Who: Arthur When: January 15, 2011 Where: Outside of Lawrence, Kansas What: Arthur was going to go visit Dom, when he drives into Lawrence instead. Rating: PG
Arthur knew he shouldn't have been checking his BlackBerry for his E-Mails when he was driving his newly bought, very rare Ferrari 250 GTO. With the money that he had made in the Fischer Job, he had decided to indulge a little while the team laid low and waited for another job to come knocking. He rarely ever used any of the money he received in payment for the jobs he did, preferring to put them in various Swiss bank accounts. The most he usually did was buy a few new custom suits from a genius Italian tailor who he had on speed dial and maybe a new apartment in whatever country he ended up in after a job. So the car had been a change from his usual spending habits.
It had been a well earned treat, after the hell he had just been put through. But it had gone very, very right in the end and Dominic had his family back. Those were the important things to remember.
He was actually on his way to go see Dom and the kids, to talk about a job that Eames had mentioned to him in his last correspondence. He couldn't reveal much through E-Mail, but it was on the up and up, for the most part, and it would be good to do some legal work in dream sharing again. Dom said he was retired, but Arthur was positive that you never really retired from this sort of life. Not even after you put your demons to rest. Not even after Mal was gone.
Reading over the details of the job that he did have over his BlackBerry with one eye and keeping an eye on the road with the other, it took him exactly three seconds to realize something was wrong after it had happened. He threw his phone onto the empty passenger seat next to him before gripping the steering wheel with both hands and pulling too harshly over to the side of the road. The car jerked and lurched before it rolled to a stop on the dirt side road, with Arthur cursing when a knee slammed up against the dash. Rubbing away the pain, he threw open his door and got out of the car, staring blankly at the sign that he had seen about fifty feet back. He stared blankly at it for a few seconds, before reaching for his die. Feeling the loaded cube in his hand, testing the weight against what he knew and determining he was not dreaming, Arthur continued to stare at the sign in front of him, this time in confusion.
Welcome to Lawrence, Kansas, the sign read.
This was not a dream. And this was nowhere near where Dom lived. Getting back into the car, he decided to drive until he got into town. And then he would call the others, to figure out what was going on.