“And you put your coin in the slot that appears?”
“Yup.” he said and reached into his coat pocket and brought out a shiny coin which he laid on the bar top between us.”
“This mine?” I asked.
“Nope,” he said, “mine.”
“May I look at it?”
“Sure.” He said.
I picked it up and examined it. “A real Round Tuit, huh?” It was round, of course, about the size of an old Morgan Dollar, slightly bigger maybe but a little thicker with a heavy rim. No knurling on the rim but some strange symbols evenly spaced all around. I didn’t see anything I recognized. Light weight, silvery in color and hard; “Aluminum,” I opinioned?
“Titanium, I think”, he said.
Like I said I’m in pharmaceuticals, I don’t know much about metals. Arched across the top under the rim was the word ‘Tuit’s’ in block letters. Across the middle it read ‘Time Out’ and under that ‘Bar’. “Tuit’s Time Out Bar!” I muttered.
“Yup, he said, “Tuit’s Time Out Bar! That’s it.”
I turned the thing over and on the reverse was a pattern of very small colored stone dots of slightly different sizes with a tiny, bright stone in the middle. The one in the middle looked like it glowed with its own light. That didn’t make sense and I said so.
“Something at the Tuit’s told me it’s a map, a star map, said the cowboy.”
“Something?” I queried.
“Yeah, I’ll get to that.” he said.
“It’s got a battery in it for the light?”
“Quite a bit more than that, I’d guess, given what they can do,” he said.
Just then the barkeep arrived with our new round. I took another look at the side with the words and put the coin back down on the bar.
“Sorry pal,” said the barkeep after a quick glance at the coin, “I only take American.”
The cowboy handed him a twenty and he went to get change. We both picked up our drinks and after a couple of sips he continued. “I got stopped by the cops one night and they searched me. I had to unload my pockets and they went through my saddlebags. I knew I had the Round Tuit in my pocket and I was tryin’ to think of some story to explain it but when I put the keys and coins and stuff from my pockets on the table, there wasn’t no Round Tuit. Later, after they let me go, it was back in my pocket. So I reckon a Round Tuit can’t be found if it don’t want to be. No stranger than any other damn business that happens with these things. When it’s in the hand, it feels solid, but if you put it in your pocket it’s like it ain’t there and it might float away; …strange…
”Where was I, oh yeah, anyhow you’re alone somewhere and you get a call and it’s Tuit. He says, ‘This is Tuit, are you ready?’ …and the coin slot’s there by the phone. You better be ready because it won’t stay long. So you better have the coin handy, you only get about ten or fifteen seconds. You put it in the slot and then you’re there. You’re at Tuit’s. One second you’re wherever you got the phone call and then you’re in one of phone booths on the porch at Tuit’s. You don’t feel a damn thing, I mean, you’re just there.”
“The porch, not in the bar?”
“Yeah, you come and go from the phone booths on the porch.”
“Uh, huh,” I managed.
“It’s always nighttime there, never have seen the sun. You know you’re not on earth because there’s two moons in the sky. One’s about the size of ours but the other’s much smaller. What’s strange is that they don’t seem to move and they’re always full and they’re always in the same place any time you look. Can’t see anything in particular on either one; no man in the moon, if you know what I mean.
“Even with all the moonlight the sky is full of stars but there’s nothin’ anyone I know could recognize. Heard you can’t even see our sun from there.
“The air’s soft, comfortable, not too hot or too cold and there’s always a gentle breeze with a faint fragrance like nothin’ you’ve ever experienced. Strange, alien, mebbe, but nice. More’n nice, it’s heady and almost makes you feel high like them funny cigarettes the kids smoke. No one knows what it is or where it comes from. Mebbe from them tree things, I don’t know?”
“Tree things?”
“Yeah, tree things, I’ll get back to them too.” The door’s off to one side of the back wall of the porch and it’s got a glowin’ sign above it. The letters just float in the air, in a arc, above the door, says ‘Tuit’s Time Out Bar’.