October 15, 1976
The boys' restroom is small, with paint peeling from the walls and the faint smell of cigarette smoke. A boy is using the American Standard urinal.
One of the boys is inside a stall; he is not using the toilet though. He takes money from boys waiting in a line, handing them slips of paper.
"That's ten bucks on the Yankees tomorrow," says Jason Treborn. "And ten bucks for the Yankees on Sunday."
"Maybe you'll get lucky, Treborn," says Duke, who is unofficially the bookie for the class of '77. He hands Jason a ticket. "You haven't gotten lucky since junior year."
"Everyone's betting on the Yankees," says Jason.
"What will you do if we win?" asks another boy. "I mean, if everyone bet on the Yankees, and they win tomorrow, how will you pay us?"
"I've a cash reserve," says Duke. "Besides, you know I always pay winnings."
Jason leaves the boys' room just as the bell rings.
"You put money on the Yankees?" asks Neil Cross.
"Sure did," says Jason, going to his locker. "I'd better hurry; I can't be tardy for this class."
Ooooooooooooooo
October 16, 1976
Jason sits down on the couch just a foot away from his dad. The Philco black-and-white television is on. Game 1 of the 1976 World Series, between the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds, is about to begin in Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio.
"Dad," says Jason, "why can't we have a color TV? Neil's folks have color TV. Even your employees have color TV at their homes."
"I'm used to black-and-white," replies Chris Treborn, opening a bottle of Budweiser beer.
Oooooooooooooo
"And it's out!" says the announcer. "The Reds win Game 1 of the World Series!"
Jason looks at the score. Yankees 1, Reds 5
Maybe I'll be lucky tomorrow.
Ooooooooooooo
October 17, 1976
"The Cincinnati Reds have won Game 2!" announces the announcer.
"The Reds are doing well," says Chris. "They might sweep the whole series."
"Shit," mutters Jason, staring at the black-and-white TV. If that baseball player Perez had not gotten that single, the game could have gone into extra innings.
I only have five bucks left. This is setting me back a lot. I just wish I could have put money on the Reds.
A thought occurs to Jason.
Wait a minute, I can!
Ooooooooooooo
Jason looks through photographs, trying to find the most recent ones.
Damn! I need to find a picture more recent than last New Years' Eve!
Looking through the closet, he finds photo albums. One of them have photos taken of him when he was much younger.
That's too far back.
He then takes another album. It is titled "Treborn-Huntley Wedding".
This one is from May of this year. That's only what, five months ago? It'll have to do, I guess.
There are several pictures, both of the wedding in a church and the reception in a beachfront hotel.
He looks at one of the pictures. It is taken outdoors, just outside the church. It is a picture of him, with his parents, brother, sister, and sister-in-law.
As he stares into the picture, he is drawn in.
Oooooooooooooo
May 29, 1976
Jason sees the wedding photographer put down the camera. He looks around and sees his father and Scott wearing tuxedoes. The wedding party is all decked out in their tuxedoes and gowns. The bride, Dana Treborn, nee Huntley, is wearing her white wedding dress. The headdress covers her blond hair.
I'm back, he thinks. I hope I can get the message to myself before I flash forward.
Jason hangs around as the wedding guests talk to each other. He sees unfamiliar faces shaking hands with the bride and groom.
After what seems to be a long while, Jason's father leads the family to a car they rented from Hertz, a blue Ford. Chris drives the car through city streets lined with palm trees. Jason is unfamiliar with the area; all he knows that he is now somewhere near the California coast, one of the beach cities.
The car stops at a parking lot, and the Treborns get out. Jason looks at a tall, familiar building. This is the hotel where they stayed – are staying - at, and where the reception was – will be – held.
They walk through the lavishly decorated lobby of the hotel. Many of the people in the lobby are well-dressed, as they had come from the wedding.
The Treborns enter an elevator and go up to one of the floors. They go through one of the doors. The room is more like an apartment, with a living room with color TV and two bedrooms. Jason recognizes this as the suite he stayed in that May weekend.
"So what are you planning to do?" asks Chris. "We have about three hours before the reception starts."
"Meaghan and I need to have our hair touched up," says Lucinda.
"I will stay here a while," says Jason.
"I wanna watch TV," says Meaghan. "It's in color."
"I'm glad Dana's parents are paying for this," says Chris.
Jason quickly finds a pen and some hotel stationery. He looks out the window, gazing at the Pacific Ocean.
A few hours from now, he will go to the reception in the ballroom. Tomorrow he will go to Disneyland with his parents, sister, uncles, aunts, and cousins. On Monday he will be on a plane back to Connecticut.
He writes a message to his younger self.
October 17, 1976
Here are the results of the first two games of the 1976 World Series.
Game 1 Yankees 1, Reds 5
Game 2 Yankees 3, Reds 4
Do not lose this note.
Jason TrebornFor a minute Jason wonders where he will put the note so that his younger self will find it. He decides to put the note into the left pocket of his tuxedo pants.
Of course, I might not flash forward like I did before, and I'll have to relive the next five months.
He continues on as before.
The reception starts, and Jason sits before a circular, cloth-covered table in the hotel's ballroom. In the center of the table is a candle, and folded cardboard rectangles bear names. Sitting with him are two of his cousins.
My younger self will definitely be disoriented. At least he's been to the past before.
"So how are you doing?" asks his cousin Fred, a young man of about eighteen.
"Fine," Jason answers. "It's nice to get away from Connecticut, and it's good my brother's married and all."
He looks around as the wedding guests speak to each other. He notices that they are talking faster.
Then, all sorts of sights, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches flash by even as time seems to stand still.
Oooooooooooooo
October 17, 1976
Jason Treborn finds himself back in his room. On his desk is the wedding album he had been looking at.
He looks at the slip that Duke had given him.
"Yes!" he says in glee. "It worked!"
oooooooooooooo
October 18, 1976
Duke stands in the outdoor lunch area just outside the cafeteria. Crowds of his fellow high school students make their way as they eat their lunch.
"Well, well, well," says Jason. "Look who's here."
"Treborn." says Duke.
"Guess who bet on the Reds on both games?" Jason shows his ticket. "That's sixty dollars, I believe."
"Yeah," says Duke. He grimaces as he pays Jason. Paying sixty dollars stings, but not paying means he goes out of business here. "Better spend it soon. With inflation and all, it will probably be worth half as much next year."
Jason walks towards the cafeteria, smiling. It is the easiest sixty dollars he had ever made. Possibilities swirl through his head like clouds around the eye of a maelstrom.
Ooooooooooooooo
November 26, 1976
"Are we gonna see Grandpa again?" asks Jason upon hearing what his mother Lucinda had told him.
"We could see him," replies Lucinda. "We're actually going there for your appointment."
"My appointment?"
"You don't remember? We had you stay there overnight after your brother's wedding. You were confused and disoriented, not knowing how you got to the reception. You better get dressed now, we have an appointment at one and it's a two hour drive there."
Oooooooooooooo
Lucinda drives Jason to the Sunnyvale Institution. Mother and son wait in one of the waiting rooms. Jason flips through the pages of a copy of BusinessWeek as he sits down on the couch
"The doctor will see you," says a medical assistant.
Jason and Lucinda enter a small office.
"Dr. Von Braun isn't available," says the man. "I'm Dr. Redfield, one of the interns. I'm quite capable of advising you on this matter."
"I remember you," says Jason.
"Well, that's great."
"What's this about?"
"It's about your memory, Jason."
"It seems fine, Doctor."
"That memory gap you had was only five months ago. And according to your records, you experienced these blackouts when you were younger."
"I did? Well, I guess I wouldn't remember."
"Is everything okay going at school?"
"Well, yeah. I manage to turn in my assignments; I can't say the same for my classmates; maybe they need to see you."
"At least you keep your sense of humor. Perhaps your brother's wedding was simply a time of extreme stress."
"Are you kidding?" asks Jason. "I had to go dress up, get fitted, go to the reception and watch the picture slide. And just yesterday we had Thanksgiving dinner. Scott and his wife Dana came over from California, and I was assigned to help Mom prepare everything. I can't remember how I could have gotten through it."
"Most of us wouldn't."
"Dr. Redfield, does Jason have a memory problem like his grandfather?"
"I don't think so, Mrs. Treborn," says Dr. Redfield. "He doesn't show the same symptoms, including a fantasy memory of the future and the inability to form new long-term memories. Of course, it would help if we had better equipment than what we have now."
"Maybe you will in ten years," suggests Jason.
"You know the future?" asks the psychiatric intern.
"Medical technology is advancing; anyone who can read a newspaper or even remembers what it was like to go to the doctor ten years ago can see that."
"I guess. I don't think follow-ups are necessary as long as you don't have more symptoms."
About an hour later, as Jason sits in the front seat of the green 1961 Pontiac, he begins thinking.
What if those blackouts were caused by my reliving the past? It has to be, since my younger self would be displaced when I'm in the past. I'd better learn to make sure how to adjust quickly if I'm displaced by my older self.
oooooooooooooooo
January 1, 1977
Jason looks around, disoriented. He is now sitting down on a couch, not knowing how he got there. He also notices that there are fewer people here than there were the last time that he can remember.
He walks to the kitchen where the New Year's Eve party is being held. Less than a handful of people are in the room, all in their mid to late teens. The kitchen windows are covered with icy frost on the outside.
He looks at the time; it is 1:24 AM.
What the hell? Last I remember, we just rang in the new year. Hank's dad took a picture, and now it's 1:24?
"You okay?" asks a girl wearing a wool sweater.
"Uh, yeah," he replies. "Where did Neil go?"
"He went home fifteen minutes ago."
Jason wonders if he should call his parents. They do want him back by two o'clock, but then again the roads might be icy.
Reaching into his left pocket, he pulls out a piece of paper and reads it.
Oooooooooooooooo
January 10, 1977
"Here you go, Treborn," says Duke. "Eighty dollars."
"Pleasure doing business with you, Duke," replies Jason as he walks away, dressed in a heavy coat. He had just put money on the Oakland Raiders, who won Super Bowl XI at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California against the Minnesota Vikings yesterday, 32-14. Fred Biletnikoff had been named Super Bowl MVP, despite not scoring any touchdowns.
Of course, going back to the New Year's Eve party to leave myself a note certainly helped.
Life is indeed looking up for the seventeen-year-old.
Ooooooooooooooo
June 10, 1977
Clad in a cap and gown, Jason Treborn shakes the hand of the high school principal before going back to his seat. He and about three hundred other students are here for the commencement ceremony of their high school graduation, sitting on foldaway chairs in the middle of the high school's athletic field. Jason smiles, optimistic about his future. High above the clear blue sky, the sun shines.
"The future is whatever you make of it," says the principal, finishing the commencement speech. "I bid good luck to the Class of 1977."
And then the students of the Class of 1977 throw their squarish caps high into the air even as their families take pictures.
Jason walks to the bleachers, set up for this very event, to meet his family.
"Congratulations," says Chris.
"Thanks."
"How does it feel?" asks Dana Treborn, the wife of Jason's older brother Scott.
"Like there's a new chapter in my life, you know." Jason notices the bulge in Dana's belly. "I guess I can go on vacation for a while, maybe travel, before I start college."
"You got that scholarship," says Lucinda.
"Come on," says Scott. "We'd better take your picture."
Oooooooooooo
Jason suddenly finds himself somewhere else. He is looking directly at a towel. Looking around, he finds that he in the bathroom, sitting on a toilet.
After flushing the toilet and washing his hands with soap, Jason goes to his bedroom. The time is 4:30, about six hours after the graduation ceremony was held.
He looks through the notebook which he had used during his senior year in high school, which had just ended. Flipping through the pages, he finds a note from his older self, in his own recognizable handwriting, dated December 23, 1977.
The note mentions the winners of the six games of the 1977 World Series between the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers four months from now. Jason notes that the Yankees will win the series this year, unlike last year.
Below the paragraph foretelling the winner of this year's World Series is a list of abbreviations, with numbers next to them. Written above this list is the underlined title Stock Quotes 12/ 22/1977
Stock prices, he ponders. Plenty of possibilities.