(Page 1 of 2) Indiana Jones ... Deer Cave by Dan BiegerSUMMARY: A new entry for the October flash fiction contest.A slow night at The Chapel, Senor Viejo cleaning martini glasses just to keep himself alert. Stephen and Marvin sat in their favorite chairs at the other end of the bar, the courtesies of the day occupying their time: how was your day, the weather rocks – it's one of the two best times of the year in the Sonoran desert, and whose fantasy team fared better this past weekend. They'd ordered ale, a local brew, a departure from their usual tastes but easier to slip into than the more exotic concoctions they were known to imbibe.
"Harry gonna show?" Stephen asked and Marvin nodded an affirmative, adding: "Yeah, he thinks he has something that will stump us. He can't wait to see our faces."
"Any idea what he has in mind?"
"Knowing Harry, it's going to be something esoteric, at least according to his calculations. He'll spend weeks rummaging through obscure reference books to find something that will be new to us."
"Quite a compliment, that. We're not all that brilliant."
"Well, he hasn't been able to stump us yet so he doesn't know that we're not brilliant."
The Chapel doors opened at that moment, Harry, tall and black, entering and heading immediately to the friends' end of the bar. The slowly closing doors – ornately carved oak, the topic depicted the Garden of Eden before the fall - attracted Stephen's attention more than Harry's approach. He turned to Marvin: "You know, Marv, those doors are really something to admire. Is it true they were taken from a decrepit church down in Mexico and carted up here in the 19th century?"
"I heard that was so. You'd have to ask Senor Viejo, though, since I can neither affirm nor deny."
Harry's arrival, in addition to social amenities, produced a new drink order for Senor Viejo to fill. This time Harry ordered for all, his liquid contribution to the impending conversation. "You two already started on the ale, let's just do boilermakers tonight," he'd suggested and the friends agreed. Senor Viejo owned a reputation for true excellence when it came to positioning the shot of whiskey in the glass of beer without disturbing so much as a milliliter of the whiskey. The old bartender was also legendary for refusing to use any whiskey better than Beam as the drink was an insult to the world's better blends.
"Gentlemen, I have given much thought to this evening's conundrum. At first I was just going to ask you to name the world's tallest mountain but that seemed so obvious as to be beneath your consideration."
Marvin interrupted: "Wait, I know this one.." only to be interrupted by Stephen's "I can never keep it straight whether it's K-2 or Everest." Harry smiled at Marvin's obvious irritation at being interrupted mid-speech but opted to say nothing till Senor Viejo finished delivering frosted glasses containing boilermakers. As his friends lifted their glasses for the initial sip, Harry added a new question: "Would you not need to know the question's parameters before venturing a response?"
"Parameters? Hell, the mountain is tallest or it isn't."
"Not true, Stephen" Marvin corrected.
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