The Time Stone, Third Edition (Extended Version)
Chapter 23

James and Tina wandered together to the local bar called the “Free Castle”, referred by Melville. which seemed aptly appropriate as they has flown the coop sort of speak and now were in need of disguises and a way out of state as Tina advised , but James felt that there more things to do here. They waited for their entry into their future as they entered the dark and dingy bar full of loud music and rowdy bar patrons. The place is filled to the back door with what appeared to James to be bikers, talking about the stretch they just did at the prison up the road for convictions stretching from aggravated assault to murder, as they pass through the ruckus.

“You like it here?” James asks apprehensively approaching the rough interior of the bar.

“I love it. I used to hang out in places like this all the time back in the day. Nearly was raised in them before my stretch in the orphanage. Come on.” Tina beckons for James to follow her.

“Wow”, James thought, “Ok I’ll stay behind you then,” he adds.

To those around them it is home, but to James it seemed different. He never asks to be part of this or even requested a part of it. He felt far from home and miserable, like an outsider walking amongst those with a mile long rap sheet and trouble at every turn. He was set up for something and did not know why. He looks at his companion, who felt more and more at ease as she wandered around the bar beckoning to him to follow, and remain casual. Before his current predicament, he never imagined setting foot into a place like this. Now he felt he has no choice.

“We should leave,” James insisted awkwardly.

“No sit down. Don’t worry,” says Tina who ushered him to the empty stools in the bar left vacant after an overweight biker whose rear end occupied both stools fell back from a combination of drunkenness and dizziness.

James and Tina sits and looks about at the bar seeing only dirty bottles behind the counter.

“I’ll protect you,” Tina smiles winking at James.

As they sit down, a heavily-bearded man approached them from behind the bar.

“What will it be?” The bartender speaks hoarsely and loud.

“Uh…” says James looking helplessly.

“We want to lay low for a while,” barked Tina.

“You must be on the lam huh?” The man laughs acknowledging them as James gave a suddenly shocked reaction as affirmative. “Many folks in here got problems with the police, but to be in here you got to buy something.”

“I knew it. Let’s go, Tina.” James started up, but Tina held him back down with her eyes firmly locked with the bartender.

“We’ll have whiskey,” she smirks with a determined grin as James looks at her with a complex glance.

”You kids got some balls,” the bartender laughs as he reached out from under the counter and poured the drinks and walks away.

“James we really need to think of a plan.” Tina speaks sipping her whiskey.

“How are we going to pay for this?” James whispered to Tina.

“We’ll get a tab,” she shakes it off, sipping her whiskey, but curiously remaining fixated on the question “but this is the least of our worries. What are we going to do now?”

James threw most of his whiskey back and made a sour face. “Ooh what the hell?”

“It’s an acquired taste” laughs Tina, “but seriously now, what are we going to do?”

“Well… we’ve just escaped from jail. We need to leave.”

“We’re fugitives.” Tina says worried.

“I know.” James looks around worrisome.

“We need to change clothes and identities fast.” Tina observed. “No doubt they will be looking for us and they have our photos to distribute on the evening news. It will be all over town. Chronix Bay isn’t that big.I do agree we got to blow town.”

“You act like you’ve done this before,” says James inquisitively.

“I was raised in a household of criminals.” Tina takes another sip. “You pick up a thing or two about hiding from the law.”

“You have been in trouble a few times haven’t you?”

“Once or twice” she shrugged.

“Yeah” he nodded looking back at her.

Tina takes another sip of her whiskey and fixated at the end of the bar, her eyes bore a sudden misty sense. “You know, sometimes I wonder what really happens to us in life isn’t always what it seems.”

“You mean like fate or destiny” says James looking at her with a curious glare.

“I never believed in that crap growing up, but the nuns at Saint Mary always tried to get me to believe in the notion that God has a plan for me and my future is written in the stars like everyone else. What a crock, huh?” asks Tina rhetorically.

“There are worse things to believe in.” says James. “You were involved in churches and stuff so I can’t believe the catholic experience in school and life didn’t leave some sort of a mark on you.”

“It was my ‘forced rehabilitation’ as a kid. I guess my life would have been much worse if I would have stayed with the people I was with before, but I honestly can’t see it getting much better. I’m still getting in trouble for stuff” says Tina.

James continues to look at her curiously.

“If the great and powerful ‘God’ has a positive plan for me, he sure is taking his sweet time.” Tina adds sarcastically. “Everything I ever knew seemed to be against God’s plan according to them so I tended to let it pass over me. I didn’t know what to do really.” Tina speaks eloquently to James’ dismay.

“You still kept your faith. That’s a good start” says James.

“I was really curious about the other worlds and spirituality part. You know I read a lot to kill time back in my confinement in the orphanage. It made me smile, but wasn’t real so the bad feelings came back.”

“I read too, I for one loved science fiction” James says laughingly “but I think the goal should be about trying to alter choices and bad decisions. I guess I never got the time machine I wanted for Christmas.”

Tina laughed. “Here’s to God’s plan for us” she smiles and lifted her glass to his. They finished their drinks with the toast.

“How do you do that?” James asks suddenly in awe.

“Do what?” She shakes her head.

“You sudden change in personality and you just got all philosophical like that.”

“Did I? Must be my crazy upbringing, harsh and all. I sometimes don’t even notice things like that. You learn to block stuff out living on the streets as long as I have.”

“I know. I’m sort of new to the homelessness thing, but it is rough.”

“That’s why I read so much to lose myself out there in … another world” says Tina staring forward in a melancholy gaze.

“Sounds like you have deep feelings about a lot of things,” adds James.

“Some by choice and some I wish I could forget” says Tina.

“So we are both on a mission for our true purposes” says James.

“I wish I knew what my purpose was. I suffered through so many heartaches, James. It seems my whole life to this point has been one mess up after another.”

“Maybe it’s a mysterious puzzle to be figured out” says James.

“Maybe I’m just meant to be a bitch and a half” says Tina jokingly.

“Maybe you’re purpose is yet to be revealed.”

“That’s what I’m afraid of!” She adds.

The minutes passed and became close to an hour, as the noise of the bar escalated, with rowdy patrons clanking beer steins and laughing, telling jokes and singing. The duo sits on their stools trying to figure out a way out of their current predicament.

“So let’s get going. How can we escape out of town?” asks James.

“We can replace a more suitable ride into town and get to the train station. We can bum our way into two seats” commented Tina.

“You mean steal? I am not comfortable with that” replies James.

“We have no choice, James. Like it or not, we are on the opposite side of the law now and we need to survive or we’re going back to prison and we won’t be let out ever. You heard the conversation between the judge and prosecutor; they’re into some type of conspiracy to make sure we take the fall for these crimes, guilty or not. I am not doing life so maybe we can replace a way to clear our names?”

James nodded after thinking of it for a moment and realizing she is right, someone is trying to set them up and he has to figure out why. Tina is the only friend he has right now so whether he liked it or not, they were stuck together.

Two men begin a drunken hoarse conversation nearby which soon escalated into a violent encounter. “What do you mean by that?” The larger man shoved the shorter man who regained his composure and lunged into his taller adversary pounding into his chest striking him with all his vigor and knocking him to the floor. The crowd begins to transform into a frantic whirl of chains and leather as it becomes a free for all, with clubs, brass knuckles, or whatever loose item could be used as a weapon, pool cues, and broken beer bottles. They tossed one another in and out into the pavement outside and onto the wooden tables and chairs being used both as landing pads and weapons picked up to strike whoever was unlucky enough to be near. James and Tina ducked behind the bar with the bartender.

“What’s going on?” James asks.

The bartender explained coughing, “the Satan’s Warriors could get pretty defensive in their home turf. Their boss owns this here bar. They generally abhor violence except when their turf is threatened.”

“Who’s their boss?” Tina asks.

“That big guy right there” he pointed to a large man with a leather jacket, long red hair and beard tied in knots and a tattoo across the side of his face that read “Hell’s a Pleasure.”

James says jokingly, “one of the most common phrases In the English language, I guess.” “Can you be more specific?” He asks jokingly.

The bartender looks at them with a straight face, gave a quick reply of “no”, and he crawled off to the phone and started to dial three numbers and speaks.

“He’s calling the cops,” Tina says worried.

“Good” mentioned James.

“Not good, we’re wanted fugitives remember. We got to get out of here.” Tina stated and then noticed a man in a black three piece suit at the end of the bar who didn’t seem to be there before. He seemed oddly out of place.

“Tina, we really need to think of a plan. What are we going to do now? Tina… what is it?” James stops his words dead in his tracks as he saw blanks in Tina’s face as she saw the man in the black suit. “Tina, you look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Maybe,” she ducked down and held a still gaze at the man at the end of the bar where James also turns his head towards and saw the man in the black suit there as if the fight around them didn’t bother him. He is calm, cool, and collected dressed like a, butler or gentleman of the old nineteenth century with a tan complexion and has modern shades and a bowler hat. The man in the black suit muttered something to the bartender. The man has a pale complexion and small round beady brown eyes that appeared to burn a hole in whatever he kept a quick gaze on, fixed at the end of the bar he has a mechanical movement that seemed almost artificial and mundane. His black suit is old fashioned.

James asks Tina beside him under the counter “do you know that man?”

“I think so” replies Tina. “He looks like my father, but it can’t be…” she thought back to her childhood over two decades ago, “but how I don’t know.” They saw the man in the black suit now wearing a pair of sunglasses indoors and taking small sips from his glass of whiskey and then turns his head slightly with an almost robotic jerk and he removed his sunglasses revealing again his small brown beady eyes that bore into them like the fire of hell.

James turns away, “oh my we should go now.” James started to rise when the bartender approached.

“The cops are on their way. You guys still got to pay for that whiskey before you go.”

“Huh?” James and Tina look at one another as they rise.

“That’ll be $12.50 to settle up the tab.” The bartender speaks loud in the midst of the bar fight.

“Oh uh,” James looks at Tina with a curious gaze.

“Yeah well, we need a more extended tab. We’re a little short of funds right now.” She adds.

“No that’s unacceptable. You’ll answer when the cops show.” He backed off. “We’ll see what you say when the cops come.”

Meanwhile the fight in the background has settled some and it was winding down. The bikers were used to the occasional fight and settled back into their routine of regular drinking. Four burley sized bikers with the same fiery emblem on their jackets and spikes on their shoulders, representatives of the group known as the Satan’s Warriors who has been fighting recently then broke up their own fight and now has gotten behind the pair of homeless citizens. They turn and look behind them at the slight intimidation they were facing and then at one another.

“We don’t want any trouble.” James protested.

“Well, you got trouble now. We don’t take kindly to deadbeats around here. One way or another you will pay your way, now!” Says the apparent leader of the group, a biker with a head full of long fiery red hair and a long goatee who smirks and growled as he whistled for two of his disciples who rose up behind them and grabbed James and Tina from behind and lifted them as they struggled and kicked back forcing themselves free of the grip. They found themselves surrounded by Satan’s Warriors and other patrons hopping up to the sounds of the disturbance.

“I don’t suppose you have any magic tricks to get us out of this one,” screams Tina.

“Yeah, just fight.” James grabbed a chair and struck it to the chest of one of the Satan’s Warriors that stands before him almost twice his size both length and width combined. Then another romp and melee ensured where James and Tina fought against their sudden captors resiliently resisting the kicks and blows from their opponents as best they could and struggling to strike back. James received two knocks in the face and stumbled up striking back using more wooden broken parts from the bar stools and table legs. “Damn, there’s more wood here than the deck of the Titanic,” yells James sarcastically as the various wooden items flew around the bar. Tina overturns a table as groups of Satan’s Warriors approached to rush her, and another tried to grab her from behind. James reached out to grab them.The man in the black suit sat calmly and observed them when James and Tina were suddenly grabbed and held again by two Satan’s Warriors who prepared to toss them out onto the street. The remaining Satan’s Warriors approached them vigilantly to defend their turf even against the two cocky street smart young people who were apparently more trouble than their drinks were worth. They still furiously kicked and they broke free after fighting for release, but were easily caught again.

“Get rid of them,” says the bartender “they’re more trouble than their worth.” They were tossed out fighting till the bitter end, but helplessly outmatched. “The cops are on their way anyway.”

The duo resisted their captors as they broke free again and made it to the door and were almost free. The duo attempted to run out of the door. Tina takes one last glance at the end of the bar where the man in the black suit sits as they raced out the door to replace out that the man is gone and no longer there. James and Tina continues to fight on their way out as a pile of buckets and wooden broom sticks from the cleaning closet near the exit revealed themselves when a Satan’s Warrior fell back onto the door.

“Now that’s what I call not coming out of the closet,” yells James.

“We better go.” Tina screams, watching other Satan’s Warriors form a battalion to march toward them to kick them out of the bar for good so they ran out of the bar and saw a set of motorcycles, one with the keys in the ignition.

“Oh my God, can you drive one of these things?” asks James.

“Well, how hard can it be?” She got on and started it. “Get on” she yells.

“Right” James adds as he mounted the motorcycle behind Tina and saw the bikers come pile out and panicked so he pressed tight against her and she yells, “hold on tight, but not that tight” as they rode off and let a cloud of exhaust zoom out of the tailpipe and the bike wiggled along the dirt road due to the sudden movement so the other bikes, in a sudden domino effect, fell on top of each other. There is a thunderous noise and the duo is long gone from the bar. The Satan’s Warriors arrived to see their damaged bikes.

“Damn it!” yells the leader of the Satan’s Warriors leading his pack out of the bar in time to see the duo ride off into the distance leaving the mess of many damaged motorcycles behind.

Tina and James rode off into the wind thanks to Tina’s professional biking skills having seen it done thousands of times.

James smiles “you have done this before,” he speaks proudly in a frightened, but relieved tone.

“Once or twice” replies Tina.

“Wow” remarked James.

“I told you, I grew up with roughens.” She smiles.

James eyes bugged out as he held on tight to her waist during the looming journey on the back road towards the city limits of Chronix Bay as they passed a sign indicating that it is just thirty-five miles away.