Chapter 17

Early to bed the night before, relatively speaking, meant early to rise the next morning. The girls hadn't ordered a buffet for breakfast this morning and after showering and dressing me they led me down to a more normal meal in one of the resturants.

When we were done they called for a limo at the front desk and it took us to Wal-Mart right off the bat. I didn't even say a word about taking a limo to Wal-Mart. Apparently the girls, and Binions, liked the one ton and trailer right where it was.

They were set on getting Christine and Selene some blue jeans, boots, and such and at least this time we didn't run into any perverts trying to watch them changing. We even found a decent pair of boots for both girls while there.

I also made a small observation of the difference between women and men in shoe shopping. Women knew generally what size they wore, but I guess all the differences in styles had already let them know the size comfortable for them might be different from the stated size on the box. Both Christine and Selene had no qualms about choosing a size of boot larger than their normal size.

In fact, they chose a pair of cowboy boots with high riding heels and a pair of lace up hiking boots. They used normal athletic socks for the cowboy models and some slightly thicker wool-blend socks for the lace up boots, and they weren't a bit disturbed about the sizes being different. Ignorant man that I am, I'd have selected nine and a half D boots for both models if I'd been buying them and suffered through the period it took to break them in. Oh well, you live and learn.

Of course the next stop was not the last one. We made five or six smaller stores before they found one with a decent selection of shirts. I was surprised I made it out without gaining any for my own use.

Next was a trip to a coin operated laundry and after everything had been washed, dried, and hung up we headed back to our suite. I felt a little odd going upstairs with an ironing board and steam iron, even if they were new. All the hanging clothes without benefit of bags were a little odd too, but I did my duty no matter how many people looked at us funny.

We only stopped in the suite to let off our purchases and then it was down to a different restaurant for lunch. Jim drove up with the truck before we were done and then we all went out and climbed aboard.

Jim had things more organized today and he took us to the parking lot of some small factory which had closed its doors. All of us got a turn this time and I was last. Jim claimed it was because I'd already learned to take off from a dead stop.

Naturally it meant I was first for the next step in learning and it turned out to be a lesson on backing up. It was carried out in reverse, of course, and we never even got to touch the foot feed except to pull forward again after we'd backed about two hundred yards down one of the painted stripes marking off parking spots. And so it goes.

We spent four weeks learning to drive the big truck and even though I hated a lot of it, by the time Jim took us down to take our test we all passed on the first try. In fact we passed everything.

During our driving practice Jim had collected quite a number of paper booklets for us to study. Who'da thought there'd be homework learning to drive a big truck. There was plenty. The booklets covered everything from the normal rules of driving to bus driver training and special things we'd need to know to pull doubles - we even had two classroom type days with Jim explaining everything I never wanted to know about hazardous materials and the hauling of same.

The odd part to me was we only needed a driving test for the normal Commercial Drivers License. The endorsements for bus driving, hazardous materials, and pulling doubles et cetera were covered by different written tests.

The girls got a little weepy eyed over finishing up with Jim, but they made him promise to give them refresher lessons if they ever needed them.

At least the problem with Selene's Cobra and Christine's XKE was solved now. Even though none of our other trucks had come in yet we had more than plenty of room in the bullrack for all the furniture and other things from Christine's and Selene's apartment.

We spent one day getting everything loaded up and I was thinking we would leave when it was done, but the girls wanted to spend a last night in the suite so what the hell? We left the truck and trailer behind Jim's house again and made our way back.

We were up in the suite, having just showered and dressed when we got a telephone call. It was one of very few we'd had while here.

It was another Arab gentleman calling to inquire if I could come down and play some poker with him and a few others who had just arrived in town for a couple of weeks. Hell, I wasn't going to just leave free money lying around and I said yes without even asking the girls.

He perked up my interest then by telling me the buy in would be five hundred thousand.

"Good. Perhaps it will be enough for some of you to gain back a little of what the last gentlemen lost," I said, joking, whether he knew it or not.

When I told the girls it didn't matter to them anyway. I knew we didn't need the money and they knew we didn't, but we all still wanted to get it while the getting was so good. The girls put me right to bed for a nap. They said they'd wake me in time to make it to work that evening.

They let me sleep until seven-thirty then woke me, showered me, and took me to supper. We made it back to the suite just in time to cram enough money in the new larger bag they'd picked up while I was sleeping. I didn't want to have to take four bags to the poker room for my buy in. Soon enough the bellman and escort showed up.

When I reached the private poker room there were several men in it already. All of them were Arab gentlemen except for the four Italian American gentlemen holding shotguns loosely. We all had a drink and some minor conversation and then eight others and I sat down to play.

One of the Arab gentlemen was rather young, and I noticed he was rather looselipped considering the company he was keeping. He reminded me a little of Mike Matusow, though he wasn't nearly as loud or talkative as Mike. It was just that this youngster talked so much more than any of the others.

As the game went on he did a lot of drinking too, and I noticed a couple of others at the table trying to gently hint to him he'd had enough and said enough, but like any drunk, especially any young drunk, he thought he was doing all the good.

My magic sight was working as usual, but I tried not to take advantage of it. Still, it's hard to make a big bet when you can plainly see you don't have a chance in hell of winning. I mainly concentrated on letting the others win the small pots and I even let the drunk one bluff me off two pots I knew were mine.

It came down to the nut cuttin' when I was dealt an ace and a king and the flop came an ace, a king, and a queen. I could clearly see the loud mouth had a king and a queen and he unloaded when the bet came to him.

"All In," he said, as if he knew what he was doing.

It caused some talk among the others and that was remarkable to me. They almost never said a word during a hand. I'd already bet a hundred thousand and knew I'd end up with the winning hand. I hated to, but I had about decided to fold when he spoke up.

"Come now, old man. You are a Texan, are you not. Surely you aren't afraid to go All In."

He sure as hell talked me into it, whether he'd end up being glad about it later or not. He'd been splashing around a good bit, and mostly losing, so after the dealer counted up his chips he still had nearly four hundred grand. I pushed out enough to match him and waited for him to turn his cards over. He didn't, so I kept waiting.

"Turn your hand over," he said, to me.

"I will as soon as you turn yours over."

"You first," he said, getting louder as he went.

"Dealer, would you explain the rules to the gentleman. I called his bet," I said, and the dealer did explain things to him.

He sulked a little, but then turned over his cards. Of course I already knew he had a king and a queen. He sulked even more when I turned over my ace and king.