Part 4:

He remembered everything now. All fifty-three previous days, plus, now, thirty-eight more. All ninety-one days were the same, pretty much, except for the details about movies and conversation and things like that. Just slight changes each time, but he was trying to influence them more and more like the crazy witch had told him. Like she had said, this was very slow going. He was determined to speed this up!

He slipped off his guest bed with a dizzy head and looked around. Just like what he knew! Joe and Pyunma were already gone and starting their day; he was alone in their shared guest room at Kozumi's house.

That's when the memory of Junior punching him came to his mind in a heavy fog. Instead of just getting pissed off over the punch, he tried to remember why he had received it. It struck him like a bolt from the blue! He had ran his mouth and insulted everyone at his birthday party, indeed, but that's not why Junior had punched him. Jet had almost stepped in front of Joe's speeding Maserati, and Junior was trying to quickly get him out of the car's path, not to mention get some sense knocked into Jet.

Jet had been too emotional, and too drunk, when he stepped onto the rain-slicked street in front of The Magic Pan. Jet's temper had been blown because Albert had been criticizing him all during the party, so his attention was not on his surroundings. Jet suddenly felt wonderful! Junior hadn't been trying beat the snot out of him for being a jerk after all!

He bolted downstairs, but halted before he reached those last few stairs. He steadied himself with the hand railing and saw Junior at the foot of the stairs. The American-Indian was holding two airline tickets. This is the first time Jet had noticed that. He avoided the bump on the carpet that had tripped him for the last ninety times. He stepped in front of Junior and asked, "What are those?"

"Airline tickets. You asked if I'd get one for you, too, last night since I was getting one for the 4th."

"Last night?" Jet asked, starting to remember pounding on Junior, GB, and Albert's shared room down the hallway around one o'clock. Only Junior had been there and he had pleaded with the American-Indian to take him back home, too. Something about Albert had upset him while they had watched a movie and sipped wine, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember what.

Junior looked a little baffled, but said, "Yes, we leave in two days. My layover is in New York for a day, and then I'll go on to Phoenix."

"Yeah, yeah," Jet snapped. The arrangement was nothing new, since they were both from North America. Frequently, Francois, Albert, and GB traveled together back to Europe, and Joe and Chang traveled to Asia together. Pyunma was on his own, but he didn't seem to mind. "Okay, big guy, what is today?"

Junior blinked at Jet a few times. He answered slowly, "It's February 2nd. I thought you'd remember that."

"Yeah, but this bump on my noggin you gave me is not cool!" Jet said, pointing to his forehead.

Junior shook his head. "You don't have an injury."

"Hun? But you pun... Never mind!" Jet snapped, gritting his teeth. But then it struck him. That memory of Junior punching him no longer existed. He felt his forehead; no throb, no sting.

"I'm sure your brain is still there," Pyunma teased in a good-natured way. Obviously, he was in a good mood.

Jet scowled as the African man came through the front door from his jog. "Oh very funny, you jerk! Listen, tell me what day it is!"

Pyunma glanced over to Junior, who just shook his head and sighed. Pyunma held up his wrist with a sports watch that read 02-02-2025. He then chided, "You better get it together. Francois has a big night planned, along with Chang. I didn't think you and Albert had all that much to drink last night. I mean, you seemed aggravated about something he'd said. Anyway, he told me he was going to talk with you after the party tonight."

"You mean a birthday party?" Jet shook his head in dread.

Pyunma and Junior both started looking on the edge of perturbed. The ebony skinned man said, "It's been planned out for two months so you can't miss it."

"I don't want a party, and where is Heinrich?! He said something last night that pissed me off and he's going to answer for it!"

Junior sighed again and handed Jet his plane ticket home. "He's out picking up the doctors and GB. He's taking them to the university and GB to The Magic Pan. He told you that last night at dinner, and you didn't care then."

"Well I care now! I need to talk to him. It's really important," Jet pleaded to the two second generation cyborgs.

"You'll just have to wait. Get some breakfast. He'll be back soon," Pyunma urged.

Jet's smart mouth wanted to run, but he was amazed there were starting to be small changes. He just nodded and wandered off. To his delight, there were no ridiculing comments behind his back from the two. That was another change!

He took a side trip to the living room and resisted turning on the television with the the remote. Looking at it only told him the same thing day-in-day-out. It was February 2nd and that wasn't changing, at least today. Jet clenched his fist and vowed he'd break out of this twisted time trap. It had something to do with Albert and swallowing his pride. Alright! He'd figure it out.

Jet went to the kitchen and waited. He knew Albert would be along by lunch. Eleven-fifty-three, every damn day. Jet didn't bother to turn on the radio on this day; it would only disgust him when they would announce it was February 2nd yet again.

Albert came sauntering in right on time. He gave Jet a friendly smile he hadn't noticed before. That was certainly new... or had it been? Jet couldn't figure it out. "Hey, Albert?"

"Hm? No more 'Heinrich'? What's with that?" Albert murmured and started digging around in the refrigerator for some of Chang's leftover dim sum.

Jet about shook his head vigorously and bellowed insults, instead, he had to know something. "About last night..."

Jet paused watching Albert come over to the table with two plates of Chinese dumplings. He placed one in front of Jet, and Jet couldn't be more shocked. Jet took an offered pair of chopsticks and gave Albert's smile a suspicious look. Why was the German man being so damn nice to him?! Albert then prompted, "You were about to ask something about last night?"

"Yeah... um..." Jet gulped down a delightful dumpling. He took a blind stab in the dark in hopes of drawing out what had lead up to this whole mess in the first place. He asked sly, "So, did you mean what you said last night?"

Albert paused chewing up a dumpling and gave Jet a quirked eyebrow. "You know I don't say anything I don't mean. Why are you asking?"

"Because it didn't seem like you."

"So you pointed out. After all, I don't agree to watch silly movies you like every night."

"And what did we watch?"

"Something called 'Plan 9 from Outer Space'. It was a new low, even for you," Albert declared before finishing his lunch. That confirmed things were changing. Jet hated that movie, so he must have picked it for some reason in particular. If he was able to influence things, great! Now what?

Jet picked up the dishes off the table, wanting to get away from Albert and think about what to do to changed this time loop next. He walked off only to feel that ninety-first slap on his rump from Albert. At this point, he'd normally call Albert every filthy name he could think of.

Instead he felt just too exhausted today to rise to the bait. He turned, sighed in defeat, and said, "Alright, what do you want, Albert?"

"I told you last night, a proper date. No more sneaking around and pointless flirting. Let's go to your birthday party together."

Jet shook his head vigorously. "I don't understand what's got into you. Why me?"

Albert's expression grew very serious. "Think over what you told me last night. If what you said was truthful, then you'll accept my offer."

Jet was hesitant, but he had to change things to get out of this crazy business. He didn't know what he had said to Albert, he still couldn't remember that part, but he had to get out of this. He nodded. "Fine. I'll do it."

Albert lips twisted wryly. He said sarcastically, "Your enthusiasm is underwhelming. Maybe you'll be more receptive when I pick you up at six."

With that, Albert left. The German's mood seemed to have soured and grown frosty. Jet scowled in response and wondered what he'd done. He flopped back in his chair at the table and howled, fumbling around to get off his bruised butt.

"Damn! That gun hand IS hard! That jerk..." he groused.


Jet jerked awake and looked around his shared guest room and was leery when he saw he was alone in the morning. He felt his forehead. Nope, no bruise there and he couldn't remember Junior punching him last night anymore, just that Junior had done it in the past part of the time loop. Great! Progress! But... oh... it was still a wild night and he had a feeling this wasn't February 3rd yet.

He got out of bed and went downstairs. He paused and avoided tripping on the loose carpet. Junior was there, holding two plane tickets. Jet groaned after he asked, "What are those?"

And then Junior answered, "Tickets. You asked if I'd get one for you, too, last night."

"Why did I ask for those? I got hammered and don't remember asking for them."

"You were upset about something you and Albert talked about last night. But you did want to stay for your birthday party, so..."

"I know! I know! My birthday party is tonight! Right?!"

Junior looked in wide-eyed surprise at Jet's outburst, but nodded. "It's why I scheduled our take off time on the morning of the 4th." After a long pause, Junior asked, "Are you okay? You don't look so well."

Jet then swirled around and stuck his finger under Pyunma's nose as he came in from his jog. The African man looked shocked. Jet then threatened, "I've had enough insults from you and Junior over the last three months so keep your mouth shut!"

Junior and Pyunma gave each other wary looks, but kept quiet on this morning. Good!

With that, Jet stormed off to the kitchen to puzzle out what had gone wrong until Albert would come in for lunch. He had accepted a date with Albert, hadn't he? Wasn't that what was suppose to happen? Oh wait... Wasn't it supposed to be a good date? Something told him it had been a disaster and he was back to the drawing board.

To be continued.