but when they were down the street, Bear noticed a police car parked near their home. He quickly made a U-turn, and they drove off.
The officer in the police car didn't notice the Devil's Cowboys leaving because he fell asleep bored from his surveillance job.
The Devil's Cowboys drove to the Devil's Playpen. But Bear also noticed another police car watching their establishment. He quickly turned the gang around, and they raced away down the street.
That police officer didn't notice the Harleys, as he was too busy eying the young lady in a bikini sunbathing out front.
Frank drove his Chevy 1500 pickup truck to the QuikTrip convenience store, and his wife drove behind him in her Civic. He parked his pickup truck by the pay phone. His wife parked her car at a gas pump.
"Where are you going in such a hurry?" Frank asked John while he got out of his pickup.
John hesitated for a second. "Dodge City."
"Why there?"
"Just seems like the place to live," John responded.
"Are you sure I'm not going to see you on America's Most Wanted?" Frank asked.
"I'm sure. Nine hundred, right?" John asked.
"Yep," Frank replied.
John wrote a check for nineteen hundred dollars. He handed Frank the check, and he handed John the keys.
They shook hands to seal the deal.
"Good luck in Dodge City," Frank said then walked to his wife, who finished pumping gas.
John got in the Chevy pickup with his duffel bag and backpack. He started it up and drove out of the parking lot and down the street.
John drove to the nearest Lowes and purchased a small garden transplanter. He wanted a shovel, but this would work just fine. He shoved the transplanter in his duffel bag and drove off down the street.
John drove to the nearest Wal-Mart. There he bought some bags of jerky and various snacks that would keep for a couple of days while he was on the trail in 1883. He also bought some paper, pen, black sharpie, cloth bags, a knife and a lighter.
John drove to Rusty's Desert Horse Ranch and Stables and hooked up his horse trailer to the hitch on his pickup.
He went inside the stable and got his horse.
It was getting dark while John drove his pickup down U.S. 60 to the Superstition Mountains.
He looked paranoid while he glanced at his outside mirrors.
Some motorcycle headlights shined in the outside mirror.
John looked and knew it was a motorcycle. He got scared.
"How did they find me?" John cried out loud, and he needed a weapon. But what could he use? He thought to himself. Then he saw a hammer on the passenger floor, and he reached down and grabbed it.
The motorcycle got in the passing lane, and John got really nervous. The motorcycle stayed even with his window.
He quickly rolled down his window, leaned out with the hammer, and waved it at the motorcycle like it was a weapon.
"Aaaaahhhh!" John screamed at them. Then he saw a Honda Goldwing motorcycle riding next to his pickup.
John saw an old lady passenger whose eyes were as big as baseballs while John threatened them with his hammer. She pounded the old man drivers on his back.
"Get us out of here! He's a lunatic!" she screamed at the old man while she beat the back of his shoulder.
John realized it was an innocent old couple and brought his hammer back inside his pickup. He felt like a jerk while he watched the Honda Goldwing while it raced off down the road ahead of him.
Bear and the Devil's Cowboys drove north of Apache Junction to a deserted area where there was a doublewide trailer all by its lonesome self. This trailer belonged to his Uncle Walter, who was in Los Angeles at the moment.
Later that night inside the trailer, Charlie sat on a couch, amazed while Billy and Butch, smashed empty beer cans on their foreheads.
Charlie took his beer can and rammed it hard into his head. His eyes crossed, and he almost passed out. Billy and Butch laughed at Charlie.
Bart stood with Bear at the end of the room.
"I still need to find Mathers and get my loot," Bart said.
"Why don't we just give up on him and start our adventure back to eighteen eighty-three. We can divide up into three groups. Charlie, you and I can each lead a group of outlaws," Bear said.
Bart thought about what Bear offered then he smiled. "I like the way you think. And with Marshal Bartley here in your jail, our chances of getting arrested is gone away," Bart said.
Candy, Melinda, and Sadie entered the trailer with five boxes of Domino's pizza and six six-packs of Budweiser in hand.
The Devil's Cowboys rushed up and quickly snatched the boxes away from them.
"We'll need eight horses. Do you know where we can get some?" Bart asked.
Bear thought for a second. "Yeah, I know this guy that owns a ranch not too far from here. Rusty loves to visit Melinda, so I think he'll give us a good deal on some horses," Bear replied with a smirk.
Bear looked at his jean jacket. "We'll need some new clothes," Bear said.
Bart looked at the jean jacket then smiled. "No, these will strike fear in the folks back in eighty eighty-three," Bart replied.
"Good, then we'll head out tomorrow morning. But first, we'll need some lessons on riding a horse, and Rusty can also take care of that," Bear replied.
"We'll need more pistols," Bart added.
"We can call in a few markers in the morning," Bear said.
Jesse walked up and handed Bart a slice of pizza. He looked at it and didn't know what to think. He took a bite, and he liked it!
Later that night, John parked his pickup at the dirt parking lot near the trails into the Superstition Mountains.
He dropped silver and gold coins in four cloth bags. He marked one Oak Creek, then he marked one Stone Valley, then he marked one Southern Pacific, and then he marked the last one Butterfield. He tied them up and shoved them in his duffel bag. He took the pad of paper and pen, and he started to write notes to leave in the bags.
Thirty minutes later, John finished with his notes and placed them in his duffel bag. He grabbed his backpack and placed it against his door as a pillow. He rested his head down and stretched his feet out on the seat. John closed his eyes and started to fall asleep when his passenger door creaked open.
John's eyes widen, scared, as he thought it was Bart coming to kill him.
He looked and saw a skinny homeless bum at the passenger door, and he was relieved it wasn't Bart. "What do you want?" he asked the bum.
"I need a place to eat," he said, then moved John's feet off the passenger seat and sat down. He closed the passenger door.
"It's cold outside," the bum said then held up a whiskey bottle wrapped up in a brown paper bag. He took a sip of whiskey from the bottle.
John leaned over and grabbed the duffel bag off the passenger floor, and laid it on his floorboard by his shoes.
"Excuse me, but this is my truck and I would like you to leave," John demanded.
"After you have a drink with me, I'll leave," the bum said and looked determined that he wasn't going to get out.
The bum handed John the whiskey bottle. John looked at the bottle, then he decided to take a drink so the bum will leave. He took a swig, and he coughed and coughed. The bum laughed a raspy laugh.
Thirty minutes passed, and John still held the bum's whiskey bottle and was woozy from the booze.
"I can't believe it. I lost my girl. I lost my job. Now two outlaws want to kill me, and a Marshal wants to arrest me," John whined to the bum then took another swig of whiskey.
"Me too," the bum said, then reached for the bottle, but John took another swig, and the bum almost fell in John's lap.
"I don't know why I had to become an outlaw. I was so stupid for doing that. Why the hell did I go back in time?" John said.
"Me too," the bum said, then bum reached for the bottle.
John took a long swig, then his eyes crossed, and he passed out, and his head smacked the window sill of the door.
The bum snatched the whiskey bottle out of John's hand. He took a big gulp of whiskey and glanced at John.
"Wussy!" the bum called John, then got out of the pickup and slammed the door shut.
John passed out, and his head hit the window sill of his door.
The bum walked off into the desert night.
Over at Al's Used Car lot, Rodney, a seventeen-year-old teenage local high school football quarterback, looked at all the used cars in the lot with his father. The kid had worked hard for the past two years and saved up for his first car, and his father promised to help him buy one. He wanted something sporty to impress the girls at school.
They walked upon John's Mustang, and the teenager liked what he saw. His father walked around the car and checked it out.
"This is the car I want," Rodney said.
"I don't think so," his father said from the rear of the Mustang.
"Why not?" Rodney asked.
"Because it has bullet holes in the rear," the father replied.
Rodney's eyes lit up when he heard that, and he ran to the rear of the car. He looked at the bullet holes in awe. "Cool!" Rodney said. "I love this car," Rodney said, all excited as he thought this would make him even cooler at school.
A salesman walked up to Rodney and his father. "Find something you like?" the salesman asked.
"I want this Mustang," Rodney said, all excited.
"I don't think so. I mean, it has bullet holes in the rear end," the father replied.
"It's like a gangster car. I'll be king, and the girls will love me," Rodney said, all excited.
"Well, I think we can do a little negotiating on the price," the salesman offered.
The father's ears perked up, as he knew he could knock down the price.
They walked off and headed to the sales office.
Back at Alicia's house, Angie slept in a lazy boy chair in the living room.
At the other end of the room, Clint played a classical song on the piano with Alicia by his side. Two glasses of red wine were on top of the piano. He stopped playing and they both took a sip of wine.
"Where did you learn to play the piano?" she asked, impressed with his playing ability.
"My mother was a piano teacher, and she made me spend hours at the ivory keys," Clint replied.
"Were you born in Oak Creek?"
"No, I was born and raised in San Francisco. I moved out here for some adventure. Were you born in Phoenix?"
"Born and raised. My father was stationed in the Air Force here in Arizona. That's where he met my mother," Alicia said, then took another sip of wine.
"Air Force? What's that?" Clint asked then took a sip of wine.
"It's kinda like the Calvary in the sky," Alicia said.
Clint thought about her response. "The future sure is interesting," he said.
"It has its moments. You know. I guess I didn't pay attention in history class, where was Oak Creek located?"
"A bit northwest of the Miners Needle in the Superstition Mountains," he answered.
"Can you show me? I'm curious where you came from."
"It would be my pleasure," he said and was happy she was interested in his life.
Alicia and Clint gazed into each other's eyes. He wanted to kiss her, and she wanted to kiss him. Clint chickened out and took a drink of wine but missed his mouth and spilled some on his shirt.
Alicia noticed and touched the stain. "Let's try to remove the stain," she said with her head close to his.
Clint looked at Alicia, and then he leaned closer to her lips. He got nervous on kissing her so he pulled away.
"Yes. We should wash my shirt," he said.
Alicia got up and grabbed Clint's hand. She walked him out of the living room and into her laundry room.
Later that night, Alicia let Angie use her other guest bedroom. She got out a blanket and extra pillow and Clint had her couch in the living room as his bed.
An hour after Clint fell fast asleep, Alicia tiptoed into the living room. She gathered up his clothes and tiptoed out of the living room.
She walked to her laundry room and placed Clint's clothes in her washer. She put in some soap and turned on the washing machine.
She tiptoed back into the living room and wished he didn't have head back to 1883 while she watched him sleep.