Chapter 6

Beth came straight home from school. I heard her squeal with delight when she looked in the kitchen. “Thank you, Cal! I hurried home, so I could run back in town and get these for this evening. Thank you for being so thoughtful.”

Harry came in a few seconds later. “Ah, good. I happened to think about that on my way home, but I wanted to see if you needed me to get something. Betty, if you’d put that stuff away, I’m going upstairs to clean up. I picked up your pills, I’ll put them in the medicine cabinet for you.”

“Thanks, Dad.” She started doing that, while Harry came upstairs.

He stopped at my door. “I don’t know how many you’ll need. Here.” He tossed me a box that contained two dozen condoms. “I have more, I’ll put them in the linen closet. I’m actually a bit excited, and not that way, about tonight. It’ll feel good to let my hair down and have fun again.”

“Enjoy yourself, Harry. You’re not on a time clock any more.”

“Yep. And I think we can buy our eggs in the store in the future. Unless Betty objects, we’re going to have fried chicken for dinner in the VERY near future. Are you nervous at all about tonight?”

“No. I am taking fifteen hundred with me, just in case. But I don’t think there’ll be a problem. Oh, did you get the sacks I wanted?”

“Thanks for reminding me. They’re in the back of my truck. I bought ten of them. I’ll put them in the corner of the barn, if that’s okay.” I nodded, and he went down to take care of that.

I set my alarm to take a short nap, so I’d be rested. I noticed that I didn’t really feel tired when I went to bed at night, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt. I woke to a quiet house. Beth had left me a note that she’d gone into town to pick up Dora and Eve, and to kick butt. Harry had already left to see Emily. Jethro was glad to see me, though. I gave him a bit of a treat, some leftover meat, then got dressed.

I pulled up in front of the Moose five minutes early. There were a couple of dozen cars in the lot. I walked in the front door. There was a man behind a counter. “Can I help you, son? You sure you’re in the right spot?”

Another man in the room said, “You’re Cal.” I nodded. “He’s expected. Go on through the door at the end.”

There was another man just inside that door. He simply nodded at me, opening the next door. This opened into a room that was about the size of a two-car garage. There were several people sitting around some oblong tables, talking to each other. I recognized the Judge and Rusty, as well as Wanda. She was wearing even less than she did at the DMV.

The Judge looked at his watch. “I’ll give you this one, I told you 6 pm, I didn’t tell you to be 15 minutes early. There’re two seats left at the third table, go ahead over there. The dealer will take care of you.”

I walked over and sat down at the seat just to the right of the person with the deck of cards in front of them. There were 7 other people at the table, the only other open seat was directly across from the dealer. The dealer said, “Welcome to the table, Sir. The others have already purchased their starting stacks. Minimum buy-in is five hundred, maximum is five thousand. You are allowed one buy-in for the entire night. The game is No-Limit Texas Hold’em. Blinds are two and five. There is a house rake of two dollars on any hand that sees a flop, regardless of pot size. This is to cover the costs of paying the dealers. There is a no tipping policy in effect. Water, coffee, and tea are free, anything else is paid for in cash, not chips, to the Moose Lodge.”

“I see. How long does the game continue?”

“Players may continue playing until they bust out. There is no set time limit for how long you must play, however. You may freely leave at any time with whatever your winnings are.”

“Thank you.” I looked around the table, at the rest of the stacks. I pulled out my whole stake and spread it on the table. “I’ll buy-in for fifteen hundred, please.” I also pulled out a small figurine that I’d quickly molded out of the Spanish Mission gold. It was in the shape of a football, with a flat side so it’d stand up, and weighed about 4 ounces. I’d read about card protectors, and decided that mine would be perfect for me.

The dealer quickly counted out ten black chips, fifteen green chips, twenty red chips, and twenty-five white chips. The dealer said, “Since you’re new here, the rule is one larger chip is a call for a lesser bet, unless you’ve announced raise. Verbal action is binding. Dealer makes all change. If there is a question about an action, we do have rules available. This game is not licensed or condoned by any officials of the state of Kansas, regardless of who happens to be sitting at the table.”

One of the other players, with a large chip stack in front of him smirked. The player to his left said, “Remember, John, if you lose, you can’t order the state police to raid the game later.”

“Not with the Executive Troop Commander sitting at Elroy’s table, that’s for sure.” The rest of the table laughed. He looked at me, nodding. “Pleasure to meet you, son. I’m John Carlin. And no titles at the table, please.”

“Certainly, Sir. I recognized you from a picture at the college. I’m Cal Lewis.”

“We’ve all heard a bit about the new kid in the area that’s going to take all our money. We’ll see how that goes.”

There was a dinging noise. “Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s now 6 pm. The game will get underway. Restrooms are to your left.” The dealer shuffled the cards quickly, then flipped one up for each of the eight players at our table. I was in the big blind right off the bat. I put a five dollar red chip in front of me. The dealer shuffled again, then dealt each of us two cards, face down.

I simply put my card protector on them, using my vision to read the cards from the back. I had a pair of 4’s. While appearing to watch the other players as it was their turn to fold, call, or raise, I used my vision to look at the cards in the dealer’s hand. Two diamonds, but also the other two 4’s. Seat 1 called five dollars, seat 2 folded. The woman in seat 3 announced, “Raise, twenty five.” I saw she had the Ace and 10 of diamonds. The rest of the table folded around to me. I then actually looked at my cards like normal. “Raise, make it fifty.” Seat 1 folded, the woman called.

Top card was placed to the side, the dealer turned over the 4 of spades, 4 of diamonds, 9 of diamonds. The dealer pointed at me, for first action. “Fifty dollars.” She called. The fourth card that came out was the 10 of spades. I brought my hand up to my face, like I was thinking, then said, “Check”. The corner of her mouth twitched a little. She put a single black chip out. I moved my hand back and forth, like I was hesitating, then reluctantly matched her bet. Last card came out, 7 of diamonds, giving her the flush.

I leaned back, then forward, giving off a sigh. “Check.” She took that as a tell from me that I had a weak hand. Her mouth twitched a little again, then she put 4 blacks out. I looked like I was in distress. “All-in.” She immediately called, flipping over the nut flush. I moved my card protector, flipping over quad 4’s.

The dealer put both sets of cards in the middle. She moved my chips out, to get an accurate count of what I had left, then counted out fifteen hundred from the woman’s stack, which left her with only five hundred. She cursed. The dealer said, “Mildred, you know our policy on cursing. Keep it down.” The dealer then pushed all the chips, less two whites, to in front of me. Those two chips, she put into a box next to her.

The next hand was raised pre-flop to fifty as well, but not only were my starting cards bad, they wouldn’t improve on the flop, so I simply folded, pitching my two bucks into the middle. I watched as Mildred regained a little bit, winning a hundred fifty with two pair.

I mostly sat and watched for the next 4 hands. My cards weren’t good, so I folded when it came to me. The hand after that, I had a suited Ace King. I saw that I’d hit the Ace on the flop, so I raised to twenty-five. I checked everyone’s hand, saw that Governor Carlin would flop two pair. But the turn would pair the board, giving me a larger two pair. However, he folded pre-flop, so the only other person that called me also had an Ace. He bet fifty, I called. The turn paired the board. He checked, I bet a hundred, he called. The river was a brick, he checked, I bet a hundred, he called, and my King kicker played.

After about forty-five minutes, a man that had been sitting in the corner came over to our dealer, tapped her on the shoulder, and changed places with her. She finished what she was doing, then got up and went to a different table. That dealer then went to the first table, with the first table dealer going over to the corner. I noticed a counter set up with drinks on it. While the new dealer was shuffling for the next hand, I asked, “Do we serve ourselves on the drinks?”

Carlin answered. “Yes, if you’re not in a hand, feel free to get up and stretch your legs. You’ll start to see some people go outside for a smoke break. We don’t smoke at the table. If you’re not at the table when your blind comes up, you get skipped, but you have to post the blinds when you get back. That way you can go to the bathroom, too.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

Two hands later, I busted Mildred out. She went all-in pre-flop with pocket 6s. I had pocket 9s, and saw that she’d get no help. That got me another five hundred in chips. Four hands after that, I had the perfect opportunity to try something I’d wondered about. I had an unsuited Ace Queen. The man in seat 6 had pocket 3s. The flop came up Ace, 3, 4, all spades. He bet fifty, which I called. The turn came up the 5 of spades. He checked, and I moved my hand towards my chips, but didn’t pick any up, then checked as well. River card was the 9 of hearts. He thought about it for a second, then bet a hundred dollars. Before he had his hand all the way back, I pushed four blacks in, rasing to four hundred dollars. He looked at me for several seconds, then threw his cards in.

“Damn flush magnet.”

“What? I didn’t have the flush.” I showed that I only had a single pair. I could hear his heart rate rise, as he realized he’d thrown in the winning hand.

“Kid, don’t ever try to bluff me again.”

The very next hand, I had off suit Jack 10. He had off suit King Queen. The board came up Ace King Queen, giving me what is called Broadway, the high end straight. I already knew the next two cards wouldn’t help him, so when he bet fifty, I raised it to one fifty. “I thought I said, don’t bluff me, kid.” He shoved all in for almost a thousand dollars. I called. I showed I had the straight. I already knew the next two cards wouldn’t help him, so when he busted out, he just shook his head in disgust.

There had been some players at the other tables who hadn’t bought in for as much that had also already busted out, so we were down to 18 players. The dealer in the corner spoke up now. “We’re down to 18 players. Players at the first two tables, please remain seated. Players at table 3, if your seat is open at table 1, please move there. If it’s open at table 2, please move there. Seat 9, you’ll move to seat 4 on table 2.” They had racks for us to put our chips in, to help us move.

That seemed to be the signal for everyone to go to the bathroom, too. I checked out some of the other stacks while they were milling around. My original fifteen hundred was up to nearly five thousand. But there were already two stacks at this table that were well over twice that amount. After a quick couple of minutes, everyone took their places again and we started playing again.

I liked this spot a bit better. I could see all the cards without having to strain. For the next half hour, we simply moved chips around the table a bit, no one doing much or making a dent in anyone’s stack. Then things got really ugly for a couple people.

I had the 8 and 9 of diamonds on the button, which meant I had the dealer button in front of me, and would be the last to act. It was as if I’d actually dealt the hand. There was a pre-flop raise to one fifty. The flop of 6 and 10 of diamonds, Queen of clubs gave seat 1 top pair, with an Ace kicker to a pair. The problem was that seat 5 had pocket Kings, and at the same time, seat 6 had pocket 10s, so he had a set. Seat 5 bet five hundred, seat 6 raised to a grand. Seat 1 called, so did I. When it got back to Seat 5, he shoved all in for twenty-eight hundred. Seat 6 thought about it, then did what was called an isolation bet, he went over the top, going all in for sixty-three hundred. That scared out Seat 1. I sat there for a second, flicking my fingers like I was counting outs. I already knew the river would be the 7 of clubs, so after about 20 seconds of appearing to count and act like I was weighing my odds, I called with fifty-four hundred. Seat 6 turned his 10’s face up, which made seat 5 curse. The turn was the 3 of spades, then the river showed up. I flipped my straight over.

“You called all-in with a straight draw?”

“Nine diamonds including the straight flush draw, the other three suits of 7 and jacks, so fifteen outs. Forty-seven cards remaining. Against one player with two random cards after the flop, it’s a fifty-five percent chance. Once seat one folded, and we were down to three players, it’s still a forty percent chance. I thought that for my first time playing poker, that was acceptable.” I said the last just to irritate everyone at the table.

“Hang on! You’ve NEVER played poker before? Are you shitting me?”

“Uh, no, Sir.”

That did what I hoped it would do, which was put half the table on tilt, meaning they would make stupid bets. The dealers rotated position again, then fifteen minutes later, we were down to nine players. One person at the other table had decided he’d cut his losses, and left with a thousand dollars remaining from his original five thousand, while the other player at my table that had doubled his buy-in of four thousand to eight thousand also decided to call it quits while he was ahead. Everyone else, including Wanda, had busted out.

I had just under twenty grand in front of me, the Judge had about the same. Rusty had busted out already. The Governor was also at the table, with about four thousand left in front of him. We continued playing. Two hours later, we were down to 5 players, and I had over forty thousand in front of me. The Judge was down to his original buy-in of five thousand. I noticed that it was nearing midnight.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I sincerely apologize that I will be unavailable to return to this game for the next several Fridays. It’s almost midnight, and I need to get home. There are three girls having a sleepover at our house, and I need to supervise them.”

Governor Carlin said, “That’s probably for the best. Young girls can be trouble at times. I’m curious, why won’t you be available to play?”

“It’s high school football season, so I’ll be at all the games for a while.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” he said. “You’re awfully young looking to be the coach.”

The Judge snorted. “He’s not. He’s the starting quarterback.”

One of the other men said, “Wait a minute. I just got my ass handed to me by a high school student? I heard your comment a while ago, about this being the first time you’ve ever played poker.”

“Yes, that’s correct, Sir.”

“That’s either the most incredible stroke of beginner’s luck, or you’re some kind of super genius at cards.”

I grinned. “Not just at cards, Sir. I’m also taking classes at HCC as well, so I’ll graduate from both high school and college after the spring semester.”

“Well, we look forward to seeing you back again.” He held out his hand, which I shook. “I’m Major William Atkins, Troop L. Here’s my card. If you ever have an issue with any of the Highway Patrol, have them contact me. That’s not quite a get out of jail free card, Son, so don’t treat it as such. John, let me have one of your cards, too. I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more of this young man.” Carlin handed it to me, after writing a phone number and a brief note on it.

“That’s my direct line. If I’m not in the Capitol, they’ll know how to get me.”

The two of them left. “Cal, now that the game is over, it IS considered acceptable to tip the dealers,” Judge Bannister said. I peeled two thousand off my winnings for them. All four of them looked at me like I had two heads. The Judge just laughed a little. “Cal, I think you’ve just made sure that these four will keep dealing here for a long time.”

The single female dealer said, “That’s for sure. Most of the time we’re lucky to get fifty dollars each. Thank you, Sir.”

Elroy walked out with me to my pickup. “As an officer of the bank board of directors, I heard you put a bit more of that metal into our vault today. And I also heard a rather interesting comment, that you felt that if the bank had that metal, it would help the bank and thus, help the community.”

“This is my home now, Judge. Do I really need to explain further?”

He shook his head. “Not to me, boy, not to me.” He had a satisfied look on his face. “Go on, get home. I hear you’ve got a busy day on Sunday.”

“Oh, yes. And if you happen to know someone who knows about building large steel buildings for garages and shops, as well as a reputable swimming pool contractor, I’ll need to talk to them as well.”

“Hmph. I just might, at that. Good night, Cal.”

I carefully drove home. Just because I had what I figured were completely ‘leave me alone’ cards in case I was stopped, I also didn’t want to push my luck.

When I got to the driveway leading back to the house, I decided to surprise the girls. I turned the headlights off on the truck, since I didn’t need them anyway. Without the lights, I was able to get close enough that I startled Jethro, who came running towards the truck, ready to act. I shut the truck off and opened the door. “Hey, Buddy, it’s just me.” Jethro jumped into my lap, giving me a lick on the face. I put him down after petting him for a few moments. What I mostly was doing was listening for sounds from the house, but it was quieter than I expected.

I quietly walked in. There was a light in the living room, from the television. No one was downstairs, though. The snacks in the kitchen looked like they’d been through a bit of a battle. I used my power and looked around the rest of the first floor, then up to the second. I shook my head at what I saw, walked over and turned off the television set.

Again quietly, I went upstairs.

This really had turned into a slumber party. All three girls were wearing sleep shirts. Dora was on Beth’s bed, on her side. I could see she had white panties on, as her shirt had ridden up a little. The white made a nice contrast to her light brown skin. Beth and Eve were both on the floor. Beth had fallen asleep leaned up against the bed. Eve was lying with her legs partially under the bed, using one of Beth’s legs as a pillow. There was an odd smell coming from a bottle in the room.

I carefully stepped over the girls, to retrieve the evidence. Two empty bottles of wine, something called MD 20/20. Since the only alcohol that Harry had in the house was part of a case of beer, one of the girls must’ve brought it with them. From the looks of things, none of the girls had ever had anything intoxicating before. I picked everything up, zipping back downstairs to put it into the trash, then back upstairs.

Stepping over the girls, I gently picked Dora up, so that there was more room on the bed, moving her a bit closer to the wall. I enjoyed the feel of her skin in my hands, and I felt myself stirring. I shook my head, a wry smile on my face. With room available now, I then brought Eve out from under the bed. Her pale skin wasn’t just on her face and hands, her athletic legs were the same color. I picked her up. When I put her down on the bed, she rolled over behind Dora, pulling her legs up. That caused her sleep shirt to ride up and give me a great view of her gloriously naked and well-shaped butt.

Dammit.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath in and out. I would not be a cad, not with these girls. Beth slightly stirred when I picked her up, carrying her into my room and putting her into my bed. I saw that she wasn’t wearing underwear, either. Sometimes life just isn’t fair. But that was okay, I knew of a way to get relief. I went back downstairs, cleaned up the kitchen, then took the trash out. Closing my eyes, I could still see both girl’s pussies, and I could imagine what Dora’s looked like. I went over to one of the chairs, undid my pants, and pulled myself out.

Closing my eyes, I started fantasizing about all three girls. Just for good measure, even though I wouldn’t act on it, I added Gina and Tina to the mix. I felt my cock get even harder, if that was possible, while I was stroking it and then my hips clenched and I came hard, almost with a vengeance.

My cum shot straight out, like it’d been fired from a cannon. It went flying through the air. I heard some boards breaking on the barn more than a hundred feet away as it punched through one side and out the other.

“What ... the ... fuck...?”

I jumped out of the chair and started flying, following my sperm trail. It was probably a pretty funny sight, if someone had witnessed it! A boy flying through the air with his cock dangling down. It didn’t take me long to catch up to where my cum had finally landed, almost four miles away, in an empty field. I was able to track it because there was a water tank that it’d punched through, as well as a steel highway sign. It had gone out, literally like an indestructible bullet, arcing up and then down as gravity worked on it. I flew back to the water tank, but the wood was too damaged for me to try to fix. Since it wouldn’t take a blind man to figure out where something that had punched a hole through both sides of it came from, I picked some small rocks up, then flew around it, punching holes in it from all directions at the same height.

Then I flew home. Jethro barked at seeing me come back in, like asking, “Where’d you go, pal? That looked like fun!” I just sat down, petting him for more than an hour, before I felt calm enough to go back inside, changed into a pair of gym shorts, finally falling asleep on the couch.

The crowing of the rooster came too damned early for a Saturday, but I was in better shape than the three were upstairs. I used my speed and special vision to get scrambled eggs, toast, and milk ready for everyone before the first girl carefully stumbled down the stairs.

It was a nice sight, a milky white set of feet and legs. “Come on down, Eve. I’ve got breakfast ready, and I think the three of you need to get something nutritious to eat.”

“You’re a love, and we’re a bunch of idiots,” Eve said. Dora followed her down, with Beth in the rear.

“Come on over and sit down. Get some eggs and toast on your stomachs, that’ll help take care of the junk food you all ate last night while you were conspiring and working up your courage with whatever it was you drank.”

“That’s on me,” Dora said. “Mad Dog 20/20. It’s wine. I ... I took two bottles of it from home, my Dad gets it by the case, so he won’t miss it.”

“Thank you for fixing us breakfast, Cal. I hope you’re not too mad at us, for not being awake when you got home like we’d planned on.”

I chuckled. “It was definitely not the reception I was halfway figuring I’d get, but Jethro gave me kisses when I got home, anyway. I’m going to guess that none of you have ever had anything like that to drink.”

“We’re too young to drink legally. But this is country, so most all of us have at least had a beer or something like that at one time or another. Oh, God, I just realized how much of a mess my hair must be.” She started to get up.

“Sit down. Eat your breakfast. Hair is irrelevant when I get a chance to eat with three beautiful girls.”

“Si, mi amor. That’s part of why I brought the wine. To make our discussion about that a bit easier. I think it made it too easy.”

“Discussion, Adorable Dora? About what?”

Beth shook her head, then groaned a little. “About what you’d mentioned at lunch, to Gina and Tina. We had some snacks, watched some TV, then it got later and we opened the wine and started talking about which of us would be your girlfriend. There was a lot of discussion of the topic over the first glass of wine. Then when we reached agreement, we were celebrating with the second glass of wine.”

Eve said, “I remember Spic sitting on the bed, congratulating all of us for agreeing, and we all shared a rather platonic kiss over it. Then she fell over, and Liz, you were laughing at her, I felt woozy and you told me to rest my head on your leg, and that’s it. How’d I end up in bed with Dora?”

They all looked at me. “That’s why I said hair is irrelevant. I had to scoot Dora over, so you’d fit, then I put Beth in my bed. I ended up sleeping on the couch. So, being the typical male, I’m curious as to what you decided.”

“Tres seremos tus novias,” Dora said. “If you’ll have us, of course.”

“Well, we’ve all slept together, at least under the same roof, so for two of you, if you had a reputation otherwise, it’s probably shot by now. For Beth, of course, she and I have been sleeping together under this roof for a week now.”

Eve smiled. “Yes, we know. She told us all about it.”

I shot a look at Beth. “ALL about it?”

“Si, mi amor. We think that you are more than enough of a man to take care of all three of us, or perhaps it will take all three of us to take care of you. That is why we feel so estúpida this morning, we had hoped to show you our love for you last night.”

I simply sat back in the chair, taking in a deep breath and then letting it out. Before I could say anything else, the phone rang. All three girls winced at the noise. I picked it up and answered it. “Hello, Cal speaking.”

“Well, you’re up a bit earlier than I anticipated. But I suppose the rooster had something to do with that, didn’t he?”

“That’s putting it politely, Harry. Of course, I also slept, by myself, on the couch last night, due to the den of iniquity that had become the bedrooms upstairs.”

“I’m guessing they somehow or other found some liquid courage and passed out before you got home.”

“Correct in one, Sir. What can I do for you otherwise, this fine morning?”

“Two things. First, did you win last night?”

“Of course. The Judge didn’t tell me everything beforehand. But the situation you and I discussed never really came up, so he left with about what he started with. A lot of other people left with nothing. I left with about twenty-five times what I started with.”

“Damn, they’ll be on the lookout for you. I hope you didn’t piss off anyone important.”

“Apropos of nothing in particular, I had some very nice conversations with John Carlin.”

“No shit, Governor Carlin was there? Elroy must’ve really wanted to impress one of you last night, I’m not sure which.” In the background, I heard Emily’s voice. “Harry, get off the damned phone and get in the shower, we need to get something to eat before we go into town.”

“Yes, Emily, just a second; I’m letting the kids know what’s going on.” That must’ve been okay with her, because she didn’t say anything, although I did hear a loud kiss. “Uh, second thing. Emily and I are going down to Wichita after we get breakfast, and spend the day just wandering and talking. So, no need to hurry anything today. Have fun, Cal, and tell Beth I love her.”

He hung up, but not before I heard Emily giggle, “Look, he’s getting hard again!”

I hung the phone back up. “Eve, Dora, apropos of nothing in particular, are either of you expected home at any specific time today?”

Eve said, “Not me. Mom and Dad know that I’m with Spic and Liz. They know that Harry would never leave us unsupervised.”

“Si. The same for me. I should be home in time for dinner tonight, though, so I can go to church in the morning.” Eve nodded her agreement.

“I see. Well, it happens to be almost eight in the morning. Beth, that was Harry, in case you didn’t figure it out. He and Emily are going to Wichita, which means it’s possible he won’t be home until after supper tonight. Can any of you think of something we can do for the day?”

“Not until after we at least brush our teeth and comb our hair,” she said.

“Then how about you get back upstairs and do just that? I can clean up down here.”

It was almost amusing, the stampede of girls charging for the stairs. Eve was first, then Dora. Beth was last. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, turned and mouthed, “I love you.”, then flipped up the front of her night shirt, showing me her blonde curls. I smiled back at her.

It only took me a few seconds to get the dishes done and the kitchen picked up, put more food and water out for Jethro, and make sure everything else was okay. I shut and locked the doors, pulling all of the curtains. After about five minutes, Beth hollered out, “Cal, we’d like to talk to you. Would you like to do that up here, or down there?”

“I think we’ll have more room down here, don’t you think?”

“Of course.” They slowly walked back downstairs. They were all still in nightshirts. “You’re right, things would be rather ... crowded ... upstairs. There’s room for us to sit and talk down here,” Beth said.