s2.e14

Down Below

            The Royal Mega 18 theater hadn’t changed much, and was probably bringing in a bit more revenue than it did originally, what with the city’s biggest entertainment source now out of commission. Summer of ’98 was an especially busy season for the industry, with multiple big blockbusters, one after the next, so the lobby was accordingly packed.

            “The snack line is so long…” Millie complained as they waited at the back of it. “Do we have to get concessions? It’s all really overpriced.”

            “I’m buying you whatever ya want, too,” Wes replied. “You earned it, after spying on your classmates and waiting for us for two years. Besides,” he looked up at the lobby clock, “it doesn’t start until four, anyway. We won’t even miss the previews.”

            “I…” she sighed, “won’t even remember this…”

            “Maybe not, but it’ll make me feel a little better about everything.”

            “We’re hungry,” Jace added. “We time-traveled on an empty stomach, so our ‘dinner’ was a slice of mall pizza each. What kind of snacks do you like?”

            “I dunno…” She thought. “I usually don’t get anything… Popcorn is fine.”

            Jace looked over and noticed the line into the one theater visible from the snack area, full of people waiting for Armageddon to start seating. Wes caught sight of his gaze.

            “That is the biggest movie this year,” he noted. “But it’s not my pick today.”

            “I’ve actually seen it already…” Jace replied. “It’s always on TV, in the present.”

            “Same here,” Millie added. “I went with the gang. Not a favorite?”

            Wes shrugged. “There are worse things to watch, but I always thought it was overlong, and yet didn’t have enough disaster scenes. Also, it focused too much on the dumb space crew characters. Deep Impact is my preferred 1998 space rock movie.”

            Once their arms were full of sodas, popcorn, and candy, the three headed into the long hallway—and past all of the other theaters, as Zorro was playing way in the back.

            Aside from a second Armageddon screen, there was Madeline, Dr. Dolittle, Disney’s Mulan, and WB’s animated Quest for Camelot, all family entertainment. Kids Jace’s age had Small Soldiers, The X-Files movie, or America’s first attempt at Godzilla. Adults were going to the romantic adventure-comedy Six Days, Seven Nights, the tense and eerie murder mystery Insomnia, the crime thriller A Perfect Murder, the R-rated mega-hit comedy There’s Something About Mary, or Lethal Weapon 4, the last in the buddy-cop series. Also at the end of the theater was Can’t Hardly Wait, about a high-school graduation party, and one of Wes’ favorite films, The Truman Show. The summer’s variety was certainly wide.

            Shortly after they found their spot in the very middle of the stadium-seating theater, the half-filled room darkened and trailers for movies that were both coming soon and already out began to play on the big screen. Wes took the time to get right back to telling Millie and Jace about how things originally went for the year.

            “Anyway, like I was saying…” he returned to an earlier story as a preview for Disney’s The Parent Trap remake played, “I didn’t like the late 90s as much as, say, ’97 and earlier—the decade was heading into the darker, broody, sorta cringey attitude that lasts through 2006 or so—Millie, you’ll see what I’m talking about… er, eventually, as a different version of yourself. But these last few years still have some highlights. It’s just that, man, we should all be having our Mario Kart 64 and Goldeneye pizza parties by now.”

            “You do,” Millie informed him. “You just never invite me to them.”

            “O-oh… Sorry about that… Even though that me won’t be… this me. And I bet those parties aren’t as good as mine were, anyway. What’s sad is that me and Jared kind of really bonded right around now, like we hadn’t before.”

            “Bonded over what?” Jace asked him, because he was taking too long to explain.

            “Mostly over using a GameShark to crack into Goldeneye—it’s, um, like a cheating device that plugs into the cartridges? But it wasn’t about cheating for us. See, the thing let you hack in beta content, turn single player levels into multiplayer ones, clip through walls, ‘moon’ jump… It was great. There was a whole online community breaking the game together and sharing codes. We even made a few contributions ourselves.”

            Genuinely curious, Jace replied, “Is that how you two got into programming?”

            “Yes, exactly!” Wes waited for a moment to see what trailer was coming on next. Once he saw the Small Soldiers’ toy army guys coming to life to wage war in suburbia, he continued, “By high school, we were talking about making our own games. But…”

            “Yeah… you told me how that ended up.”

            “Did it… not end… up?” Millie wondered.

            Wes simply replied, “No. And we had a falling out as adults.”

            He seemed to have finished what he wanted to bring up earlier, so they munched on snacks quietly—until the next preview, for Matilda, began to play.

            “Oh!” Millie exclaimed with a mouthful of popcorn. “I loved that one!”

            Wes chuckled. “A smart girl ignored by her family, whose school is out of Tim Burton’s nightmares, gets psychic powers and sort of enacts revenge? You like that?”

            “Well, yeah… Don’t sound too surprised.”

            “You know, I should’ve figured something had happened to the park after not seeing any billboards for it in town,” Jace said. “What was it like when it… fell apart?”

            “It got worse each day,” Millie recalled. “So, the dread built up. When it finally really sunk… that was a sad day at school, and the whole city. Guess everyone saw it as this magical thing they only got to have for a brief time; the Titanic of theme parks.”

            “Oh, Titanic,” Wes replied, remembering it was last year. “Did the gang see that?”

            “Yep. And I know Zach saw it three times. Preeetty sure I know why.”

            During a trailer for the hostage crisis thriller The Negotiator, Wes asked, “Since I didn’t get a chance to check out the site yet, are there any theories about the sinkhole?”

            “What, like, other ways it might’ve happened? Nothing backed up by hard facts… but there are some ideas about old munitions going off that were left behind when the place was still a military base. Yet there isn’t evidence of it going down that deep.”

            Wes took a minute to think while scenes from the war epic Saving Private Ryan played, and asked his follow-up question, “What was the exact time of the small quake?”

            “Um, 7:15 PM on the dot. After the park had closed for the day. Why?”

            “No reason…” He fell into deep thought again, only to complain when a trailer for Disturbing Behavior came on—which was about troubled high school students being reprogrammed into upstanding citizens. “Geez, enough with the previews already!”

            “I see nothing wrong with this movie’s premise,” Millie remarked with a laugh.

            After watching Antonio Banderas take up the role of the masked vigilante Zorro to buckle some swash in 19^th-century California, the three emerged into a megaplex hall that was filled up with its even bigger early evening crowds. For Jace, who had known nothing about the main character, the story had served up some historical fiction that reminded him of Ms. Porter’s final lessons, focused on the state’s roots. It at least made for a nice distraction if nothing else, taking him back to an age without time travel.

            “What kind of dental plan do you think Catherine Zeta-Jones’ character had back then, anyway?” Millie commented as they exited their theater and went down the hall. “That’s always the thing about putting beautiful Hollywood stars in historical movies.”

            “But did you like it?” Wes asked. “I’m not sure what your tastes are…”

            “Oh, yeah, sure—I like a good old, classic adventure flick. No serious moral quandaries, just shut off your brain for two hours and enjoy the scenery…” She came to a sudden stop and blocked Wes and Jace with her arms upon noticing something going on in the lobby. “Wait! Hold on. Ah… I didn’t think we’d get out at the same time…”

            “What?” Jace asked. “What is it?”

            “Other side of the place—by the arcade cabinets. Look.”

            Able to better recognize their slightly older selves, Wes found them quickly. The gang, or what was left of it, had huddled together by the arcade game for Jurassic Park’s Lost World movie. Colin, Zach, and Sadie were outside of the enclosed unit, looking in and watching Wessy and Celeste shoot up some angry dinosaurs.

            Millie shared some info, “Since Vanni and Gavin stuck around after their house needed repairs and took out their… feelings about that on arcade machines, Wes and Celeste—mostly just those two—spent so much time and money competing with them. They were all here today seeing Armageddon for a second time. I declined their invite.”

            “You didn’t mention that before,” Wes replied.

            “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to see them. I mean… would there be a point?”

            Wes looked down at Jace to see how he felt about a possible reunion, but he only looked up in response, completely unsure of what he should do.

            “You can just go up and say hi…” Wes suggested. “You know. For science.”

            “What if they’ll be angry with me?” he asked, worried.

            “Why would they be angry? Hey, let’s just see how they react to seeing you.”

            “I… don’t think they’ll be angry, either,” Millie tried to assure Jace.

            “Well…” he gulped, “all right. It’s just, at graduation, I didn’t… Never mind.”

            Both of them still a bit apprehensive, Millie and Jace left the older Wes behind, letting him investigate the nearby crane machine full of cartoon character plushies.

            “That’s almost a personal best on this one,” they could hear Wessy comment after he and Celeste finished their game. “All right, guys. I guess we can hit dinner.”

            “About time,” Zach replied. “You don’t always have to play this after a movie.”

            “It’s kind of becoming a tradition at this point,” Celeste said as she and Wessy got out of the large cabinet. “Hey, Colin—quick round of Tekken 3 first?”

            “No way, Celeste…” he replied with a groan. “Let’s just eat. I’m starving.”

            “You should’a wolfed down a few movie nachos,” Sadie imparted some wisdom.

            “Ugh, Sadie, you know that fake cheese stuff freaks me out.”

            The five of them noticed Millie approaching and turned to her. She gave them a feeble wave, and Jace had a moment to see the gang before they reacted to his presence.

            Colin hadn’t changed that much. He had actually shot up quite a bit and was only an inch shorter than Celeste, the tallest of the bunch. But his subtle, plain fashion sense stuck around, as did the same pair of glasses from fifth grade. Celeste’s childish pigtails had merged into a braided ponytail, and her freckles were starting to disappear, bringing more attention to her intense gaze. Sadie was sporting torn jeans, a faded shirt, and a short pixie cut—but Jace didn’t think she quite fit into the punk look. Zach didn’t have any shades in sight; it might’ve been that he felt confident enough now to not need a pair to exude coolness, an aspect that his expensive haircut did still help. Wessy, though, continued to sport his backwards cap, now pairing it with a red and white windbreaker.

            “Millie!” Celeste exclaimed. “I thought you weren’t seeing a movie tonight.”

            She shrugged. “I saw… something else. Besides, I don’t think I could watch the animal crackers on Liv Tyler’s stomach scene a second time without retching.”

            “But that’s the best scene,” Zach argued. “Well, maybe except for the part where Paris got blown up by an asteroid… Oh, hey now, what’s this? Who’s your date?”

            “No way,” Sadie scoffed. “She does not have a boy… friend…” she trailed off as Jace stepped out from behind Millie so they could get a good look at him.

            “Whoa, hold on,” Wessy was the first to speak. “Jason? Jason, is that you?”

            “Hey, guys…” he confirmed his return and looked at the stunned faces.

            “Jason, dude!” Zach burst out and got close. “It is you! You’re back! Um, right?”

            Now suddenly self-conscious about really being the shortest kid in the group, Jace grinned nervously and stammered back, “Y-yeah, sort of. I mean… I’m here for now.”

            “Crazy,” Colin said and took his turn for a better look. “We didn’t think we’d ever see you again. Millie told us you and your dad had to get out of town ‘real quick’…”

            “Yeah…” Wessy muttered, “And you didn’t even say goodbye to us…”

            Jace replied, “I’m sorry about that, guys.” Assuming Millie had never made up an excuse about why he had suddenly moved, he added, “My dad went nuts after the quake, like something triggered him. He, uh, thought you were a ‘bad influence’ on me, so we moved to… Seattle? Now we’re visiting, and maybe… Thinking about coming back?”

            “Wow. Your dad sounds like he has a screw loose,” Celeste pronounced.

            “Jason, you missed a lot of stuff,” Sadie told him. “Ash, Arty, and Jared…”

            “I know,” he interrupted. “Millie caught me up. We… sort of ran into each other at Zorro. I already saw King Arcade, too. But you’re all looking… all right. Uh, taller.”

            “You must be a late bloomer,” Celeste spoke candidly. “Not trying to be rude or anything, just an observation… A few of your old classmates are like that, too.”

            “That is kind of rude, Cel’,” Sadie sighed. “He’s a little on the short side, so what? Oh, Jason, did you eat yet? We’re going to dinner. What about you, Millie?”

            She shrugged again. “Depends on the place.”

            “Corny Cantina,” Celeste answered.

            “… Hm, sure, I could go for a quesadilla. I’m sure Jason can join us, too. Just give me a minute to call my dad and tell him what’s up.”

            “We’ll wait for you outside,” Sadie said, and they headed to the doors.

            Once they were gone, Millie took out a beefy Motorola phone from her pocket, and looked at a surprised Jace before dialing. “Yes, I have a cell phone. I know it’s not even close to being as amazing as yours, but I like it. Go ask your uncle for some cash.”

            Feeling like he had no choice, Jace went over to Wes, who was trying to win a toy from the crane game, and informed him, “I guess we’re having dinner together… So…”

            “Of course you are…” He moaned and took out his wallet. “Guess I’ll find something to eat on my own. All this money is literally disappearing, you know.”

            The Corny Cantina was a good, affordable Tex-Mex restaurant that had opened in 1997 in both timelines, just across the street from the movie theater. Jace had eaten there several times before, and the place was pretty much just the same as it would be by 2020. Its complimentary salty tortilla chips and salsa were locally famous, and the gang had already gone through a bowl of the stuff by the time the shareable taco platter and chicken quesadillas arrived. Jace hadn’t really expected that they’d be having dinners out together without their parents quite yet, but then again, it was a different time.

            “Millie!” Sadie exclaimed from across the table after catching her check the time on her cell’s tiny dot matrix screen for the nth time. “Stop looking at your phone!”

            Millie pocketed it and grumbled back after taking a bite of taco, “I’m just a little OCD about the time. I can’t help it. I… like my schedules.”

            Keeping close to Wessy’s side, Celeste replied, “Yeah, but you’re not even on a schedule right now. You need to learn how to chill. What’s so great about those phones, anyway? Why would you ever need to call someone at any time?”

            “It’s convenient, that’s all,” Millie said and waved off the roving mariachi band before they started playing for the table. “And I don’t like time getting away from me.”

            “Yeah, Arthur was like that…” Wessy sighed.

            “Does he still call you to chat?” Zach asked. “How are they doing?”

            “Less and less… And fine, I guess. He hangs out with new friends. Ash just fell in with some fashion clique, though. Yuck. And I haven’t heard from Jared in months. I guess he’s doing okay with his mom over in Fresno, but there are so many new games out I wish I could beat him at. Heh… Guy could be a pain, but I can’t say he wasn’t always there for us.” He took a big sip of soda. “Maybe… he’ll visit sometime.”

            After he finished a quesadilla, Jace asked, “Is this a hangout spot for you guys?”

            “Yeah, sorta. One of several. Sixth grade really sucked, Jason. King Arcade, and Jared and the twins leaving, and… my old dog… Anyway, it was rough…”

            “And Lucy and your dad moving away,” Celeste added.

            “Yeah… Maybe that was the hardest part of these last couple years. She called last night, actually, crying because she hasn’t made any friends at her middle school. I think I’m all she has to talk to, and I feel bad about it because I can’t really help her.”

            “Oh, Wes…” Sadie replied sympathetically. “Maybe we should go grab her.”

            “Yeah, let’s go rescue Lucy,” Zach said, making more of an effort to pull a joke out of it. “I’m sure your mom can make room at your house. We’ll hitchhike to Ohio!”

            “Guys…” Wessy groaned. “You know that’s never going to happen.”

            Trying to shrug off his fears for his own existence, Jace asked, “Did anything else bad happen since I’ve been gone? You must’ve had some fun… right?”

            Celeste replied, “We hang in there and make the best of things, but sometimes it’s hard with teachers like Mr. Garcia around. They just bring everything down again.”

            “Ah, yeah, Mr. Garcia,” Zach said with a cold laugh. “Worst teacher ever. What a mean son of a bitch—um, pardon my French. But it’s true. He’d make Mr. Drake cry.”

            “English teacher,” Sadie eloquently expounded. “I swear, he hated all of us. Gave most of us detention through the semester. You and Colin are lucky you missed him.”

            “Point is,” Wessy continued, “we did a lot of ‘let’s talk about it over a slice’ get-togethers. So… we kind of got a little tired of pizza. I didn’t think it was possible.”

            “Pizza’s still great, don’t get us wrong,” Zach said. “But we did branch out.”

            “How about you?” Colin asked ‘Jason’. “How was school in Seattle?”

            “Um…” Jace didn’t know how to answer, so he joked instead. “Rainy.”

            That got a chuckle from him. “I bet. It’s been a weird last couple of years for us.”

            “Millie told me a few stories… And I heard about Wright.”

             Everyone else, except for Millie, paused mid-bite and looked at Jace, recollecting a painful memory perhaps, or otherwise just remembering again that he had an eyepatch.

            “That…” Wessy let out a deep sigh, “… happened at school, actually. I feel bad being one of the many students who used to egg him on to do stupid things.”

            “But you didn’t make him lose an eye, Wes,” Celeste assured him. “You weren’t even in that class with him. I hope you don’t blame yourself for that.”

            “So… the teeth he lost were a separate incident?” Jace wondered.

            “Three prior dares, yeah,” Sadie replied. “And he still hasn’t learned his lesson.”

            “So what’d he do that time? Bash a sharp object into his face or something?”

            “No, no… I was there. I saw it all.” Zach grimaced. “Seeing stuff like what he did makes a guy question humanity. It was in chemistry class, and we were learning about acids… He wasn’t even provoked—he just suddenly said ‘watch this!’ and…”

            Jace shot up a hand and urged him to stop. “Okay, I think I get it.”

            “Felicity was there, too. She laughed about it. Didn’t you try to help her once, way back, Jace? I wonder why that didn’t stick. Then she corrupts Willa and Trudy, too.”

            “Jason was always looking out for the kids in our class,” Sadie recalled. “It’s too bad we don’t have anyone like that around anymore. Turning into a teenager is tough.”

            “Hey, I try,” Wessy argued. “Sometimes… When I think I have an easy fix.”

            “Yeah, but you’ve never been an Arnold, or a T.J. from Recess,” Colin replied. “With you, Jason, it was always like you knew just what to say.”

            Feeling sudden emotional pangs, Jace fired out without thinking, “I’m sorry I abandoned you guys like that… I pretty much told you I’d be right back, and… You didn’t deserve that. If I could go back and fix it, or at least say goodbye properly…”

            “Whoa, Jason, it’s not like it was your fault,” Wessy said. “I mean, yeah, I was… pretty hurt when Millie told us everything, but I couldn’t blame you. Parents do some lame things now and then. But they can only boss us around another five years.”

            “Not mine, man,” Zach interjected. “They gave up on that a while ago.”

            Jace looked up and noticed Millie looking at him curiously, her mind hard at work on something. He wasn’t sure what had brought on the sudden intense guilt trip, but he did feel a little embarrassed about getting melodramatic around middle-schoolers.

            With the food gone other than some remaining chips, Wessy brought up one more downer of a subject. “It’s not just school stuff that’s bad, either. I gave up on hanging out with Vanni, and Gavin and his friends, too. She doesn’t game anymore or even give me cool advice. She just seems angry all the time about not going to college.”

            “Didn’t their house get messed up in the quake?” Sadie asked. “I think their family is having money problems. They probably can’t afford it for her.”

            “I guess so. And Gavin smokes when we game, and swears a lot.”

            “Dude, he’s only fifteen…” Celeste replied in a concerned way.

            “I told you Charlie tried a cigarette once, remember?” Zach said.

            “Let’s just forget about Charlie…” Colin groaned. “Close that chapter.”

            “I try to…” Zach murmured. After a few seconds, he perked up again, checked his watch, stood, and drummed a couple beats on the table. “Welp, I gotta head out and get to a party. Tonight… I think Hutch is doing something?” He pulled a five out of his pocket and tossed it on the table. “Guys, girls. Dancin’ J. I’ll see ya later. Peace out.”

            With that, he swaggered his way of the restaurant like he hadn’t lost a step, even after two suboptimal years. Those remaining weren’t in quite such a rush to leave.

            “How many parties can that guy go to?” Celeste wondered.

            Sadie shrugged yet again. “He’s just trying to get back the feeling The Dump gave him. It’s a psychological thing, totally. And he says he’s bored all the time otherwise.”

            “He always has to keep moving,” Colin added. “Kinda like how you used to be, Wes. You’ve actually slowed down in your early teen years, now that I think about it.”

            Now Wessy did the shrugging. “Maybe I just don’t get all that excited about new things anymore. I dunno… Now, new events and surprises aren’t always… good.”

            “Aw, c’mon,” Celeste replied, scooted closer to him on their side of the table, and nudged him with her elbow. “You just gotta find the good in things. It’s still there.”

            “… You ever feel like you didn’t appreciate something enough while you still had it? But you never realize how much that thing meant to you until it’s already gone…”

            “Geez, Wes,” Sadie said with an eye roll. “You think too much.”

            “As Zach would say, ‘lighten up, man,’” Colin moaned, then nudged his glasses and changed his tone. “But seriously, does anyone find it a little weird that it’s like Jason hasn’t aged much?” He looked at him. “I mean, the way I remember you, and the way you are now… It’s kind of, like, the same? Gah, maybe my memory’s just all wrong.”

            “Yeah, I don’t know what you’re talking about, Colin,” Wessy said after a laugh. “But maybe I should lighten up. At least I still have plenty of friends around. Yo, Jason—you never told us why you’re here, exactly. Is it just some summer vacation, or what?”

            “Um, actually…” Jace wanted to give the gang of this timeline something to look forward to, even if neither it or his answer were real. “We’re thinking of moving back.”

            Wessy beamed. “R-really? That’d be great! Hey, maybe you’ll do it in time to get into eighth grade with us? Then you could work your magic and… fix everything again.”

            Sadie was more modest. “That might take a miracle worker, Wes.”

            “Still, it’d be awesome having you back with us, Jason,” Colin said. “All right… We’d better head out too, guys. My curfew’s coming up, and we have a bus to catch.”

            “Yeah.” Wessy got up and tossed a ten on the table to cover his and Celeste’s share. “The rest of you good? Going to stay a while longer?”

            “Made plans to have my mom get us,” Sadie explained.

            “Cool. See ya, then, Sadie, Jason… Millie.”

            Celeste gave a parting wave and went with Wessy—leaving Jace thankful that the two hadn’t gotten too lovey-dovey during dinner. Sadie, sunken into her booth, seemed content with killing some time just chilling with her hands in her pockets.

            “Wait…” Jace replied after a delayed thought process. “Sadie, who’s ‘us?’”

            “Oh, I sleep over at Sadie’s most Saturdays,” Millie answered. “Celeste mostly doesn’t care for those anymore, so now it’s kind of a weekly thing between us.”

            “Hm. Well, it’s nice you two get along. What do you do? If it’s not a secret…”

            Sadie shook her head. “Nothin’ special. Watch a few movies, share some gossip.”

            “And… uh… Celeste and Wes… Are they actually…”

            She sat up and exhaled. “They say they’re a thing. But I don’t think they really like each other like that—they’re just confused and don’t know how to ‘break up.’ We don’t make a big deal out of it. Still, the plan is, when they do call it off, we’re supposed to act sad and be supportive. It’s all kinda ridiculous. But, I guess that’s just what friends do.”

            “It’s good that you all stuck together, after everything that’s happened.”

            The waitress finally came by and put down the check, at which point Jace added his and Millie’s money to the pile. Sadie stretched, got out of the booth, and yawned.

            “Hitting the bathroom, Mill. My mom should be here soon.”

            “Mm-hm. I’m not going anywhere.” Once Sadie had left, Millie turned to Jace with an empathetic look in her eyes. “Hey… Did something happen with you and your own friends, from the future? That’s kind of the vibe I was picking up.”

            He painfully admitted, “Um, y-yeah… I kind of got unreasonably angry at them at the end of the year and scared them off. I don’t know if there’s any fixing it now…”

            “What? They’d do that to a nice kid like you? Eh, I wouldn’t give up on them.”

            “I wasn’t always nice… I mean, I used to be before my fifth grade, but before we met, I was still kind of…” Jace trailed off when he noticed that Wes had just come into the restaurant and was hanging out at the entrance, no doubt looking for him. “I better get going, Millie. Thanks for everything… Next time I see you, it might be back in ’96.”

            They got up, and Millie offered a handshake. “Welp, I hope you fix things. But just in case this timeline sticks around as some alternate universe… We might be okay.”

            “Yeah, maybe… But I sure won’t be around to see it.”

            “You gonna survive?” was the first thing Wes asked when they got to their room at the La Quinta, the closest hotel to King Arcade’s graveyard. He looked at the bedside clock as he put down his case and other essentials too important to keep in the car. “It’s past nine, so… Factoring in a noon arrival… We’ve been awake for like, 27 hours.”

            “I haven’t even slept since graduating…” Jace said and fell onto one of the beds.

            “We’re probably kind of jet-lagged too, going from evening back to daytime like that. And all the emotional turmoil of being in this timeline, seeing a long movie…”

            “So, Millie hangs out with Sadie more than the others… But, otherwise, she just tags along. Stays in the background. Maybe she’ll be like that in a fixed universe, too.”

            “She seems to understand the importance of being like that, I admit,” Wes said and went over to set the air conditioner by the window. “How about the rest of ‘em?”

            “Your friends? I mean, they must’ve been a lot different than how you remember them. But they’re… trying their hardest together… I think I’m too tired for details…”

            “Tell me later. Whatever you saw isn’t ‘real,’ but I’m sure you got a good look at their personalities. I just hope me and Celeste didn’t… do something you regret seeing.”

            “Not really. Sadie said no one really sees it as ‘serious’ and doesn’t think it’ll last.”

            Wes got the air running, and turned around to see Jace idly bobbing his finger back and forth as he watched the little bug-eyed monster that roosted upon it.

            “You still got that thing?” Wes asked, surprised.

            “I carry it around like a good luck charm, I dunno… Hey… I’ve been feeling… sorta disconnected since the quake. It’s hard to describe. I still remember things from my life, but it’s hard to picture myself being a part of those things? Like… I wasn’t really there.”

            “You should’ve told me earlier,” Wes fretted. “I don’t like thinking about how you don’t actually exist right now, either, but you’re here now, and if there’s anything I can do…” His eyes returned to Jace, already asleep on the bed, his clothes still unchanged.

            Wes sighed, removed Jace’s shoes, turned off the lights… and then left the room.

            Hours later, he returned and jostled the kid. “Jace. Hey, c’mon, buddy. We gotta go do something, preferably before the sun comes up. Hey, you awake yet?”

            Jace mumbled and looked up from the indentation he had made on the bed, and saw that the clock read 4:30 AM. He already felt like he could sleep for much longer.

            “Ya got seven hours.” Wes got back to jostling. “I wanted to get going at 3:00, but I was nice and gave you more time… Jace! The sooner we fix all this, the sooner you can sleep as long as you want. You pulled an all-nighter with me once. This is nothing.”

            Wes’ pestering did its job, and Jace was soon pulled too far away from dreamland to make a return trip easy. He stirred, rubbed his eyes, and sat up in bed.

            Noticing his uncle’s disheveled, tired look in the light of the bedside lamp, Jace’s first question was apt. “Did you… even go to bed last night?”

            “Nah. I was in the hotel’s business room, digesting that site Millie showed us. It’s full of a lot of crazy theories, but I do think one of them might’ve been onto something, and so did she. I want a closer look at the park, but if we go in during the day, we’ll just get ourselves caught. Places that messed up are always under surveillance.”

            “Just how close are you talking about? No one bothered us when Millie showed us that secret spot. You’re not thinking of… walking into that mess, right?”

            “I’m not talking to some dangerous urban explorer degree, but I do want to investigate something I only saw from a distance.”

            “You and your crazy plans… Ugh. At least let me get changed and cleaned up.”

            “You want some coffee? We got a maker in the room.”

            “Stop trying to make me drink coffee!” Jace exclaimed and got out of bed. “Ugh, these clothes are rank. We really should’ve just time-traveled the day after graduation.”

            After both of them had freshened up a bit and changed clothes, they left the hotel at 4:45, about the time that the very early-risers were waking up. For now, Royal Valley’s streets were dark and empty, and Wes rolled down the car windows for the brief ride to the park to let in some of that early morning, dry desert air.

            To avoid attention, he parked a distance away from the park’s old lot, instead taking a spot on the side of the Captain Salty restaurant. Once he got out, he went to the back and opened the trunk under the glow of a lonely, orange sodium-vapor lamp. He took out his case, along with two new acquisitions: a crowbar and a sledgehammer.

            “Holy crap, Wes…” Jace remarked. “We’re really breaking in, aren’t we?”

            Wes thrust the crowbar into Jace’s arms, before giving him one of two high-powered flashlights, as well. “I got some gear while you were at dinner. But this stuff might not be just for… the here and now. Come on,” he said and closed the trunk.

            Once they began the trek to the cataclysm that was formerly a theme park, Jace got in the big question. “So… this ‘theory’ you and Millie talk about… What is it?”

            “The munitions one,” Wes answered, and changed up his hammer-carrying arm. “Basically, the military ‘accidentally’ left bad stuff in the basement when they left. It’s as ridiculous as building a major attraction above it, without checking first. Crazy as it is, it’s still the most logical explanation. A big enough boom will measure on the Richter scale.”

            “But didn’t she say the base didn’t go deep enough down?”

            “… Officially. But that is the problem with the idea. Too close to the surface, and the park would’ve been destroyed right away. Farther down, though, and then we can talk about a delayed-fuse sink-hole. This way.” He turned left before they reached the boarded-up entry gates to AquaZone, and they walked in the shadows between the wooden wall and the area’s giant retention pond. “We need to find Galaxy Hub.”

            “Okay… Or what’s left of it.”

            Wes found the inner-corner of the barrier, where AquaZone was separated from the main park. He began prying off boards with the crowbar as Jace looked up into the moonless pre-dawn sky, wondering if he’d see the shadow of the Ferris wheel against the stars—but there was nothing looming overhead. Wes was aggressive with the wall and broke through in under a minute, tossing the removed planks into the nearby water.

            “Once you get a plan in your head, you don’t let anything stop you…” Jace noted.

            “I just don’t like wasting time. That hole should be big enough. So, you first.”

            Jace sighed and slipped through, only to nearly run into the original park fencing, made of reinforced metal bars. Unlike the secret spot, this part of the barrier was intact and not crushed by a fallen ride. But Wes wasn’t going to let that stop him, either.

            “Get back,” he instructed once he too had gotten past the wooden wall.

            Despite having been awake for so long, Wes remained driven. He must have hit his second wind, sure, but he was fierce by this point, as if he had come to understand the full impact of this version of 1998, and was fighting against its existence. He swung at a metal bar powerfully with the sledgehammer, and after three swings, it began to buckle. Years of no maintenance had caused it to lose paint and partially rust, weakening it, and it only took two more swings for it to break in the middle. He used the crowbar to pry off the bottom half, forming another hole, also barely big enough to squeeze through.

            “Okay…” he huffed and caught his breath, with beads of sweat on his forehead. “You’ll want to turn on your flashlight on the other side, and be careful where you walk.”

            Jace nodded, inhaled air, and wormed his way inside. While Wes took his turn on working his way through, Jace turned on his powerful lamp and sent a beam out into the eerie darkness of a broken shrine to consumerism. He couldn’t quite believe the sight.

            “I think I found the Ferris wheel…” he reported.

            Wes made it inside and sent out a beam of his own, which hit a small portion of the big wheel, toppled over on the Hub and partially crushing its roof. Unlike most of the rest of the park, the Hub mostly still stood, with only one wall of the building and the ground under it having fallen into the pit. Its interior and dozens of ruined, rotting arcade cabinets were exposed, the glass doors had shattered, and a dry moat had formed around the structure that provided a view of the arcade’s deep foundation, which was in decent condition. It was the stuff visible under the building that most interested Wes.

            As they circled around the Hub, staying firmly on the solid outer rim of the park, Wes replied, “I saw the wheel before—and something else, that I could just barely see…”

            He swept his light across the foundation, back and forth, obviously searching for something that might only be noticeable from a certain angle. At one point, Jace got a little too close to the edge of the rim and felt some of the crumbling pathway below him give way—but Wes was keeping an eye on him, too, and was there to pull him back to safety. Right after that happened, his light hit something.

            There was a metal corner of a tall inner structure, once buried in the concrete of the foundation but now just barely exposed to the world. Wes followed the corner down with his beam until both disappeared into the debris below, but there was enough of it visible for him to reach a conclusion. He followed it back up until it disappeared again, and looked at the arcade through its missing wall. He seemed satisfied, yet mystified.

            “So…” he murmured. “So… what does that mean?”

            “Wes?” Jace asked after his uncle shuffled away and plopped down onto a park bench. “What is that thing? Like… something to do with the Hub’s electricity?”

            “I… I don’t think so. I think that’s an elevator shaft.”

            “Why? Galaxy Hub didn’t have… an elevator.”

            Calling back to a statement from earlier, Wes replied, “Not officially…”

            “Does that mean there really is something under the park? What do we do now?”

            As Wes thought, he noticed a subtle glow in the darkness that he would’ve likely missed had his eyes not already adjusted. A subtle, flashing glow… Blue, red, blue, red.

            He turned around on the bench and looked back at the park entrance, across the gulf of the chasm. Two or three police cars were parked right alongside it, and several officers wielding flashlights of their own were already working on the gates.

            “That’s quite a response time, considering it’s five in the morning…” Wes looked up at the cloudy sky, now being hit by the deep blues of the early dawn light.

            “Uh, Wes, we’re about to be arrested,” Jace fretted. “Seriously, what now?”

            Wes took out his quartz and answered as he set a date, “We’re going back to 1995 for a brief visit—while we’re on solid, level ground. I don’t want to find out what happens if we travel into solid matter that’s above our feet. We might… fuse with it.”

            Jace got out his quartz. “Maybe don’t give me that mental image? And why ’95?”

            “You’ll see…” Wes got up and gave the crowbar to Jace, as he kept hold on the hammer and his case. “I’m worried about the mass limit of these crystals, so you travel with that particular hunk of metal, so we share the load… Okay,” he finished tapping on the handheld pink quartz, “date looks good. Let’s go before we’re busted. Oh! And, uh, it’s going to be daylight on the other side, so close your eyes.”

            “But Wes, what about—”

            “See ya, bad version of ’98!” Wes spoke over him and clenched the quartz tightly.

            The process over as quickly as last time, the two arrived at an intact version of the park, under a bright afternoon sky. Jace heeded Wes’ advice a moment too late, and was temporarily blinded. Once the burning stopped, he looked around while squinting.

            Galaxy Hub, and every other attraction, was back in full form, although there was still some scaffolding about and a few unpolished or unpainted exterior elements. The place was pristine and seemingly untouched—other than the trash and half-drunken Gatorade or soda bottles that construction crews typically left wherever. A plastic tarp covered the arcade’s doors, and the construction-privacy wall still surrounded the park, but that was it as far as “security” went. In fact, it was empty of people; no workers, no police, no inspectors, and no movement other than a quiet, warm wind.

            “So… when are we?” Jace asked as he felt a sun-headache coming on.

            Checking the quartz info to make sure, Wes answered, “July 4^th, 1995. A couple weeks before our first arrival—hopefully we’re not interfering with any of that.”

            Jace looked down, realized his flashlight was still on, and replied after turning it off, “I don’t want to repeat everything we already did, or fifth grade, again…”

            “Not to worry,” Wes assured him. He hit his flashlight’s switch, then pocketed the quartz and grabbed the hammer he had tucked under his arm. “It’s just a short visit, no plans on leaving the park. So… this is what it looked like almost done, huh? There shouldn’t be anyone around. It’s July 4^th, so hopefully the crews got a holiday.”

            Once he made sure his shoes weren’t merging with the ground, Jace turned towards the arcade and asked, “Do we just have to go in there and find the elevator?”

            “That’s the idea,” Wes said and led the way. “There’s something down there.”

            After he parted the tarp and pulled on a door to slide it open, the two wandered inside. The colorful carpet must have just been put in, as the glue that held it in place still wafted throughout the building. The walls were painted, but only half of the actual cabinets were in place, and all of them were covered in translucent tarps of their own.

            “They must still be waiting on a few orders…” Wes noted and took in the sight of the Hub before it would be filled with running, flashing arcade games.

            Jace murmured, “So… you think that big pillar in the middle…”

            Wes approached the cubic structure that reached past the second floor and to the chrome ceiling. He felt the drywall, the hammer on his shoulder hungry for more.

            “I just thought this was a load-bearing part of the building.” He looked around at a dozen other small circular pillars made of concrete, also supporting both the roof and second floor mezzanine. “But it’s not even centered. It’s… on its own, superfluous.”

            “You an architect now? H-hey… You’re not just going to break it open, right?”

            “Ah, Jace, it’s just drywall. It can be replaced in a few days. When the guys come back tomorrow, they’ll assume there was a construction error, or one of their buddies was having a bad day and had to take it out on something. It’s nothing, really.”

            “I don’t know. Maybe we should go further back, or reset the day after we’re done destroying stuff. Just to be safe and cover our tracks?”

            “Kid, we’ll be fine. Now stand back,” Wes cautioned, rubbing his hands together.

            Once Jace was at a safe distance, Wes raised the big hammer and began bashing.

            The first swing left a big crack, the second knocked away plaster into chunks that littered the floor, and after the sixth, Wes had created a sizeable hole. Out of breath, he switched to the crowbar and pried off the surrounding wall. After he had gone to town on the pillar, Jace came back for a look as his uncle recuperated. He had revealed a series of square foot-sized metal panels that reached down to the floor, but not much else.

            “Wes…” Jace sighed. “There’s nothing here.”

            He huffed and puffed back, “There’s gotta be something. Still three other sides…”

            “Maybe we should go back to April ’96, find Warren, tell him what we found?”

            Wes shushed him. “Just hold on…” He looked inquisitive and moved in for a closer look at the thin gaps between the pillar’s metal squares. “There’s something…”

            He stuck the crowbar between two panels, and pried—hard. Pushing his meager strength to the limit, he eventually popped a square off of a bracket behind it. He then saw reflective metal on the other side of the panel grid, and stuck his hand in to feel it.

            “Yeah, definitely elevator doors. Entertain yourself, Jace. This’ll take a while.”

            Jace gave in and let Wes work. It took a minute to pry off each panel and he was tiring himself out, so Jace did the thoughtful thing and found the building’s break room, which had a water cooler and cups to keep Wes hydrated. Between water trips, he either meandered about the arcade games, or stretched out on the carpet for some needed rest.

            Wes needed forty minutes to do it, but eventually he removed several rows of the squares in the middle section and popped off the bracket rods as well, giving them space to squeeze in. He had also uncovered the elevator’s sole button, next to a down arrow.

            “Nothing…” he muttered after pressing it several times. “It needs power.”

            Sitting up from the floor, Jace replied, “But the park power isn’t on yet…”

            Wes looked at the pile of removed panels and thought. “There’s a chance I could still get the elevator working. Maybe the Hub has its own system, off the higher-demand rides. Or, the lift’s wired separately. Did you see a big fuse box while walking around?”

            Jace shook his head. “No… But isn’t there an electrical shed thing outside?”

            “That’s right… there is. I’ll just have to break into that next. Stay here.”

            He took the rear exit with crowbar in hand. Just hoping he wouldn’t fry himself, Jace sprawled out on the floor again. Soon, Arcade cabinets began coming to life as the lights flickered on. Once Jace was surrounded by games on demo mode, Wes returned.

            “I hit every switch. Including the one that was marked ‘inoperable’. I really hope the elevator’s working now… I’m out of ideas otherwise.”

            “We could still look for Warren…” Jace repeated as Wes walked past him.

            “We’re so close. I know we can get down there.” He breathed in and pressed the button—and he didn’t need to wait for long; the doors opened right away with a ding. “We’re in business! Ready to venture into the depths? Come on, kid. The lights work.”

            Jace walked over and looked into the lift. It was old, its floors and walls an aged yellow like its warm iridescent lights. Climbing over rows of brackets left intact below and ducking under those above, he slid inside. Wes followed, a little more sloppily, and quickly noticed something above the down button. It looked like a later addition.

            “What is…?” He investigated and leaned in towards a panel with a HAL 9000-like glass sphere. He read the words below it out loud, “‘Facial Scan’…?”

            Jace muttered, “After all that, we get stopped by—” he shut up when the doors closed and they began to descend, without any acknowledgement from the scanner. “Or maybe it just doesn’t work.” Once they began to pick up speed on their journey down, Jace had an observation to report. “There’s no emergency stop button, or a phone…”

            “Yeah, even a military elevator should still have the basic services… Wow, we’re moving fast.” Wes listened to the elevator walls rattle and the air rush by outside. “What the hell is something like this still doing here? Why wouldn’t they just bulldoze it?”

            The ride lasted about ten more seconds, at which point it barely slowed down before stopping with a heavy jolt that almost sent them flying. As the lights flickered, the doors opened with a groaning, grinding sound, revealing… complete darkness.

            “Air’s bad…” Wes sniffed it. “And nothing seems to be running…”

            Jace got his flashlight going and sent a beam into the abyss. Both of them were surprised to see what it hit. Just a short distance away, the circle of light illuminated an ornately-carved wooden slab, one half of a large door. Wes added his light, and they swept their beams across the place and took in the details. It seemed to be a waiting room, with several fake potted plants, two dusty couches, and a marble floor.

            “What the…” Wes murmured and stepped out. “I don’t even… Wha…”

            “This was always beneath King Arcade?” Jace added as he kept at Wes’ side. “It’s like… a fancy, haunted place to wait before you can go into a rich business guy’s office.”

            “There’s an inscription in the middle of the doors…” Wes got close and used his light to read the words. “They always say time changes things…” and onto the other half, “but you actually have to change them yourself. Hm. Sounds like a famous quote.”

            “It’s locked,” Jace said after trying the brass handle. “We need a key.”

            “We got one.” Wes bashed the handle off with the sledge, splintering the wood.

            He slowly pushed on the door, revealing the next room. At first, all they saw was another couch, but as they went in, they noticed the receptionist desk to the right, also covered in settled dust. There was no air circulation; the place was a frozen time capsule.

            “Check out this door…” Jace pointed it out with his light, on the opposite wall. “I don’t think we’re getting into that one without a tank. It means business.”

            Jace was right; there would be no brute-forcing the sliding steel slabs that were clamped together tightly, like a blast door. There was a card reader to the side, but Wes had nothing on him that would get them past it. And as far as clues, there didn’t seem to be much to find. The room had been mostly emptied, other than a sofa, a coffee table, some light fixtures, the receptionist desk, its chair, the flat screen computer monitor…

            “Wait,” Wes exclaimed. “Flat screen? In 1995? I wasn’t even thinking… Jace!”

            He turned and lit it up as Wes got a closer look. It wasn’t just any flat screen—and not one that potentially could exist so early, as a small thing with a big back panel. It was only a millimeter thick, and as he felt its surface, he realized it was solid black glass.

            While the strange, sci-fi monitor kept Wes enamored, Jace went behind the desk to see if there was anything else of note. He was soon crawling on the floor, opening drawers and scavenging, before audibly digging into a trash bin.

            “There’s no computer,” he reported and stood back up. “But I did find a framed newspaper, and… this…” He handed Wes a dry, aged Starbucks coffee cup to examine.

            Wes felt the paper of the cup in his hands. As an occasional customer, he knew it wasn’t normally so soft and smooth. Far stranger: the cup’s siren logo was no longer a green oval, but rather… a turquoise square. He had never seen a version of it like that.

            Perplexed, he looked around and noticed one last element, above the big door. It was embossed metal; a unique corporate logo that mimicked a square clock. Its top and minute hand formed a T, while angled second and hour hands formed an L.

            Then he said the only thing he could think of, “What in the world is this place?”

            Following their underground adventure, Wes and Jace took a needed rest break back on the surface, sitting on the floor close to the plaster and metal panels—the latter having yet to be put back in place, if Wes even intended to do so at all.

            “TL…” he murmured. “I think I know what it stands for… I just don’t know what any of it means… It’s otherworldly down there.”

            Jace looked over at his exhausted uncle. “Is it… Time Lab? Or Labs…?”

            “I just… I can’t think of any other explanation. That monitor, the Starbucks cup… But… why is there a place—an entire room from the future down there? Where’d it come from, who built it? And… why is there a future? Didn’t we come from the future? Which is the present? Augh… my head hurts. Let me see the newspaper again.”

            Jace handed it over for the third time and asked, “Do you think it’s a clue?”

            The headline read, “Amusement Park Announced”, and it was above a picture of two wealthy, older men, holding up a cardboard cutout cartoon prototype of the arcade prince mascot. One was an investor, the other, the park creator, Lincoln Bartles.

            Wes mumbled, “Someone had a reason for framing this… June, 1989… Andrew Cristoff, the guy on the left—why does he look vaguely familiar? Hm. We’re done here.”

            “Huh?” Jace said as Wes got up. “We need to fix all this, and then find Warren.”

            “No, we leave it like this—we’ll let someone else discover the place, and research theories and findings in ’98 again.” Wes took out his quartz and began dialing in a date. “Maybe we’ll even stop a bomb from going off down there just by keeping it open.”

            Jace jolted up and argued, “That’s a stupid plan! I have problems with him, too, but he will help us if we tell him what we found! Stop trying to do everything yourself!”

            Wes took his eyes a little bit off his quartz screen as he finalized his date setting and shouted back, “We almost got this, Jace! Just you and me, like it used to be!”

            “Ugh! You stupid, stubborn…” He took out his own quartz from his pocket and began to fiddle with it. “How do you set this thing… Think, Wes! We can’t just change all of the park’s history like that after all we’ve done! Your plan makes no sense!”

            “It’s fine! Just a quick hop to ’98, to see if anything’s changed…”

            “You need sleep, you’re not thinking straight. Just punch in April 1^st, 1996!”

            “There’s nothing we can…” Wes heard a twert sound, felt a vibration, and noticed that the quartz was being squeezed in his hand. “Uh… wait, I didn’t mean to—”

            With Jace now holding his quartz as well, the synchronization triggered and the cold, paralyzing energy again flowed through the travelers. But something wasn’t quite right. Instead of slipping across time right away, they both remained frozen in place. Wes felt his quartz trembling fiercely, and heard it emitting some sort of alarm.

            Straining to do so, he forced himself to look down and twisted his arm so he could see the device in his hand. It was blinking red; never a good sign. Jace, who had been frozen with a worried look, moved his eyes to Wes and expressed further concern. Electrical arcs then shot out of the quartz, making the incident even more frightening.

            Just as he began to wonder if his atoms would be split across time and space, Wes felt himself successfully travel. They were transported and reappeared under a night sky, outside. It also happened to be quite cold out, and while Jace had on his blue hoodie like always, Wes with his bare arms quickly began to shiver.

            “W-what happened…” Jace was just barely able to speak. “Are we dead?”

            Wes calmed down and got his bearings. They were in a big dirt lot, flattened by the nearby, resting construction equipment. The plot that would become the park was surrounded by a tall chain-link fence, leaving the view of the local skyline unhindered. It looked different, but he couldn’t quite place how yet. He turned and saw something else: the last remnant of the military base, the elevator-pillar, boarded up with plywood.

            “Let’s n-not stay h-here…” Wes said before he did any thinking. “S-some place w-warm first…” He looked around and noticed a familiar sight. “C-Captain Salty…”

            They proceeded across the grounds, found a portion of the fence that could be pulled up and slipped under, and arrived at the restaurant, with a few dozen cars in its parking lot. The place gave them the reason for the weather, too—the Christmas lights running along its door and the dancing Santa in its window made the season obvious.

            “Something isn’t right.” Jace said as he looked up at the local towers. “Where’s Victory Plaza? Wes, where’d your quartz go? Hurry up and check when this is.”

            After realizing he was still holding it, he unclenched his hand, brought it up to his face, and blinked a few times as he read the date. “D-December 23^rd. 19… 1989?”

            “1989…” Jace breathed out, his glazed-over eyes fixated on the gyrating jolly old elf. “How did you manage that? Did you just… Did you put in 1989 instead of 1998?”

            “I, uh…” Wes was suddenly too tired, dizzy, and hungry to speak. “Oops.”