Chapter 10

[Tuesday, June 24th, 1986]

Sam and I pulled back into the parking lot at about 6:45 pm. I briefly considered using the valet parking, but as much as I loved my old 626, it would have been embarrassing to pull up behind the Jaguar and Mercedes crowd.

Sam and I headed to the valet area anyway and our passes quickly gained us access to the stairwell. When we got to the Lounge we found only about 40 people in the whole place. We didn’t exactly fit in, but it wasn’t the Red Carpet event I half feared it might be. Many people had what I considered casual attire. Few men were in jackets, no cocktail dresses on the women, though some of them looked mighty fine anyway.

I got us a couple of racing programs, more to fit in than anything. I certainly did not need them. We found ourselves a spot on the left balcony. So far Sam claimed that he was doing ok, nothing more than a little uneasiness with being in the Lounge for the few seconds we were there. The stairwell was not bad at all, and he said he was enjoying the breeze and the view on the balcony.

The crowd grew below us, and we could see some more added to the VIP Lounge too. I had given a bit of forethought to easily find a point in time from the tunnel. So when the 10-minute point before the race was announced I made a point of touching my watch and making sure the time was in view for a few seconds. Then I told Sam, “You don’t have anything to worry about, I should be able to give you a good lead time when we do this for real.”

Sam and I were very interested in seeing how the lines acted in the VIP area. The patrons were indeed much less agitated in general, but as the time clicked down to the final minute it did indeed heat up again. There were much fewer people involved, and Sam said he was feeling good about it overall.

We turned our attention to the track as the race began, and enjoyed seeing the dogs practically fly around the track. The 2nd and 3rd dogs were close so we had to turn to a TV to watch the replay and verify the winners, it turned out to be 1-6-3. I waited until the “Official” notice to flash on the scoreboard, then I jumped into the tunnel.

I slid back to one of the scenes of me touching my watch and jumped back into my body. I verified there was nobody else in earshot and told Sam that if he wanted to try it out I had info for him. Sam looked inside at the cage and there were only two people at the cages on this side right now, leaving two free. He said he was willing to try it.

I told Sam, “Okay, just like we planned it, Trifecta 1-6-3. I’ll go with you to get your six.” Sam looked at me funny, and said: “Where did you hear ‘get my six’?” I smiled, thought quickly, and said, “I think I heard it on TV before. Probably from the A-team.”

Sam shook his head and we made our way to a teller cage without any issues whatsoever. It was pleasantly anti-climatic for both of us and we retired back to the balcony to watch the race. Sam had the two $10 trifecta bets, 1-3-6 and 1-6-3 held tightly in his hand.

As we got close to post time, I pointed out to Sam how still comparatively calm it was up here vs. down in the main area. He agreed it was much better but still looked a bit anxiously at the lines.

I told him, “I don’t think we need to sweat this as much as we thought Sam. I should be able to give you enough lead time to make sure our dealings in there are all done in calm times. It should be just like placing those bets.”

“We never have to do it if you aren’t comfortable. Hell, we can wait until all the races are over and most people have gone home to cash things in if we need to. There is no time limit we need to hurry for. If you can’t place a bet in time, it’s no big deal. There will always be more chances later.”

Just about then the race began and Sam and I cheered on our first win. When the race ended we were slapping each other on the back and smiling like fools. The results soon came up, and then soon after were made official. The TV graphics showed that the trifecta was worth $161.48, which in our case was 10 times that as we did a $10 bet. So we were looking at $1,614.80, plus a few cents.

Sam and I looked into the teller area and saw only one person at a teller on our side just then. We headed in and I again stayed behind him to ensure nobody crowded him. I was more focused on the crowd around us than I was with what Sam was doing. Whenever I glanced at him he seemed to be functioning fine, so I wasn’t too worried.

It took a little longer than I expected, but it was probably less than two minutes. The other tellers had gotten busier as we waited, with a few people in each line. There was also one guy behind me in line but he seemed well behaved. Glancing at a TV I saw we still had another 7 minutes to the next post time so nobody was clamoring yet.

Sam finished up and we headed back to the balcony. There were a handful of guys smoking out there with us, but they were deep in private conversations. I asked Sam if there were any issues with the teller. He said, “No, she just had to count everything a couple of times.”

I said, “Great, looking back on it I should have had you make a few bets on the next race while you were in there. It looks like the lines are picking up so why don’t we sit out the next few races.” Sam agreed and we just hung out at the far corner of the balcony.

After a bit, I told Sam I was going to grab a drink and watch the crowds a bit, “Do you want me to bring you something?”. He said he was fine, and I headed in to visit the bar. I bought a rootbeer in a nice frosted mug and took the elevator down to the lower stadium seating area.

I was giving Sam a chance to run for it if he wanted to. I was hoping that he would still be there when I got back. I figured he probably would be, going by what I thought of him so far, but you never know how someone will react to temptation until they have to face it alone. I needed to test to see if he was the person I thought he was. Maybe it’s not a good enough test, but I have to start somewhere.

I figured when I handed him the lottery ticket he’d jump at it. I was gonna try to get him to help me with the scholarship if I could, but with my ability, I can always get more. His turning it down completely floored me. This guy has shown me more integrity than anyone I’ve ever known, certainly more than I possess if I’m being honest.

If he was gone, I wasn’t worried about the little bit of cash I had invested. He was welcome to keep the winnings if that’s all it ever cost me. I’d make more later. Hell, I bet I could find someone else here to work with before the night was out. Everything I had seen about him spoke highly of his character to me so far. If I was wrong and he took off, well I’ll decide if I needed to re-do this if it ever came up.

I found an empty seat in the stadium area and watched the next two races. The second race had a dog with really good odds come in second place. He was getting 21:1 odds when the race started. That would have been a nice bet.

The next race had another upset, not quite as good but he ended up winning. It would have been nice too. This form of gambling is going to work well, I just have to keep it from getting too crazy. I decided to go check on Sam and headed for the elevator. I showed my pass to the guy monitoring it and he let me in. When I stepped out Sam was still on the balcony looking at the track. It had been over 20 minutes since I left him.

I headed out to join him, and Sam looked over at me as the door opened. He said, “You were gone longer than I expected.” I replied, “Just looking over the crowd downstairs. There were a couple of interesting characters down there too. It’s a madhouse around the teller cages in the lower stadium area. Not so bad up here.”

We both looked at the teller lines inside on our level. We were still about five minutes out from the next race and it was rather peaceful up here. I turned back to Sam and asked, “So how close was it?” Sam raised an eyebrow and asked, “How close was what?”

I said, “I think I get how important your rules are to you, so I was not surprised to see you still here. I also have a good idea of how much better your life could be with even that much money. It must have gone through your head at least briefly.”

Sam turned back to look out over the track and didn’t say anything. I turned too and said, “I’ll apologize if I’ve insulted you by putting our partnership to the test. We have only just met, after all, but I’ve got to tell you, Sam. You’ve impressed the hell out of me so far. I think pretty highly of Mr. Sam No-Last-Name-Yet. Have I managed to piss you off?”

Sam shook his head and said, “No, well, maybe just a bit. Don’t sweat it though. I can’t blame you for being cautious. So were you watching the stairs then?” I replied, “No, I figured if you were gone when I got back I would have my answer.”

He asked, “You really don’t care about this money?” while patting his pocket. I shook my head and said, “Nope. It’s not that I don’t want it. It’s just that if it was more important to you, then so be it. I figured it would be easy enough to make more. I think I’ve more than proven that I can do that by now.”

Sam asked, “About that, how does it work?”

I looked around, a few people had come out to smoke. They weren’t very close and were talking amongst themselves, but I wasn’t comfortable talking about this with them around. I said to Sam, “Let’s go for a walk.” We made our way through the lounge and into the stairwell. We weren’t in the lounge long, the door for the stairwell was only a few steps away from the balcony door.

I had already figured out I never wanted to tell anyone in an alternate timeline how my ability worked. Once they thought out the options, they would never be able to believe I wasn’t just manipulating them with anything I ever said or did. I wouldn’t trust me in their shoes.

Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day? How would you feel if you were stalked by Bill Murray in that film the way she was? It would be pretty damn creepy if you ask me, how could you ever believe him? About anything. No, that story is much better kept to myself.

I had been working on a story with a version of how it appears to work that someone might be able to believe. Legend is full of stories of psychics and clairvoyants. That’s what I planned to try out with Sam, I had already started on it with him earlier, when I tried to explain giving him the lottery ticket.

As we went down to the valet area I asked Sam, “Are you wanting to do more betting tonight? I know we had planned on playing more and losing some, but we could just take the win and come back another day if you like. I’m sure it would be fine. I bet they have winners they never see again all the time.”

Sam said, “I’m good if you are.”

We headed for the car. As we left the track, I told Sam, “The truth is, I can’t tell you how to do it. I don’t know enough about how I do it in the first place. But it’s just like I told you before if I focus on something that’s coming up hard enough, I can usually see things. I call them flashes, I get pictures of things related to what I’m focused on.”

“Usually it works out exactly as I see it. But sometimes I’ve had something I’ve said or something I’ve done unexpectedly change the way things turned out. I have to be very careful about it.”

“Short term is much much easier than the long term. Much less likely to get messed with too. For practical purposes, 10 minutes is about all I want to mess with if I can help it. That lottery ticket made me very tired for about an hour. And I only had to stretch it to about 2 hours for that. Erm, I might have exaggerated a tad when I said it was like plucking a hair off my ass. Sorry about that. I still think the basic premise of my argument holds up.”

Sam said, “I see where you were going with it. I don’t hold it against you. I just can’t see my way to accept it.”

I said, “I get that.” After a pause, I said, “Obviously I don’t usually tell people about this. Honestly, you are the only person in the world I’ve ever mentioned it to. I’ve always feared I would get myself either locked up in a looney bin, or some government lab, so I’ve kept it secret. Hell, those are probably not the worst-case scenarios.”

“I’m only telling you this because you are going to be directly involved in the way I am using this ability. It would be hard to hide it. The complete truth is I want to be able to trust you with it. This is something I’m not wanting us to talk to anyone else about. Like not to anybody, ever. Actually, I’m going to ask for your word on that when we are done.”