“A boy who’s sure he is going to win.”
“Are you even aware of what you will become if we beat you? You’d be lying flat on the floor.”
“Just like this card on the table?” Jack lays down his first card.
“Rethink this, Jack,” the man says. “You’ve got all those fluffy girls liking you back in school. They won’t like you with a bruise for a nose and hole for an eye.”
“Truth is, I need the money,” Jack says. “And your heavy metal cha cha cha clothes look like they’re worth a hundred pounds.”
The semi-nerdy Pillar whispers in my ear, “This Jack is badass. Better than Indy.”
I try not to roll my eyes. They hurt from doing this too much already. “Are we going to let him do this to himself?” I ask the Pillar. “Jack may need help.”
“Help him if you want. I’m staying here,” says a cowardly Pillar. “Besides, I think he is going to win.”
But the Pillar is wrong. Whatever version of blackjack they’re playing, Jack is losing fast. The muscular men roar with laughter and start knuckling their fingers.
“Here is your ten pounds.” Jack grins.
“What?” the man says.
“You said you’d take ten if you won.”
“No, that was the first deal. Then you said we could beat you if you lose.”
“Who said that?” Jack says. “You guys must be dreaming.”
“What? Are you calling us mad?”
“Think of it. Why would I play cards for you to beat me when you can just beat me whenever you want? You just misunderstood me.”
The muscular men scratch their temples, thinking it over. “So we don’t need to win to beat you?”
“Right on.”
“Then no problem. Let’s beat him up, boys.”
“But hey.” Jack raises his hands. “That’s not a fair fight. And as strong and muscular as you are, you surely want a fair fight. You wouldn’t brag about squashing a cockroach, right? It’s just not good manners.”
They scratch their heads again. “So what do you suggest we do?”
“I’ll fight one man at a time.”
“Deal.” The man takes off his jacket, his muscles spilling over on the sides. “I’ll go first.”
“Hey,” Jack says. “Come on. Look at you. You’re twice my age, four times my size, six times my weight. In fact, you’re the size of my whole family.”
“So what now, Jack?”
“I can’t fight you all at once. It’s like you squishing a rat.”
“Then how am I going to beat you, Jack?” The man starts to lose patience.
“I suggest I fight with just your arms first.” He raps the man’s arms. “Just about the right size. Your arms against the whole me.”
“And where do you suggest the rest of me goes?”
“I don’t know.” Jack shakes his shoulders. “That’s your problem. You could cut off your arm or something.”
The man grunts, stepping forward.
“Okay, bad joke.” Jack shrugs. “I have a better idea. Just hear me out.”
“Last chance.”
“You wouldn’t be able to move your arm if it wasn’t for your brain, right?”
“Come again?”
“The brain sends signals to an arm for it to move and punch someone. You know that, right?”
“Is that true?” the man asks his buddies.
They shake their shoulders. “How would we know?”
“It’s true. Science, they call it,” Jack explains.
“So what’s the point?”
“The point is your arm wouldn’t work without your brain. But your brain works without your arm.”
“And?”
“Let’s fight brain to brain.”
“Why didn’t you say so?” The man laughs. “You want us to fight like bulls. Come here, Jack. I’ll crash your skull for giggles.”
“Didn’t quite mean that,” Jack protests. “People usually use their brains, not fight with them.”
“Now you’re really losing me.”
“I mean to play brain to brain. We need to simply go play cards again. See who wins, have this talk all over again, realize fights are useless, then play again.”
The man’s head whizzes around. “What?”
That’s when Jack pulls out a set of cards and flicks them one after the other in their faces. It seems childish at first, until I realize the cards are covered with a thick substance that sticks to their faces. When they try to pull it off, it snaps at their skins.
The men begin to roar.
Jack runs out of the alley. It happens so fast I don’t have a chance to call after him. When I’m about to, I see Jack jumping into the back of a car filled with girls.
And who do you think is driving it?
Lorina Wonder.
Chapter 71
”You really like this boy,” the Pillar comments behind me.
I watch Lorina’s car drive away, and say nothing.
“Look,” the Pillar says. “You came to me to ask me what to do with Jack. If you’re really from the future, I suggest you let him go.”
“You think so?”