This was one of the most memorable evenings at Rusti’s I have ever had because Lonestar usually just never talks very much about anything.

The first thing I needed to do after Sam and I got assigned our next case was to find Lonestar to be sure he would be free to help us. So we were straight away to Rusti’s early the same evening. We walk in. Much all the Regulars were seated along the bar, others are walking in, Minder, Dance Master, Werds, Hardrock, and so on. No Lonestar.

Disappointment until Sam pulled on his leash toward a booth back along the wall. Lonestar was seated writing in a notebook. There were several books stacked off to his left. Books?

I thought to wait for another time but Lonestar looked up and waved us over. I seldom saw him in a booth before. Sam jumped up on the seat opposite and I slid in next. The notebook is marked with lines. The book titles I can see include the word Philosophy. I say nothing. “Good to see you Boys. I need someone to run some ideas by.” He hands the notebook over to us. The page has a floor plan drawing of Rusti’s bar with round barstool lined along. Behind the barstool tops are two lines next to each other with arrow points where they end on the right

Printed next to one line is Time, to the other Me. At the left end of the lines the stool next to it is also marked Me. At the arrow points at the right the stool is marked Cupcake. Below the lines the words Boss already knows? capitalized B with a question mark following. I will let Lonestar speak. The first thing he said was “Boys, The Boss needs more help from us than he’s been getting. He can’t do impossible things.” I was not sure what he meant. We usually don’t have a boss nearby when we are out working on a case.  

“It was that cupcake Hardrock brought in that got me thinking. This was a few days ago. Ol’ Hardrock came by and stopped to show me a big cupcake he bought. It would be his dinner along with some Valley Red. The cupcake had a lot of chocolate pored over it with a big strawberry on top. I was at the near end of the bar over by the Bus Station. Hardrock went way down to the other end, near the Valley Red. I see he poured himself a glass and set the cupcake down on a plate Rusti brought him.”

“I thought no more of all the cupcake until I saw Buck come in. He walked past me on down to Hardrock, I suppose to tell him again about his luck, of lack of, at the card room down the street. Buck has a deck of cards and Hardrock gets up and they go down to the booth at the far end of the room. They do that at times to deal some hands and discuss strategy. I see that the booth is out of sight of that end of the bar. I look down at the cupcake.”

“Frank the Devil gets after me at times. I thought of hiding that cupcake from Hardrock, as a prank so to speak. Or maybe eating it myself. That was a big red strawberry! On chocolate. Boys that is what got me thinking.” Just then I remember that Boss or The Boss is what Lonestar calls God. Other times he calls Him The Maker.

Just then Rusti brought me a bottle of beer and poured some of it into a saucer she brought for Sam. I took a drink. Sam took a lot of licks. There is always something to what Lonestar says because he doesn’t say much. So I listen.

“Frank you know sometimes you have an idea to do something bad but you don’t know if you will really do it until the time. And you start, and really Time starts, as you go towards what you think you might do. In school maybe walking along the back of the row of desks. Are you going to pull Mollie’s braids as you walk by? You don’t know if you will until you get there. The Devil is telling you to. Will the Devil win? And does the Boss know already before you get there if you will or won’t?” 

“Frank that is the important question. Does the Boss already know? Right away we think yes, of course He does. He made all this stuff. But this is what I wonder. In the olden times people went to oracles, astrologers, all sorts of fortune tellers to find out what would happen in the future. No wonder that people back then would think that The Maker of everything knows what will happen next, and way beyond. Into all Time. So even now after all these years we can believe The Boss knows the future. But then you have to think. That is, think about Time.”

Time? I took a sip of beer. Sam curled up on the seat for a nap.

“I thought of Time as I was thinking about walking down towards the cupcake. Time would be walking besides me, so to speak. I thought of this right after I thought ‘maybe just eat the strawberry.’  As you see I am changing my mind as I walk. If I stop Time doesn’t stop because all possible things would have to stop changing for Time to stop. Time is because of Change. So I continue walking with Time.  What I will do is not in Time yet. So how could The Boss know what I will do?”

So I add “like when we used to put the dead snakes in the girls desks, the ones that opened from the top.” (Maybe I should learn to have less to say!) “No that is not the same,” Lonestar answered. “We already knew we were going to put the snake in a girl’s desk, the decision was which girl.” “The best screamer” I suggested. “Maybe,” Lonestar answered, “but that would be the same girl. No fun, so we might look for another. Learn something new. But that is not what I’m getting at here.”

“Frank, The Boss can’t do impossible things. I don’t think He knows what I will do when I get to the cupcake because that Change hasn’t happened yet. Time moves with Change. Though you can make a good guess on what a man might do based on what he has done already. And the Boss is real good at knowing what you have done.” Me; "you know I am going to ask you what you did when you got to the cupcake.” “By the time I had this all figured out Hardrock had come back to his place at the bar and ate the whole cupcake himself."