Chapter Thirty: Hope You Guess My Name

Ray rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Something about her was starting to induce a panic attack. Luke could induce them too. It was as though neither of them really belonged there. They were somehow out of place even among all the lost-soul-regulars, who didn't really belong here themselves.

And Ray seemed to recall something, like a fragment of a dream. Luke was standing before him, bloodied face, his hand outstretched, fingers spread. "Forget this. . ." Ray could hear his voice but his lips didn't move. He almost seemed to be on top of the memory, but it eluded him.

"I don't want to have to ask again, Ray." She said his name slowly and sweetly. "Sometimes,' She smiled "Knowing other peoples business, it helps you mind your own, you know?"

He suddenly looked afraid of her.

And Jubilee wouldn't have it. She looked away and crumpled to the bar while exhaling. "Forget it." She mumbled.

Ray licked his lips nervously. "No." He said slowly. "If you're being strait with me." He paused and swallowed.

He took two quick steps around the bar and sidled up close to her. "Have you ever heard the name a' James Howlett?"

Jubilee saw his eyes dart around the room and she followed their nervous course before responding.

"No." She spoke quietly and shook her head slightly.

Ray seemed noticeably pleased. "Good." He said. "No reason any decent folk should." He swallowed again.

"All anybody really knows about him is that he came a ridin' down the outlaw trail from a way up north. Had a wife, by the name a Rose I believe. She got in caught in the crossfire one day and she passed on." Ray crossed himself and cast a glance skyward. "God rest her soul."

He shrugged sadly. "And he just went bad. Just like that. Climbed on a stolen horse and painted a bloody trail clear down to Mexico, and back." He dropped his head as he spoke "Killin' all sorts o' folk. The lawman, the drunkard, and his fellow outlaws." He nodded twice. "Some say it was his bullet that a got her and he ain't never been right since."

"What's this got to do with Lucas?" Jubilee crossed her arms. Ray was making her nervous.

"One night Luke was in here, drinking that dirt he likes."

Jubilee looked at him, lost as to the point.

"I say dirt." Ray shrugged "He crushes these, things, these buttons, off the cactus." He made a harsh face "In to his whiskey. He says it keeps other people from drinking what's his." Ray smiled. "But I got a powerful sick off just a taste one night." He seemed lost in thought. "Luke laughed a lot." He told her, returning to the moment.

"That night?" She prompted.

"Oh, right." He smiled. "Luke made friends with some of you-know-who's gang while they were in town."

He nodded twice and began trekking back around the bar.

"And that's it, he made friends?" She looked incredulous.

Ray beamed. "Well let me tell you this about Luke's friendship." He suddenly sounded like an authority on the subject. "It overflows in to your life." He nodded. "It's not just with you when he's there. You remember it. You keep it with you." He looked away as a customer approached with an outstretched coin in his hand. Ray took it and pulled out two cigars and a half a bottle of unlabeled brownish red liquid. He passed it along to the customer.

"I Kinda know what you mean." She said, feeling the distance and frenzied energy of his loss.

Ray shook his head. "No, I don't see it in your eyes yet." He paused. "You know what it is?" He said with a tone of realization. "He's always thinking of the big picture. And it's infectious."

Jubilee smiled and thought of Emma, slapped and swollen, guilt and anger flashing across her face. Of course we're going to help them. . .

"There it is." Ray said, looking in to her eyes. "You get it now."

Emma's voice trailed through her mind. I come off like that because I used to be like that. . . And Jubilee did get it.

"His 'big picture' makes all the details small." She said.

"Sumtin' like that." He agreed.

"And this guy you don't like to talk about, he's in town now? He's around?" She was polite.

"No mam." He cast her a direct glance. "But he's expected."

She nodded twice, processing this new information.

Ray let out a sigh. "I suppose by this time next year I'll be moving on." He smiled and nodded.

"Really?" Jubilee could see the appeal of the place. If you had no where else to be, why not be here?

"Shoot yeah." He got a slightly far away look in his eye. "This town has been dying slow for a few years now. Probably be gone in another ten. I'm gonna head on out west a bit further and buy me a chunk of land. Maybe run a trading post up in Nevada for a while."

And something occurred to Jubilee. Something too delicious not to attempt. "You know," She began "I've met some of the old money in Nevada." She lied gracefully. "And I can tell you one thing that I know that most other folks don't."

Ray was solemn, and stared in rapt, strait-faced, attention.

"There's a town, its called Las Vegas." She glanced around the room and leaned in close, meeting his eyes. "There's going to be a steady stream of travelers passing by, and they're going to take steps to see that gambling remains legal forever." She nodded. "You open your trading post and put a few of those one armed bandits out front to tempt the passers-by. . ." She smiled wide and leaned in closer.

"This is real big money I'm talking about here," She explained "And they're going to pull some strings, and eventually, the surrounding states will have gambling laws, and then, this Las Vegas of theirs, is going to become the gambling center of the west." She nodded twice and put a matchstick in her mouth to chew on.

"Are you for real?" He was searching her face for answers. "What kind of men can decide to alter the laws of different states like that?"

"The same kind that funded Lewis and Clark." She replied casually. "The kind that occasionally need hired talent. And just love to run their mouths, to each other, behind closed doors." She nodded knowingly, thinking of Trevor, her boastful and brief love interest from the XSE.

And he could see that she was speaking from experience.

"Well, I guess I've got a good bit of thinking to do." He told her flatly.

"You know, if you just kept buying land in the area until it was time to develop this gamblers paradise, I know that they'd just make you an obscenely large offer and take it all off your hands. Or your kids."

"Kids?" He looked confused.

"Big money can afford to wait. They do things like that, generation to generation." She shrugged, thinking of Xavier's inheritance and how he used it to influence and shape her life.

"I see." He said, stroking his mustache. "But it will always be legal, right, the gambling?"

She nodded. "And if you had enough machines, just set out and collecting all that free money . . ."

"Plus running the post . . ." He reasoned out loud." I like this idea." He smiled at her. "This is good."

Jubilee leaned back and wiped her brow with her sleeve. The heat of the morning seemed truly oppressive when compared to the climate controlled station. She then went to take a drink from her bottle of wine only to find it was unexpectedly empty. And this fact alone became her first clue that she was in fact, very, very drunk.