movie.end

scenes lxix-lxxviii

Epilogue

           “Fascinating,” Chief Hawthorn said as soon as Nyra and Millie’s summary of the events was concluded, after a long debrief with everyone in a conference room. “You’ve just provided our time science branch with years of research data to study. To think that the time horizon could be breached like that… It brings into question if it’s also possible to see our own futures, past time’s supposed spearhead.” She looked at Kestin. “Though I’m sorry that this cost you another one of your daemons, Director.”

           He groaned. “Well… It’s really going to put a crunch on us for a while, but at least it saves us the cost of decommissioning it.” He clarified for the others, “Which is quite expensive—given that we have to atomize every component of a daemon, to ensure no part of the technology falls into the wrong hands. Even so… I’m embarrassed.”

           “My bionics recorded everything into memory,” Nyra assured them. “I think losing an aging daemon to get past the horizon was a good trade. Now we know it’s possible to at least observe a more distant past. Wes, everyone—we owe you for this achievement.”

           “While we’re on the subject…” Malcolm chimed in, “I feel it pertinent to finally admit that I helped a version of Wes steal the red-eyed ferro-daemon. So, I’m partially at fault for setting all these events in motion in the first place. I should’ve told you earlier, Director, but then I may have gone to prison instead of helping you for several years.”

           Kestin smirked. “I was wondering when you’d tell us. Truth is, Doctor, I already knew. But I figured that your knowledge was better off on my station than in a cell.”

           “Why come out with it now?” the other André wondered.

           Malcolm explained, “I figured that I’d likely be ‘banished’ back to my own era, which is where… when I want to go, anyway. I’ve seen my fill of this world. Meeting you makes me long to see my own grandson again. While there’s still time… to catch up.”

           “You should find him in the 2020s,” Wes said. “Before he starts researching time travel. Give him a reason to live in the present, and maybe my own loop will definitely close. I’m not sure how to handwave disappearing for thirty years and not aging, but…”

           “I could just tell him the truth,” Malcolm said with a smile. “Before I forget.”

           “Now. What to do with you…” Hawthorn continued, looking at the other Millie.

           She replied with her immediate concern, “Was… either timeline damaged?”

           “Thankfully, they don’t seem to be. When the daemon imploded, its stitching may have been undone. Perhaps it went backwards in time and was destroyed before it began.”

           “A full investigation will take a while,” Kestin said. “But I’m curious if anything stood out when you used the quartz to leave 1988. Was it at all… different?”

           Millie shrugged. “Not really. The portal was blue like normal, but the glow didn’t show up on the hospital walls. Nothing can be changed there. I doubt we could’ve even opened the doors. Can we move on to my big punishment? I hate this suspense.”

           Kestin and Hawthorn looked at each other, and then the chief clasped her hands and replied, “We thought it over, and given the unique circumstances, we have settled on giving you… diplomatic immunity of a sort. As long as you never do this again.”

           “Put another way,” Kestin added, “the legalities of incarcerating someone from another timeline sound… headache-inducing, and given our new workload…”

           “Thank you… And I’m sorry for the trouble,” Millie said. “I’ll return to my world with André, and destroy the hardware we created to jump universes.”

           “Just like that?” Colin replied skeptically. “All that work, and you’re just going to give up? You could at least use it to maybe find another timeline to settle down in.”

           “Oh, don’t think I’m simply going to move on with life, Colin. I’m first going to use our machine that can send my mind through time, to redo my lost high school years. My chances at finding some of the… happiness my mom wanted me to have would go up if I correct a few past mistakes. I won’t abandon my world. Parts of it will haunt me, because of what I know, but maybe I can use that knowledge to help make it better.”

           “There is another option,” Hawthorn said. “We can tailor a memory serum that will remove your awareness of other timelines, or time traveling at all. It’s what we’ll do to Mr. Pippin before we send him home, though given his repeated childhood situation, it may work less than ideally. André can administer it on your return. You wouldn’t be able to jump back to your youth afterwards… but it’d let you accept your reality.”

           “Wouldn’t she also forget that I exist?” Jace wondered.

           The other Millie closed her eyes and thought. “Not entirely. You’d just become that one friend of Wes’ who was in town for a year and then disappeared… I’ll think it over, Chief. Again, I’m sorry for everything. But what I got to see… made it worth it.”

           “Good.” Hawthorn grumbled. “Now, Nyra and Wes, stay a moment longer. I’d like to talk to you. Everyone else, wait at the aeropad. We’ll get you home shortly.”

           “Finally…” Kestin huffed. “I have so much work to get on top of.”

           The gang reunited with Arthur and Jared, who hadn’t felt the need to be in the room for a long chat. The two were chilling outside in a small terrace green space, where they were admiring the vista of the city and enjoying some cool, crisp morning air.

           “Ah, there they are,” Jared said with a grin. “Well, ’cept for Wes. Where is he?”

           “Stayed behind to talk to the teacher,” Colin cheekily replied. “Nice view.”

           “Yeah,” Arthur agreed. “Looks like we’re at about the same level we’d be at the Red Demon’s peak. Almost the same spot, too. From so many centuries ago…”

           Jared added, “All that anticipation for a tiny moment at the summit, just to go speeding back down while trying not to puke… Probably a metaphor for life there.”

           Everyone stood around quietly for about a minute, soaking in the feeling of just being there and then, and dwelling on everything they’d been through. Wes then came running out to join them, perhaps sooner than expected.

           “Did you have to pay a fine or something?” the local Millie wondered.

           “No.” He panted. “The chief actually made me a ‘provisional agent’ for our time period. Said I do good work and ‘respect’ time travel… Yeah, I’m surprised, too.”

           Arthur asked curiously, “So… you might be called on if something comes up?”

           “Hopefully nothing else does, but that’s the idea. At least I won’t remember I’m on call for maybe the rest of my life. Oh, Mill, she also says she appreciates your keeping an eye on Charlie and hopes you continue. No telling how his memories will work out.”

           “Everyone…” the reformed Millie spoke up near her André. “We’re going to go back to our world now. Thanks for… well, fighting against me. I don’t think I would’ve seen my mom again if not for you trying to get me to see reason. It… helped. A lot.”

           Her other version asked, “Are you going to take the serum, to forget all of this?”

           “Sorry,” she sighed, “I’d like to leave you with a definite answer, but I haven’t decided yet. Whatever I choose… I think I’ll try to get closer to someone who really got me, and always had my back. And, Other Me, I hope you find a person like that, too.”

           “Okay, at least tell me who they are before you leave.”

           “Michael. But I guess you’d know him better as Mikey. Gavin’s old friend?”

           “The braces nerd?” Wes replied with surprise and doubt. “Seriously?”

           “Heh… Yeah. He’s actually the best. Anyway. Take care of your Royal Valley, and good luck. Jace… Whatever happens to my memories, I won’t forget you.”

           “Goodbye, Millie,” he said wistfully. “Find the good things in your world, okay?”

           “Grandfather,” André murmured. “It was nice to see and talk to you again. I’m not sure where you are in our world. Taken to a now non-existent future by a Wes that is on a very different path. But I think… I may build a machine and look for you.”

           Malcolm replied with a warm smile, “You needn’t go through the effort. I would prefer that you live your own life, not one stuck in the past or trying to relive it.”

           André got ready to tap at the watch-like device on his wrist, and smirked. “Don’t worry for me. My life is about the challenge. I just have to learn to stop involving others.”

           Meanwhile, Nyra’s scrappy shuttle had come around to settle onto the aeropad, where she soon slid open the cockpit window and shouted, “Anyone want a ride?”

           “Hey, Well-Adjusted Me,” Millie said, looking back and forth between Nyra and her better self. “Are you really not picking up on what I’ve been seeing?”

           “W-what… are you talking about?” Local Millie stuttered back.

           “Tch. Maybe you will, after things settle down. Well… See you around. Sort of.”

           With that, André triggered his unseen jumper gadget, and the two disappeared in an anticlimactic flash of light and briefly visible bubble of warped space.

           “Think she’ll really stay away?” Teen Millie wondered. “Hard to imagine how much her Royal Valley diverges from ours. I hope she can be happy. For our sake.”

           The group got their last look at the 2884 city—with Colin trying to sneak in a photo. Arthur wisely pushed down his phone and gave him a disapproving, “Don’t.”

           “Well, this is Warren’s stop,” Nyra said once she had landed outside his house at night in 2026. “About five minutes after we left. Sleep tight, ninja kid.”

           “I’ll try.” Warren yawned, and gave Laurie and Jace fist bumps as the side hatch slid open. “Guys, it’s been… real. But let me have the rest of my summer, would ya?”

           “Laurie…” Jace whispered to her after Warren headed out. “It’s your last chance.” She just stared at him and shook her head, so, being a good friend, he took action—by grabbing her hand and getting her to go with him. “Hey, cuz, hold up a sec!”

           “Jace!” Laurie grimaced as the curious others watched the two run after Warren.

           “Huh?” he said tiredly and turned to them on the dimly-lit driveway. “What now? We really don’t need prolonged, heartfelt goodbyes. You’ll see me again in a few years.”

           With Jace encouraging her using elbow prods, Laurie crossed her arms, looked at the ground, and shyly spoke up, “Um, Warren… I’d kinda like to know something…”

           “I shouldn’t tell you stuff about your future. That usually seems to be a bad idea.”

           “No, not that… I was wondering if, I maybe… ever told you that… I liked you?”

           “Uh… Heh, wow, Lor.” Warren nervously rubbed the back of his head. “Actually, I sort of had a feeling over the years, from the way you’d look at me sometimes.”

           She frowned. “So… that means I never admitted it. Sorry… Awkward.”

           “Hey, it’s fine. It’s probably a good idea to not work up the courage and ask my thirteen-year-old self, in case it messes with past… stuff up to this point. Tell you what, don’t worry about it yet, and, my tomorrow, I’ll ask you if you still have a thing for me.”

           “You… you will?” Laurie blushed. “All right. Thanks… I hope I still do.”

           Warren gave the two a grin. “I think it’s only fair to tell you, Jace, that Emmy is finally starting to ‘notice’ you this year. But I’m only saying that since you’ll forget.”

           Now Jace had the red cheeks, and Laurie playfully bumped his shoulder.

           “What was that all about?” Adult Millie wondered as the two came back to the shuttle and Warren disappeared into his house—but the kids kept their little secrets.

           “I wish I could remember all this…” Wes groaned, looking around the shuttle. “I have so many notes to jot down about the future. I mean… ideas of what it might be like. For, you know, our new game’s direction. I still can’t believe I’ve been to space.”

           “Oh, but time travel is blasé, huh?” Jared replied. “Glad you’re inspired, Wes.”

           “This will be my next to last stop for now, at least time-wise,” Nyra said, taking to the air and making a twenty-eight year jump backwards, to a night over Desert Tree a lot like the one they just left. “After we drop off 90’s Millie, I guess we need to go to the older version’s apartment in ’22. I believe your car is still there, Wes. I’ll fly Jace and Laurie home—and Dr. Corathine, I have the coordinates to your old place, too.”

           “Next to last stop?” Teen Mill wondered. “Will I be seeing you… in 2022?”

           “I didn’t mention it yet? Yeah, the boss asked me to keep an eye on this era for a bit, given all the messes time traveling has caused. It’s okay. After all of that, I could use some peace and quiet, comparatively. And butterflies might still be flapping their wings.”

           “Hm…” Wes asked, “Going solo? Or will you try to blend in with us?”

           “As the ‘cool new friend’ in the neighborhood? Dunno yet. Still strategizing.”

           In his present, in a neighborhood Wes once visited in his search for Malcolm, Nyra landed and let the professor out at the house where he had raised André before disappearing in 1992. With nothing left to say, he left the cloaked shuttle with a nod of the head and, finally after all these years, returned home to his grandson, who was as of now around Wes’ age and not yet working on a machine that began a long story.

           Everyone watched him ring the doorbell and wait for André to answer, then felt a wave of melancholy as he opened the door with a shocked reaction. The two stared at each other for several seconds, hugged, and went inside; a simple, yet hard-won reunion.

           “Mr. Colton,” one of the game designers in the conference room responded to a presentation, “this is a big departure from our other titles. It may be… overly ambitious.”

           Wes, standing by a white board that listed concepts for a slice-of-life sci-fi game set amid the grand backdrop of a solar system that was being settled, replied, “Not at all. We’re just taking our brand of storytelling to a new age—I’ve been inspired recently to move from the past to the future. I’m sure our interns can give us some fresh ideas.”

           “Yeah, this could be interesting,” Brian agreed. “As fun as it is making nostalgic pixel art, getting to invent set decorations and locations that don’t exist yet could be… exciting. Maybe I’ll try pulling some sci-fi ideas from my old buddy Robby.”

           Wes continued, “So, we’ll spend our Monday on the best part of any game: the brainstorming. Thinking up characters, plot threads, whatever else you wanna see. Like I always say, there are no stupid ideas. And I’ll order the boba tea and gourmet donuts.”

           “Gotta work fast while we still have the memories, right?” Jared asked Wes as the team broke up and headed back to their desks. “Do you have an actual story yet?”

           “Come on, J, you know me. Of course I don’t. That comes later, same as usual.”

           “Yeah, I got it. Universe comes first.” Jared looked through the window blinds towards Wes’ office. “By the way, since the time fuzz made you give up your quartz… what’s your safe got inside of it now? I gotta admit, a trip to Vegas was tempting me.”

           “Oh, there’s still just a note in there. But now it reads, ‘Ask Nyra.’”

           “Will she help in an emergency? What if she just says, ‘it’s fate, you’re screwed?’”

           “Ah, well… I gotta believe that she’d want to protect us. If not for helping a few people in the future, then just because she still thinks we’re ‘interesting.’”

           “Wes, Jared,” the mousy receptionist interrupted after sneaking in. “Someone just walked in and asked about the open position. He mentioned being an ‘old friend?’”

           Curious, they headed to the front to find, of all people, Charlie Pippin waiting to see them. He still dressed with and exuded confidence, but his eyes lacked any ill intent.

           “Charlie?!” Jared exclaimed. “You want to apply for our IT job?”

           “Y-yeah, sure,” he replied a little meekly. “I woke up Saturday feeling like I was wasting my life, keeping myself locked in my house making thousands off crypto. But since all of my high school bros left town… Well, there aren’t a lot of people around I still know from the old days. And, you know, I have a lot of technical expertise, so…”

           “Um, heh, okay,” Wes said. “It’s entry level, but if you’re interested, we can—”

           “Wes, J! Buddies!” interjected a familiar, yet now seldom-heard voice as a tall guy with a big grin swept in from behind Charlie. “Can ya believe it? I ran into Ol’ Charlie on the way up here! I heard Colin and Arty were in town, so I raced back to the valley.”

           “Zach!” Jared groaned. “You can’t just randomly show up! You simply being here cuts our productivity by half! Geez, dude, what do you even do for a living?”

           “Ah, man, let’s not talk about work,” Zach said, sliding in between Jared and Wes and bringing them in close. “We gotta get the gang back together and plan a party!”

           “Ugh, Zach…” Wes muttered. “You fit the definition of ‘peaked in high school.’”

           “Peaked, sure.” He flashed another smiled. “But I never climbed back down.”

           Meanwhile, Millie returned to her apartment to find that Nyra was still on the sofa and using what she must’ve seen as a rudimentary device: a modern laptop.

           She looked up as Millie shuffled in, looking haggard, and greeted her, “Hey, Mill. How was the first day back to work? I’ve been searching for a place to stay and a decent job I can use as cover for hours. This stuff is so much easier and faster in my era.”

           “Exhausted,” Millie sighed and plopped down at the opposite end of the couch. “I was getting hit by memories all day, from Jace and Laurie’s 1998 visit. Nyra, can I ask you…” She noticed an old framed photo of her mom on the side table and picked it up. “Wait, where’d you find this? I haven’t had a picture of her out in… years.”

           “I found it in a box while doing a little cleaning. I’ll… put it back if you want.”

           Millie gazed at the photo, then looked at Nyra and reflected on a new memory.

           “I’ll never get tired of the view,” Zach said back in 1998 on Castle Hill Overlook, as the sun set past the city. “You can see our whole playground from here. And getting to share it with my best buds, Jace’s other cool cousin, and some fountain sodas… Perfect.”

           Jace looked over his shoulder at Wes, Nyra, and Big Millie, waiting patiently for them. “I wish I didn’t have to go so soon. Being here again… brought back memories.”

           “Aw, don’t sweat it,” Celeste replied and softly smacked his back—which still stung a little, given her strength. “You returned for a visit once; you’ll do it again.”

           “Next time we have a sleepover, we gotta load up on Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network—make up for some lost media-gobbling time,” Wessy suggested.

           “The years are starting to go by faster…” Sadie remarked. “What even happened to seventh grade? I mean, really? Jason—don’t make us go through high school without getting to see you again, okay? Oh, by the way! Heh… Did you and Ash, ya know…”

           “No, Sadie,” Ash sighed as Jace turned red in front of everyone. She smirked and added, “He is still cute, though. But… we’ve been separated by distance. And time.”

           “Ugh, Sadie, can we not detour into more couples talk?” Jared grumbled. “We got enough of that from you at school this year. You used to gossip ‘ironically,’ but now…”

           “Hey, I can’t help that it suddenly clicked, and I got more into it,” Sadie argued. “If nothing else, I’m fascinated by how even a simple crush can bring out someone’s hidden personality. Remember Arthur’s brief… thing with Luna Mason, back in April?”

           “Blech, don’t remind us!” Colin gagged. “Overnight, he goes from being one half of our nerd duo, to serenading in the hallway and slipping love letters in her locker.”

           Wessy snorted at Arthur’s expense. “All that effort, and it only lasted a month!”

           “Yeah, so what?” Arthur fired back. “At least I had the courage to put myself out there! Besides… rejection hurts, but… I wouldn’t take back the experiences I got.”

           “True,” Laurie said, feigning wisdom of her own. “Look at it this way. As of right now, Arthur’s probably got the best chance at getting a girlfriend in high school.”

           This made the guys laugh, but only for a moment as realization set in.

           “Is having someone like that… what’s important in high school?” Wes wondered.

           “Ah, man…” Zach mumbled. “If that’s what it takes to be cool… That’s tough.”

           “If you’re worried about it, we may have a secret weapon.” Sadie looked at Millie, and the others followed suit. “I mean, Millie gets people. Could she be a matchmaker?”

           Suddenly in the spotlight, Millie shrunk into herself and deflected, “N-no way… I don’t ‘get people’ in that way. So, I’m not going to help with… relationships. Yuck.”

           Sadie rolled her eyes. “C’mon, Mill. I bet even you have had a little crush by now.”

           Millie kept quiet, and thankfully, the teens soon moved onto their summer plans. Her attention, however, was solely on the sunset, and she took a snapshot in her mind of the kids she had grown up with on the vista. Now growing up too fast.

           I’m not remotely ready to think about that stuff, she remembered thinking. It can wait.

           “… Sorry, Mom…” Millie said to the photo in her hands, and touched the glass protecting her mother’s face. “You don’t belong in a box. And maybe I don’t, either.”

           “Anyway, I’m going out to unwind with a little nightlife,” Nyra said at the door. “You’re invited like always, but it’s fine if you want to stay in again. Totally fine.”

           With a sudden and nearly uncontrollable burst of confidence that couldn’t last, Millie leapt up off the couch, went up to Nyra, and squeezed both of her hands tightly. She stared into her surprised eyes, and wanted to say anything. But the words wouldn’t come out. As her old ways beckoned to her, she let go, withdrawing and retreating.

           “Millie!” Nyra huffed. “You’re almost there! I was starting to think you weren’t even receiving what I’ve been broadcasting since, like, your first week hanging with me.”

           Millie shook her head. “But it’s crazy. No… It’s like Ash and Jace; it can’t work.”

           “All right, try me. List off all the excuses—er, ‘reasons’—it’s impossible.”

           “Uh, well, for starters, my girl dates always go even worse than my guy ones.”

           “Pfft.” Nyra laughed it off with a shrug. “Same here. What else ya got?”

           “What’s it say about me that you might be the first person I could be with more than a single day? There’s no one for me in my own century? That’s a little… pathetic.”

           “One, that’s statistically impossible. Two, this happens all the time with travelers; it’s actually a bit of a problem. But I may have this post for years, so it’s understandable.”

           “But… you love the 90s so much! Wouldn’t you rather surveil that decade?”

           Nyra pulled Millie in close, resting her head against hers, and replied with a grin, “I’d rather be with you. Besides, the decade is full of travelers right now, what with the horizon enveloping it soon. Gross. I’d have to keep an eye on… tourists.”

           Heart beating fast, Millie kissed Nyra’s hands and whispered, “Fine. You win.”

           On Friday, Wes hosted a Zach-organized party for all the family friends, across two generations. Colin and Arthur were spending their last night in town at the Colton house, and Zach even convinced Celeste and her son Marco, and Ash and her daughter Hazel to make a road trip for the sake of a rare full reunion of the old gang. Also in attendance: all of Jace’s friends, Lex, Jared’s wife Mira and their toddler, and Wes’ mom.

           As the young and excitable Marco shouted for no reason while he watched Sally and Hazel compete with Warren’s new Mario Kart racers—the obstacle course this time were the legs of the chatting adults—Wes went to the door to take a pizza delivery; the night’s second stack of pies. Navigating the swarm of party-goers chilling out to 80s and 90s pop music, he carefully brought the precious cargo to the table and let out a sigh.

           “Oh, Jared, he looks just like you,” Wes’ sixty-something mom cooed at the boy in his arms. “And Wessy used to have that grumpy expression too, sometimes.”

           “Still does,” Lucy joshed her nearby sibling. “Hey, bro, you do a head count?”

           “Twenty-six, I think. A casual Friday night party for Zach,” Wes replied. “Mom, let’s give Jared a break. You came all this way. Your own grandkids wanna see you, too.”

           “But they have me all weekend.” She looked at Warren and Jace’s group, hanging out on and around the couch, more interested in their phones like usual. “They really do remind me of you and your friends, Wes. Those two are lucky to have a wide circle.”

           “They’ve earned their buddies. They’re good kids.”

           “How does Zach do this at the drop of a hat?” Arthur wondered after he and Ash came over to grab some fresh slices. “Are we even celebrating something specific?”

           “Nope,” Jared said. “He just showed up at our work on Monday and basically made us have a party. But it is impressive that he got Ash and Celeste here so fast.”

           Ash replied, “I was actually on my way up already when he texted. She barely ever gets to see Arty, and she was begging me to take her to King Arcade again.”

           “We are celebrating something!” Zach cut in, sliding over along with Celeste. “I can’t remember the last time we were all together. I’ve been all over the world, and lost count of the clubs, events… Calls to embassies. But there’s nothing like coming home.”

           “But we’re missing someone,” Celeste noted. “Where’s Millie been hiding?”

           “She’s out back with that Nyra girl,” Sadie answered. “Who… just moved here.”

           Ash asked, “Who is she, anyway? She’s a little eccentric, and keeps studying us?”

           “We aren’t sure yet, but she and Millie seem… chummy already,” Jared replied.

           “They may be a little more than that,” Lucy posited. “Should we check on them?”

           “Eh, in a bit,” Wes said. “Let’s give the two a little more time together.”

           “Uncle Arty!” Hazel exclaimed. “Come drive the go-karts with us! It’s cool!”

           While Jace and friends watched from the safe space that they needed as socially sensitive teens at a mostly adult party, Arthur raced in the living room with his niece.

           Toby yawned. “I know it’s only been a week, but kind of a boring summer so far.”

           “Patience, fam,” Chad said coolly. “Things usually pick up a month or so in.”

           “Hey, Jace,” Jamie piped. “How come you and Laurie have been sleeping in so late this week and missing out on our summer mornings? Did the year wear ya out?”

           “Um, yeah, you could say that,” Laurie replied, her eyes on Warren—who was mindlessly playing a mobile game. “I’ll draw up some plans this weekend. Promise.”

           “Warren, have you still not played the games your dad made?” Austin checked.

           “Nah.” He closed his game after losing. “I don’t think I’m old enough to ‘get’ them. He says they’re about nostalgia, and I don’t really have much of that… yet.”

           Emiko poked her glasses. “You should play them anyway. The stories are neat.”

           “Em, you’ve played my uncle’s games?” Jace spoke up. “Which one’s your fav?”

           A little surprised that Jace was talking to Emiko directly, the others listened in as she began a long talk about the characters and stories. Meanwhile, Millie and Nyra were stargazing outside on Wes and Sadie’s soft backyard lawn, hand in hand on a quiet night.

           “Memory’s getting fuzzy, but this can’t be as nice a view as Callisto’s,” Millie said.

           “What’re ya talking about?” Nyra nudged her. “It’s a perfect view.” She then felt the grass with her other hand and inquired, “Sadie and Wes don’t have a dog, right?”

           Millie smiled and squeezed tighter. “Wes did. But that was… a long time ago.”

           In another world in a different time, two high school students were up on Castle Hill Overlook at sunset, admiring the view of King Arcade’s ruins being demolished.

           “I heard the new park will break ground in June, 2001,” Mikey, braces free, said.

           Teen Millie murmured, “A year from now… I wish Jace was around to see it.”

           “Jace…? Do you mean Jason? Whatever happened to him? He was a cool guy.”

           She leaned on her beau. “He’s far away. But I’m sure he’s living his best life.”