You got to know when to hold’ em,

Stealing an old man’s blue wallet, a diamond bracelet from a girl with a short and promiscuous pink dress, and some other girl’s black and gold purse at the train station was not what Eric had planned this morning. Neither was being asked to take time off by his boss due to his recklessness. Or, being shouted at by Betsy last night for waddling into the bedroom reeking of cheap whisky while tearing through their closet.

Eric found an old red sock in a spot that he had forgotten about and pulled out a scrunched-up bill. A poignant reminder of his disastrous addiction. After gambling the last of Mason’s formula money for the week, that twenty-dollar bill was all that was left of their savings.

Even though gambling was the last thing he should have been doing, he still craved it. Worthless. A persistent thought on auto-play in his weak mind. He had to do something. Betsy was going to take Mason away. A threat she consistently made.

Eric wanted to change. In fact, he needed to change. He often wondered how Betsy put up with him after so many years of his cowardly habits, pathetic tears, and meaningless apologies. Worthless.

Despite the anxiety and disgust that would arise from the pits of his stomach, he also felt an urgency of excitement to go play—a distraction. An agonizing cycle he couldn't stop. If only he could give back to Betsy what she deserved and if only there was a way to change his brain and start over for his family’s sake. He would.

Before leaving for the train station, he checked the red sock again. Perhaps, his drunken eyes saw wrong. Or, some magical leprechaun came and filled it overnight with a lottery ticket that would fix everything.

That could have happened. After all, his brain did always play dirty tricks on him. Unfortunately, the sock was empty. He had nothing left. At this point, he was worse than Eddie, for goodness’ sake! Eddie, the neighborhood’s homeless man, who slept behind garbage dumps and pissed on the lamp posts down the street.

On Tuesdays and Fridays, trash days, Eric would run into old Dr. E. He was always there, with a rusty shopping cart that held a disproportioned computer-like shape that made odd beeping sounds, covered by a black ripped blanket.

Dr. E was really old—a dust bunny floating the streets kind of old. He had one glass eye and a large scar on the side of his face that almost disappeared beside the atlas of wrinkles around his eyes when you looked closely at him. Eric felt a certain urge inside of him to make sure that Dr.E was okay. After all, they had many things in common. They both worked in the healthcare industry, well that’s what Dr. E said.

He claimed to have been a doctor in his younger days so Eric felt that E still deserved to be addressed as so. They both really enjoyed talking about poker. They even liked the same song by Kenny Rogers! “The Gambler.”

Eric didn’t understand, and often quite wondered, how an old man like Dr. E, who seemed very intelligent and good-hearted, looked and lived as he did. What happened to him? And what was that machine thing he carried around wherever he went? Was it more important to him than money?

Panic set in for Eric. Desperation, a better word. He was at the train station with his four-month-old son, a twenty-dollar bill, and three stolen items. The girl in the pink dress hadn’t noticed her diamond bracelet missing until she saw it dangling from the second pocket of Mason’s diaper bag.

She shouted for security as her boyfriend began to speedwalk toward them. Eric swiveled around the diaper bag and saw the bracelet dangling out from the hole that Betsy would nag about all the time. The hole that he assumed she made up so that he would have to buy Mason a nicer one. Shit!

Eric put on his black cap, held Mason tight, hunched over, and rushed through the large crowd. On the other side of the train station, he spotted three bathrooms. The first one read: Unisex. It had a smiling alien with a peace sign sitting on a toilet posted to the door. Funny, he thought and chuckled. He entered and right in front of him stood a coin entry turnstile gate that requested one dollar in order to use it. Not funny. He grimaced, stepped back frustrated, and said “Are they serious? One frikan dollar to take a piss?”

Sweat poured out from under his cap and Mason began to wail his arms and scream from the top of his little lungs. “Damn it! He’s hungry and I have to change him AGAIN”. Eric sneaked into the second bathroom that held two slim stalls. Both clogged into a disaster—the point of no return. He couldn’t hide there with Mason. It reeked! He stepped out and shot a curious look at the third bathroom—the women’s bathroom. Although the floor sign read: “Do not enter. Men working on repairs.” Eric entered anyway.

There were five clean stalls. The handicapped one was closed. Beneath the opening between the granite tiled floor and the door, he caught a glimpse of what seemed to be the four wheels of a shopping cart. As he walked closer, he heard a familiar beeping sound. “Oh, come on!” cried out a gruff voice. Soon after, a sweet computerized voice replied, “Reset your Password.”

Eric opened the door and shot an incredulous look at the person sitting in front of a large square black machine. The touch screen drew two blue dots with a smile-shaped keyboard beneath them.

“Dr. E? What are you doing in here? And what is this thing?”

“Took you long enough! I knew you would ignore the sign and sneak in here to the ladies' room. Typical…”

“What is this? And what do you want?”

“Eric, this is Emit the robot, she is what is going to give me a chance to change my past and fix it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am you, but in the future Eric.”

“How is that possible?”

“Today you will get arrested if you don’t return those items. Betsy will take Mason and leave you. It all happens today. I’m stopping you now before it’s too late. You’re wasting time on the wrong things. Time that you don’t have. It is up to you to stop all this now before you lose everything.”

“But I can’t… it’s too late.”

“It’s not too late! That is why I am here, to stop you, before you lose Betsy and Mason, like I just said.”

“How? they’ll arrest me anyway... Maybe it's best. I’ve failed them.”

“I don’t have the exact answer. It’s not that easy. But you have a chance to change, something I couldn’t do. You can... You need to do it on your own in order for everything to work. Time is valuable and we are running out of it. Hurry!”

“Wait!”

And just like that, Dr. E disappeared. The future E disappeared. Eric looked at Mason and wept. He put paper towels on the cold tiled floor and placed the baby on top of them as he changed the soiled diaper. Soon after, Eric sat on the toilet with Mason wrapped in his arms and fed him the last of the formula.

“I promise I’ll change. I won’t lose you, Mason, I pinky promise.” The baby fell asleep in his father’s arms holding his pinky. He walked out with the three stolen items in his hand to the security desk where he dropped the items on the counter, apologized, and walked away. He called Betsy and agreed to therapy. He then called his boss and came clean about his addiction and assured him that he would be well soon. Well enough to work at the hospital in no time.

The roads were quiet and empty as the sky shaded towards the darkness of the night. Halfway home, Eric felt something strange staring at him. He turned to look to the right side of him and saw an unusual machine light up. Eric recognized it. Emit. The machine beeped and Eric stood astounded. He walked up to Emit and waited. The screen lit up in blue and read: “Enter Password.” Eric smiled and typed, E M I T backwards. He kissed Mason on his little forehead as he watched the machine disappear and the stars align.