Faces in Time (30 page)

Chester
’s never pretended harder to be engrossed in a game.

Rhonda’s busied herself talking to Cindy. Between the drinking, buying more drinks, shouting at the TV screen, and the in-between vigil of the movement of the football, conversation with Lucky is haphazard to nonexistent, leaving Chester with nothing other than staring at the game to divert himself from dangerous conversation with David.

Fortunately, Janet and David are keeping each other occupied in an ongoing get-to-know-you conversation including talking about Janet’s job, classic arcade games, her divorce, and dodecahedrons. Once David drew one and explained what they look like, Janet smiled and said that she always thought twelve-sided dice were cool too.

However, every few minutes David taps Chester on the shoulder to include him in their conversation, as if it were a repeated validation that David has a reason to be here because he’s Chester’s friend. David’s laughter is frequent and like a nervous panting sprinkled with a rhythmless stutter.

Besides the worries of slipping up with David, Chester’s been eying the bookie at the bar. Lucky placed the bet as usual, and in typical fashion the bookmaker accepted Lucky’s money with a knowing grin. Chester thinks the new bookkeeper looks too young to be in the bar at all, much less a bookie. He also doesn’t have the demeanor of any of the other betting bosses they’ve dealt with in the past few weeks.

After asking Lucky on three different poin in the first quarter, Chester has finally found out that the bookie’s name is Sammy.

Sammy has stared at them with an arrogant smile since Lucky placed their bet. Chester has even seen the bookie pointing to them and grinning while talking to other people. None of the other bookies wanted anyone to know that they took a bizarre bet; this guy can’t stop bragging about the money he’s going to take from them and mocking their stupidity in placing such a wager.

A lack of business etiquette usually marks a novice, one who could be easily manipulated, but it makes Chester feel anything but comfortable as he anxiously waits for the game to be over, every play seemingly stretched out and slow, each one a separate battle on his nerves. Besides the differences in behavior, there is the difference in name. Last week’s bookie was named Cisco and the week before was Lucien. Manny is a perfectly normal name; it’s just not that common. Sammy is definitely the most familiar of the bunch. Odd that the bookie with the most normal name behaves in the strangest ways.

The rest of the first two quarters passes the same way. It’s not until five minutes into the third quarter that Sammy stops laughing and starts looking enraged. Some of the people, to whom Sammy was bragging about the bet with Lucky, start coming around and poking him with jokes. His face turns angrier.

It’s the kind of game that makes the indifferent become football fans.

The veteran quarterback is having the best game he’s had in eight years, possibly the best of his career. It’s likely to be his last season; the playoff spot for his team is unlikely, but if they lose this game it will be impossible. They have to win to keep their postseason hopes alive, and they’re well on their way to the upset victory.

Adding to the drama, the quarterback was let go during spring training earlier this year from the team with whom he spent his entire career and wasn’t picked up by his current team until halfway through the season when their star quarterback tore his rotator cuff. This is the kind of game that makes a sportscaster’s job easy.

Everyone in the bar is excited except for Chester and Sammy.

The third quarter ends with the bet looking more and more probable to be a huge loss for Sammy, and Chester sees him making a phone call. At the end of the call, Sammy still seems angry, but nods his head knowingly as if the call has given him some assurance.

Staring at the screen but thinking of other things, Chester remembers the rumors that were circulating about David when he first came to the show, so they’re rumors that must be passing through the show staff right now. The gossip was that Omar was grooming David to start running the show. The stories gained stregth when David and Omar were often seen having private meetings in Omar’s office. As the meetings grew longer, so did the extent of the rumors. An even more interesting rumor, spoken in hushed secrecy, was that Omar and David were meeting to brainstorm ideas for pitching a new show of their own to the network.

Of course Chester knows how it all turned out. David wrote for
Most Hipness
for one more year, and then they created a hit comedic show about a man who travels one thousand years into the future. Omar helped with the character development, but the idea for the show came out of David’s background in science.

But, David was single then, not marrying for another five years. Sadly, three years after they were married, his wife left him for a movie producer and died of an overdose. Being single at the time of the show’s creation might have been crucial in David choosing the escapist time travel setting.

Oddly, Chester wonders if his real-life time travel to the past will erase the show’s fictional time travel to the future.

Fourth quarter, the veteran quarterback has driven his team down to their own forty-yard line. They’ve played a great game but are still down by two field goals with seven seconds left on the clock. Casting gloom on the remaining few seconds of the game, the last play was a dead duck of a short throw that was nearly intercepted—the worst throw of the game for the seasoned quarterback, leaving some to say he’s run out of steam. The defense celebrated excessively, elevating their confidence to stratospheric levels and increasing their intimidation factor.

The ball is hiked. Veteran QB fakes a handoff, scrambles away from a rushing defender, runs toward the line of scrimmage, and sees a receiver breaking across field at the other team’s thirty-seven yard line.

The ball leaves his fingers spiraling and slicing the air. It soars over the large hands of a jumping lineman, traversing over the grassy yards to its target. The hands of the receiver grasp the ball with a crisp slapping sound. He tucks the ball to his ribs and sprints. He had the man covering him beaten by three steps before he caught the ball, and he still maintains a two step lead as he races toward the end zone.

Open field is all that blurs around in his vision as he flings his legs ahead of him as fast as he can. As he crosses the line into the end zone, he can’t slow himself down to a stop. His body keeps moving until he passes the back out of bounds marker and the field goal post, and lightly crashes into the padded wall by the crowd. Hands drape down to pat his helmet, and one spectator falls completely over, landing on his back right next to the receiver. While on the ground, the spectator continues to pat the receiver’s shoe and calf.

As security picks the man up and escorts him off the field, Sammy holds perfectly still watching the screen.

The extra point kick that comes quickly after the touchdown pass is replayed several times. The kick is good, almost perfectly placed between the uprights, but the offense is called for holding.

After the ball has been placed further away, the extra point is attempted again. It is a wobbly kick that hits the left upright and then falls inside and through the uprights to score the winning point.

The bar goes wild.

Most people are on their feet shouting to someone who is also shouting, neither able to hear what the other is saying.

The wildness stays wild but tapers in volume as the minutes pass. The team still might not make the playoffs, but by fighting to keep their hopes alive, everyone in the bar would swear they’re the best in the league.

Chester
looks around for Sammy, but doesn’t see him anywhere.

“Lucky,” says Chester.

No response from Lucky who is staring at the back of a young bartender trying to get her attention to order more drinks.

“Lucky!”

“What? Whatchyou need, Chester, a drink?”

“No, Sammy’s nowhere to be seen, man.”

Lucky glances around the bar, “Don’t worry bout it, Chaz, he ain’t skipping out. Too many people want their money, and a lot of us know where he lives too—including me. Don’t worry ‘bout it; we’ll get ours. I promise ya that; we’ll get ours. Bartender!”

Several minutes have passed, and Sammy has indeed reappeared inside the bar. Everyone’s been paid except for Lucky and Chester. Sammy swears the money’s coming and that he’s waiting on his partner to bring it to him—but not to worry since they can sit here and wait till his partner arrives and make sure he doesn’t skip out on themo order moan>

Something about it worries Chester, and he wants to get out of here, so much so that he’s tempted to leave without the money.

David says, “Come on, Chester, you’ve got to at least come see the other guys’ cars before you leave. They’ll die if they knew you were here with Rhonda and didn’t stop by to say hi. Even Mirkwood’s ex-wife and Meyer’s mom were hanging around when I ditched them for you guys.”

Before Chester can respond, Janet asks David, “How’d you run into us anyway?”

“Well, I was going to get a burger from the tent when I passed near the bar and saw Chester walking with you guys up to the door.”

“Oh,” she says quietly.

“But, then I was taken in by a captivating newly-divorced woman whom I decided I just had to meet.”

“Much better answer, David,” stepping closer to him, “and I’m glad you ditched your friends for us. Oh, but you must be starving by now—talking to me all this time.”

“I’ve been hoping you wouldn’t hear my stomach growling.”

Janet continues, “Well, we’ll have to get this boy some food,” turning to Chester, “I’d like to go with David to see their cars and get a burger. Don’t you guys want to come too?”

“Uh, I don’t know. I’m not feeling that great. Thinking of settling up and getting on out of here.”

She counters, “Come on, Chester, it’ll be fun; don’t tell me you’re not interested in checking it out and seeing your friends. Even Mirkwood’s ex-wife is here.”

David adds, “Well, if you’d ever met Mirkwood’s ex-wife, you might want to settle up and go home too.”

Chester fights a smile as Janet gives him a pleading expression. Looking to Rhonda, she gives him a twitch of a smile and a squeeze on his hand.

“Well, I guess we can…”

A loud explosion pulses through the air inside the bar, cutting Chester’s words short.