(no subject)
Chapter 7
As they drove on the conversation continued but the subject had changed. This time they were reminiscing about there past. James was actually asking the majority of the questions this time. They shared story about ex girlfriends and a few from high school. James couldn’t remember much about high school which made Dylan wonder.
“So if you can go into other lines and can live forever, how old are you?”
“It’s hard to tell, but I have done three twenty year blocks with some time in between on this world or that one. If I had to guess, I would say ninety five or so, somewhere around there.”
“Wow.” Dylan tried to comprehend his friend’s life. He shortly gave up. “You’ve had me saying that word a lot lately.”
“Chicks tell me that all the time.”
Dylan laughed at his friend’s stupid joke; his mind started the spinning thing again that it always did after these conversations, spinning with all the new possibilities and complexities of this new found world. Usually it would spin around and around until it was able to settle on one or two questions that he just had to know. After a few moments of thought he found his two.
“How long were you in this time line for?”
“This was one of my twenty year blocks, plus however long it has been since we met up.”
“So if you have been here for twenty years. That means the you that is sitting there and the me that is sitting here has never met before yesterday.”
James didn’t respond at first after one of his pauses he stated. “Does that bother you?”
Now it was Dylan’s turn not to respond for a moment. “I don’t know, I guess not, I mean you’re still you, just a you I have never met before.”
Dylan didn’t know it at the time of course but those words were the most important words he had ever spoken in his life. James stared out the window smoking a cigarette. Dylan knew something about what he said had bothered James and he wasn’t positive but he thought he glimpsed a tear rolling down James’s cheek.
“Oh shit.” James looked up and saw that they were passing an exit and reached out and grabbed the wheel of the car forcing them onto the off ramp.
“What the fuck man!”
“I’m sorry I forgot we need to stop here I need to pick up some supplies.”
“Don’t grab the fucking wheel like that you almost killed the both of us. Besides you couldn’t wait until the next fucking gas station anyways.”
“Calm down man we are fine, besides you have to piss anyways.”
“How the fuck did you know that?”
James looked at Dylan annoyed. Dylan knew the answer to that question. It was James; he always knew what was going to happen next.
They pulled off into the gas station and James stepped out and after a much needed stretch headed inside the building. Dylan went around to the side dreading the condition of this bathroom. He knocked on the door and no one answered, yet when he tried the handle it was locked, disappointed and now thirty seconds shy of doing the potty dance turned around to see if the clerk had a key. What he was greeted with was a man holding a gun to his face.
“Give me your fucking money or I’ll fucking blow off your fucking face.”
“Shit, look it, my wallet is in my car.” Dylan never having a gun held to his face was handling himself fairly well.
“Bull shit, empty out your pockets or you is a fucking dead man.”
“Hey asshole.” James said from behind the man.
The man spun around spooked by this sudden new presence and Dylan was very thankful that the mans trigger finger wasn’t as jumpy as his nerves. The man looked James in the eyes and was very uncomfortable at what he saw.
“When I was fucking your mom last night she said I had a little dick so will you call her a cunt for me next time you see her.”
“What the fuck did…” The man started to say as he raised the gun to James’s skull. He never got around to it though because as he was raising the gun James grabbed him by the wrist pointed the gun at the man’s own knee. He squeezed his wrist causing the man to pull the trigger and blow out his own knee cap. James’s other hand went up to the mans mouth. Dylan at first thought this was to muffle the mans scream but when the man started to choke he realized that James had caught the shell casing and shoved it down the mans throat. The man instantly dropped the gun and started clawing at his throat. James picked up the gun and checked the clip.
“Alright we can leave now.”
Dylan’s calm composer had left him entirely now. “What the… Are you just going to leave him there choking like that?”
“Yeah, fuck him he pointed a gun at your face.”
“Well you can’t just leave him like that, he’s going to die.”
“Would it make you feel better if I saved the man that threatened to kill you?”
“Yes.”
James looked at Dylan disappointed. He then turned around and punted the man in the stomach. Dylan was fairly certain that if the mans stomach had been a football on the fifty yard line the home team would be adding three more to the boards. The casing came flying out of the mans mouth and he lay in the fetal position on the ground.
“Can we go now?” James looked at Dylan like a mother would look at an insolent child.
“Yeah, I think that would be a good idea.”
Once they were on the road again Dylan thought long and hard about how he was going to broach the subject of what just happened to James. He knew he couldn’t ask how because James would just say his read the future line and leave Dylan disappointed. He knew that it could work as a reason to how easy it was to take down the man in a fight, but still he couldn’t understand how he knew the man would be there with a gun. Dylan thinking very hard, as he often did with subjects involving James decided upon the best way to ask his question.
“Alright so I understand that you could read the situation or whatever so you knew how to take that guy down. I realize that you have had plenty of free time to learn how to fight but how the fuck did you know that some guy was going to be there with a gun in the first place?”
“I didn’t.”
This was about the most disappointing answer Dylan could have imagined. “You didn’t?”
“Nope, just dumb luck.”
“Well riddle me this then, how do you plan on getting that gun across the border?”
James laughed. “Borders are imaginary lines; if you don’t believe in them then they have no power over you.”
“Ok, that is great, let’s step back into reality for a second, because those lines may be imaginary but the men with the guns at the border, they are very real and they don’t look to kindly to men with unregistered… Wait a minute, do you even have id?”
“Just remember my friend they shall hold no power over you.” James folded his legs Indian style and held his hands like he was praying. Dylan couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not and honestly didn’t want to know the answer.
Chapter 8
The two of them pulled up to the border and Dylan was wondering why the hell he didn’t stop a mile back and throw the gun into the woods. There were still two cars in front of them and Dylan was starting to get very nervous.
“Ok James no more fucking around what are we doing here.”
James didn’t respond he just returned to the meditating position and did the monk centering noise of omm.
“Very funny now knock it off. How are we doing this, what about the fucking gun?”
“Have faith, ye of little.”
“Bullshit, what about the fucking gun.”
One of the cars drove through leaving only one more before them.
“Don’t say gun anymore, it is starting to annoy me.”
This line of shit was the last straw for Dylan; he had enough of this playing around at his expense. “Fuck you, who the fuck are you to say what is annoying, gun, gun, and gun.”
“What this gun?” James asked holding the gun in the air and waving it around. “Is this the Gun you were referring to?” James raised his voice when he said the word gun. “See you keep saying gun and I don’t know which gun you are referring to?”
“What the fuck are you doing?” James asked in horror.
The car in front pulled ahead and now there was no one left to block this sight.
“I said have faith in me, I said trust me, is that too hard to do.”
“Yes it fucking is when you ask me to do impossible shit and refuse to give me a reason for anything.”
The customs officer was saying something but neither of them seemed to notice, or maybe they just didn’t seem to care. At this moment the entire world existed in this car.
“You are so blind; you have no idea what the fuck I am doing for you.”
“You! Doing for me! Fuck you I am doing all this for you.”
“Hey!” The custom officer yelled. “Put the fucking gun down.”
James reached in his pocket pulled out a badge and slammed it against the window. The officer leaned close into it to read the badge and slowly lowered his gun. He spoke into his radio and the little wood arm blocking there passage was raised.
“You’re a real fucking prick you know that, sir.” The officer said and waived him through.
The two of them drove through the border.
“See everything is fine.” James said
“No everything is far from fucking fine. What the fuck man, you can’t keep doing this shit to me. Remember I am the one fucking helping you out here, I am the one going out on a fucking limb and you are the asshole who won’t give me a straight answer to every other fucking question I ask. So what if you can read the fucking future. You know what I can’t and last time I checked you are fucking crazy so how am I supposed to know if you are being eccentric or fucking enlightened.”
“I have been stuck here for twenty fucking lonely boring ass years; I am just trying to have a little fun.”
“Boring ass years? You have had a shit ton of money and there is practically no risk for you, all you do is have to check up on some stocks every so often.”
“Yeah well you’re a fucking idiot because that shit sucks. You take away the risk and get no reward. Plus imagine living twenty years alone. No real friends, no fucking girlfriend, you are the only person in your world. You are the only person I can have fun with and really fucking talk to.”
“Yeah well when all the fun you are having is at my expense it’s not fun anymore. Look I know things are fucked up in there but god man do you see what you are doing to me. Do you know what you have done to me?”
James stared out the window. He stared out the window for a long time.
“Will you fucking say something already?”
“You’re right, I’m sorry.”
“Are you fucking with me?”
“No, when you ask me something I will be straight with you, but I need to ask two things from you.”
“That’s not fair.”
“You’re right, it isn’t, but I still have to ask it.”
“What?”
“First understand, I can read the future. That may not mean much to you but if I ask you to trust me I need you to do that, regardless of the situation.”
“That’s a lot man.”
“No it isn’t, you already did that, up until the gun thing at the border.”
“Yeah well doing one thing and promising to always do that same thing are very different.”
“Sure is. Are you willing to do that?”
Dylan understood now that there was no winning an argument with James. He knew that his will was focused and determined, this must be what his job recruiters saw in him. At this moment he understood that if this trip was to continue at all it would be under James’s terms. Dylan wanted to say no, he really wanted to. He wanted to show James that he wasn’t as good as reading the future as he liked to think, he wanted to throw a wrench in this perfectly oiled machine that James was piloting. He wanted to, but didn’t.
“Yes.”
“Good are you ready for the second.”
“No, but go ahead.”
“We need to something stupid, dangerous and destructive.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know yet, that’s the fun of it.”
“So you just want to do something as long as it is dangerous, stupid and destructive.”
“Yeah, something to let us know that we’re alive.”
“I’m in.”
As they drove on the conversation continued but the subject had changed. This time they were reminiscing about there past. James was actually asking the majority of the questions this time. They shared story about ex girlfriends and a few from high school. James couldn’t remember much about high school which made Dylan wonder.
“So if you can go into other lines and can live forever, how old are you?”
“It’s hard to tell, but I have done three twenty year blocks with some time in between on this world or that one. If I had to guess, I would say ninety five or so, somewhere around there.”
“Wow.” Dylan tried to comprehend his friend’s life. He shortly gave up. “You’ve had me saying that word a lot lately.”
“Chicks tell me that all the time.”
Dylan laughed at his friend’s stupid joke; his mind started the spinning thing again that it always did after these conversations, spinning with all the new possibilities and complexities of this new found world. Usually it would spin around and around until it was able to settle on one or two questions that he just had to know. After a few moments of thought he found his two.
“How long were you in this time line for?”
“This was one of my twenty year blocks, plus however long it has been since we met up.”
“So if you have been here for twenty years. That means the you that is sitting there and the me that is sitting here has never met before yesterday.”
James didn’t respond at first after one of his pauses he stated. “Does that bother you?”
Now it was Dylan’s turn not to respond for a moment. “I don’t know, I guess not, I mean you’re still you, just a you I have never met before.”
Dylan didn’t know it at the time of course but those words were the most important words he had ever spoken in his life. James stared out the window smoking a cigarette. Dylan knew something about what he said had bothered James and he wasn’t positive but he thought he glimpsed a tear rolling down James’s cheek.
“Oh shit.” James looked up and saw that they were passing an exit and reached out and grabbed the wheel of the car forcing them onto the off ramp.
“What the fuck man!”
“I’m sorry I forgot we need to stop here I need to pick up some supplies.”
“Don’t grab the fucking wheel like that you almost killed the both of us. Besides you couldn’t wait until the next fucking gas station anyways.”
“Calm down man we are fine, besides you have to piss anyways.”
“How the fuck did you know that?”
James looked at Dylan annoyed. Dylan knew the answer to that question. It was James; he always knew what was going to happen next.
They pulled off into the gas station and James stepped out and after a much needed stretch headed inside the building. Dylan went around to the side dreading the condition of this bathroom. He knocked on the door and no one answered, yet when he tried the handle it was locked, disappointed and now thirty seconds shy of doing the potty dance turned around to see if the clerk had a key. What he was greeted with was a man holding a gun to his face.
“Give me your fucking money or I’ll fucking blow off your fucking face.”
“Shit, look it, my wallet is in my car.” Dylan never having a gun held to his face was handling himself fairly well.
“Bull shit, empty out your pockets or you is a fucking dead man.”
“Hey asshole.” James said from behind the man.
The man spun around spooked by this sudden new presence and Dylan was very thankful that the mans trigger finger wasn’t as jumpy as his nerves. The man looked James in the eyes and was very uncomfortable at what he saw.
“When I was fucking your mom last night she said I had a little dick so will you call her a cunt for me next time you see her.”
“What the fuck did…” The man started to say as he raised the gun to James’s skull. He never got around to it though because as he was raising the gun James grabbed him by the wrist pointed the gun at the man’s own knee. He squeezed his wrist causing the man to pull the trigger and blow out his own knee cap. James’s other hand went up to the mans mouth. Dylan at first thought this was to muffle the mans scream but when the man started to choke he realized that James had caught the shell casing and shoved it down the mans throat. The man instantly dropped the gun and started clawing at his throat. James picked up the gun and checked the clip.
“Alright we can leave now.”
Dylan’s calm composer had left him entirely now. “What the… Are you just going to leave him there choking like that?”
“Yeah, fuck him he pointed a gun at your face.”
“Well you can’t just leave him like that, he’s going to die.”
“Would it make you feel better if I saved the man that threatened to kill you?”
“Yes.”
James looked at Dylan disappointed. He then turned around and punted the man in the stomach. Dylan was fairly certain that if the mans stomach had been a football on the fifty yard line the home team would be adding three more to the boards. The casing came flying out of the mans mouth and he lay in the fetal position on the ground.
“Can we go now?” James looked at Dylan like a mother would look at an insolent child.
“Yeah, I think that would be a good idea.”
Once they were on the road again Dylan thought long and hard about how he was going to broach the subject of what just happened to James. He knew he couldn’t ask how because James would just say his read the future line and leave Dylan disappointed. He knew that it could work as a reason to how easy it was to take down the man in a fight, but still he couldn’t understand how he knew the man would be there with a gun. Dylan thinking very hard, as he often did with subjects involving James decided upon the best way to ask his question.
“Alright so I understand that you could read the situation or whatever so you knew how to take that guy down. I realize that you have had plenty of free time to learn how to fight but how the fuck did you know that some guy was going to be there with a gun in the first place?”
“I didn’t.”
This was about the most disappointing answer Dylan could have imagined. “You didn’t?”
“Nope, just dumb luck.”
“Well riddle me this then, how do you plan on getting that gun across the border?”
James laughed. “Borders are imaginary lines; if you don’t believe in them then they have no power over you.”
“Ok, that is great, let’s step back into reality for a second, because those lines may be imaginary but the men with the guns at the border, they are very real and they don’t look to kindly to men with unregistered… Wait a minute, do you even have id?”
“Just remember my friend they shall hold no power over you.” James folded his legs Indian style and held his hands like he was praying. Dylan couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not and honestly didn’t want to know the answer.
Chapter 8
The two of them pulled up to the border and Dylan was wondering why the hell he didn’t stop a mile back and throw the gun into the woods. There were still two cars in front of them and Dylan was starting to get very nervous.
“Ok James no more fucking around what are we doing here.”
James didn’t respond he just returned to the meditating position and did the monk centering noise of omm.
“Very funny now knock it off. How are we doing this, what about the fucking gun?”
“Have faith, ye of little.”
“Bullshit, what about the fucking gun.”
One of the cars drove through leaving only one more before them.
“Don’t say gun anymore, it is starting to annoy me.”
This line of shit was the last straw for Dylan; he had enough of this playing around at his expense. “Fuck you, who the fuck are you to say what is annoying, gun, gun, and gun.”
“What this gun?” James asked holding the gun in the air and waving it around. “Is this the Gun you were referring to?” James raised his voice when he said the word gun. “See you keep saying gun and I don’t know which gun you are referring to?”
“What the fuck are you doing?” James asked in horror.
The car in front pulled ahead and now there was no one left to block this sight.
“I said have faith in me, I said trust me, is that too hard to do.”
“Yes it fucking is when you ask me to do impossible shit and refuse to give me a reason for anything.”
The customs officer was saying something but neither of them seemed to notice, or maybe they just didn’t seem to care. At this moment the entire world existed in this car.
“You are so blind; you have no idea what the fuck I am doing for you.”
“You! Doing for me! Fuck you I am doing all this for you.”
“Hey!” The custom officer yelled. “Put the fucking gun down.”
James reached in his pocket pulled out a badge and slammed it against the window. The officer leaned close into it to read the badge and slowly lowered his gun. He spoke into his radio and the little wood arm blocking there passage was raised.
“You’re a real fucking prick you know that, sir.” The officer said and waived him through.
The two of them drove through the border.
“See everything is fine.” James said
“No everything is far from fucking fine. What the fuck man, you can’t keep doing this shit to me. Remember I am the one fucking helping you out here, I am the one going out on a fucking limb and you are the asshole who won’t give me a straight answer to every other fucking question I ask. So what if you can read the fucking future. You know what I can’t and last time I checked you are fucking crazy so how am I supposed to know if you are being eccentric or fucking enlightened.”
“I have been stuck here for twenty fucking lonely boring ass years; I am just trying to have a little fun.”
“Boring ass years? You have had a shit ton of money and there is practically no risk for you, all you do is have to check up on some stocks every so often.”
“Yeah well you’re a fucking idiot because that shit sucks. You take away the risk and get no reward. Plus imagine living twenty years alone. No real friends, no fucking girlfriend, you are the only person in your world. You are the only person I can have fun with and really fucking talk to.”
“Yeah well when all the fun you are having is at my expense it’s not fun anymore. Look I know things are fucked up in there but god man do you see what you are doing to me. Do you know what you have done to me?”
James stared out the window. He stared out the window for a long time.
“Will you fucking say something already?”
“You’re right, I’m sorry.”
“Are you fucking with me?”
“No, when you ask me something I will be straight with you, but I need to ask two things from you.”
“That’s not fair.”
“You’re right, it isn’t, but I still have to ask it.”
“What?”
“First understand, I can read the future. That may not mean much to you but if I ask you to trust me I need you to do that, regardless of the situation.”
“That’s a lot man.”
“No it isn’t, you already did that, up until the gun thing at the border.”
“Yeah well doing one thing and promising to always do that same thing are very different.”
“Sure is. Are you willing to do that?”
Dylan understood now that there was no winning an argument with James. He knew that his will was focused and determined, this must be what his job recruiters saw in him. At this moment he understood that if this trip was to continue at all it would be under James’s terms. Dylan wanted to say no, he really wanted to. He wanted to show James that he wasn’t as good as reading the future as he liked to think, he wanted to throw a wrench in this perfectly oiled machine that James was piloting. He wanted to, but didn’t.
“Yes.”
“Good are you ready for the second.”
“No, but go ahead.”
“We need to something stupid, dangerous and destructive.”
“What is it?”
“I don’t know yet, that’s the fun of it.”
“So you just want to do something as long as it is dangerous, stupid and destructive.”
“Yeah, something to let us know that we’re alive.”
“I’m in.”