Second Time Around

by Nancy Moser

  “They’re out in force today, Mr. MacMillan,” she said as she stepped inside the vehicle. David Stancowsky led Vanessa Caldwell into the fray, with the cameras clicking wildly.

  As Vanessa got in, David winked at Mac. “No turning back now, is there, Mr. MacMillan?”

  “None at all.”

  David and Mac took seats across from the two women. Once they pulled away, they each took a deep breath, smiling at their unison.

  “I apologize for the cameras during your exit,” Mac said. “Have they been hounding you all day?”

  “I’m afraid it’s my fault,” Lane said. “I bring out the worst in people.”

  “Nonsense,” Mac said. “We’re thrilled to have you here.”

  “I will say it’s quite exciting sitting next to Lane Holloway,” Vanessa said.

  “I’ve got the better view,” David said from his facing seat. “You’re every bit as lovely in person as you are on the screen.”

  If Mac hadn’t had time to get to know Lane after picking her up at the airport, he would have been surprised by her blush. But after talking to her and finding out she was delightfully unassuming…

  “Please,” Lane said. “Can we forget the movie-star title for the rest of this? At least between us? We’re all winners. We’re all in this together, right?”

  “I’m in,” Vanessa said.

  “Absolutely,” David said.

  Mac beamed. He retrieved a note card from the inner pocket of his suit. Such lists were essential during these stressful two days. “While we’re gathered I thought I’d go over a few details. Time tends to go too quickly these last eighteen to twenty-four hours.”

  “Time. Amusing,” David said.

  “Tonight we will take you before the press one at a time. You may make a statement or just answer questions, but you obviously know that the press—the world—wants to know the year you are going to explore and something about the whys behind it. It will be short, and I will be there to cut things off when I think it’s appropriate. We want to make this as painless as possible.”

  Vanessa sighed. “I’ll do whatever it takes, Mr. MacMillan. Please know that.”

  Mac looked at her. He’d done research on her life. She was the recipient of many awards for volunteerism. Definitely a giver. He foresaw no problems with her at all.

  “Big groups don’t bother me,” David said. He winked at Lane. “And you’ve obviously got that one down.”

  She smiled. A good sign. Mac continued. “Now, as for your actual journey tomorrow. Once again, we will pick you up at the hotel, then deposit you into individual waiting rooms at the TTC building, where you will change into scrubs so you’re comfortable during your journey. Your family can be with you as you wait so you can say your good-byes.”

  “I’m going solo,” David said. “How about you ladies?”

  Lane answered first. “Me, too.” Her face looked a bit sad.

  Vanessa looked worried. “My father, my husband, and my daughter are going to be there. If you’d rather they not be…”

  “They are very welcome.”

  She seemed to relax. Mac continued. “When it’s your time to go, I will take you into the Sphere—”

  “It’s rare to see an actual geodesic dome,” David said. “I would have liked the contract on that one.”

  “The Sphere houses the working area of the Time Lottery,” Mac said. “Inside are a team of doctors, technicians, and a few dignitaries looking on. You will lie down, and we will attach some life-support monitors, IVs, a catheter, etcetera.”

  “Fun,” Lane said.

  “Essential,” Mac said. “Once you are settled, our medical staff will position an fMRI device around your head, pinpoint the Loop portion of your brain that holds your memories, and give you a dose of the Serum in the form of a shot. The Serum acts as a magnifier for your thoughts.”

  David made a face. “Work on making the Serum in pill form, eh, Mr. MacMillan?”

  “Next you will be asked to think of the time you wish to visit and the choice you’d like to make differently. You will fall into a deep sleep, similar to being put under anesthesia, except your mind will be wonderfully awake as you enter the past. Your consciousness will quickly adjust, and you will experience your Alternate Reality—your Alternity—totally innocent of the future, of how things were the first time around.”

  “But we’ll make a different choice,” Lane said.

  “You will. As you’re traveling into your Alternity, you’ll be concentrating on the choice you want to make differently. With the help of the Serum, when the moment of choice comes, you will feel strongly urged to take one path over another. That’s when the power of the mind, the power of suggestion, takes over. After that, you will be free to live out the consequences of your new choice.”

  “And you can’t intervene?” David asked.

  It was an odd question. “No, we can’t. You are alone. You are human. You are vulnerable to all the laws of nature.” He shook a finger at them. “So risk wisely. If you die in your Alternity, you die there.”

  “But would we die here in the present?” David asked.

  “No, but your second chance will die.”

  Vanessa raised her hand. “You say ‘risk wisely’ …isn’t this whole thing a risk? I mean, time travel…”

  “The risk is minimal. Since your body isn’t going anywhere, since we have medical personnel monitoring you every moment, and since you are experiencing all this within your mind—we are merely enhancing and directing your own thoughts—there’s not much to go wrong.”

  “Famous last words,” David said.

  Mac could have used fewer comments. “After seven days in your Alternity, we will initiate an electrical charge to the Loop portion of the brain. It will give you the ability to regain your ‘real’ memories. We call it ‘Dual Consciousness.’ It lasts only about an hour, but it’s plenty of time for you to choose to stay in your Alternity or return to us here. If you stay in the past, all memory of your life in the future will fade and will seem like a dream. As your body here dies a peaceful death in the Sphere, any family you have in this time—or charity of your choice—will receive the benefits of the $250,000 insurance policy provided by TTC.”

  “I prefer not to think about that part,” Vanessa said.

  Lane patted her hand. “It’ll be all right. I know it. We’re very lucky.”

  “I agree. But it goes deeper than luck. You are blessed,” Mac said. He leaned toward them. “Though the TTC is a secular corporation, I happen to believe God is behind you three being chosen. Everyone has a unique purpose, and for whatever reason, God has chosen you to get this second chance. I only ask that you don’t waste it.”

  They all nodded. The Sphere loomed at the end of the block.

  The three winners settled into the greenroom to wait for the press conference. Vanessa approached the coffeepot. “Coffee, anyone?”

  “Sure,” David said. “Black as you can make it.”

  Lane lifted a hand. “No thanks.”

  As Vanessa poured, Lane pulled Mac aside. “Can I talk to you a moment?” She glanced at Vanessa and David chatting by the coffeepot. “In private?”

  “Of course.” He led her back into the hallway. “Is there a problem?”

  “Not exactly. But there is something I have to tell you.”

  His mind filled with a thousand things that could go wrong.

  “You know how I have to tell you what change I want to make in the past?”

  “Yes. You have made a decision, haven’t you?”

  “Two decisions.”

  “I know it can be hard to choose, but you—”

  “No, no, you don’t understand. I am perfectly willing to tell you my real decision, but I want to tell the press—the world�
�� something different.”

  “Why is that?”

  The right side of her mouth pulled up crookedly in a coy smile he’d seen on-screen a hundred times. “Come on, Mr. MacMillan. You’re a marketing whiz. You were a part of Hollywood before the Time Lottery got a hold of you. Image-Maker… wasn’t that your title?”

  He shrugged.

  “Modesty becomes you.” She swept a hand through her hair and it fell into place as if it knew exactly where it would be most stunning. “The point is, you’re very familiar with spin.”

  He used to be the master. “You’re in need of some spin?”

  “I am. I want to tell the world I plan to visit 1987 in order to explore a relationship with my high-school sweetheart.”

  “They’ll love that. Everybody loves a love story.”

  “Including me. And I do look forward to seeing Toby again.”

  “But?”

  “The choice I really want to explore is in regard to the audition I had at age eighteen. The one that got me the part of—”

  “Bess! The one that ignited your career. Everyone knows that story.”

  She shrugged. “But my real decision—the change I want to explore—has to do with not attending that audition.”

  Mac drew back his head. “But that was your big break. If you hadn’t won that audition, who knows whether—” He stopped. “You might not have become a star.”

  “Exactly. I am the first to admit that timing is everything, breaks are a blessing, and talent often does nothing but keep the ball rolling. There are a lot of very talented actors out there who never succeed.”

  “But people think you have the perfect life. They won’t understand your willingness to give that up.”

  “I know.” She started to bite a fingernail, then folded it under and put it behind her back. “If the public knows the truth—that I might be willing to give up fame and all that comes with it—they’ll think I’m ungrateful…not satisfied with what I have, with the life they helped create. If I stay in the past, the legacy of my work will suffer. That’s bad enough, but if I come back to reclaim my life here, who knows what effect that kind of bad press will have on my future? Yet if love is involved… I think they’ll be more forgiving.”

  Mac nodded with understanding. “I see your dilemma.”

  “So will you help me? Be my co-conspirator?”

  If Wriggens found out about this, if the press heard about this… But Lane’s logic was sound. If she was to fully benefit from her Time Lottery experience, a little subterfuge would be necessary. Actually, it might be kind of exciting.

  He held out his hand. “You’ve got a deal.”

  She shook his hand but used it to pull herself close enough to kiss his cheek. “I owe you one.”

  Montebello, California

  Toby Bjornson set his beer on the TV tray, slumped into his recliner, flipped on the TV, and opened the bag of taco-flavored Doritos. Dinner. He didn’t have time for more. Though his boss had wanted him to work late on the house they were trimming out, he’d told him no. He had things to do. If it got him fired, so what? He was tempted to explain when they’d asked but didn’t. Couldn’t. He used to brag about being Lane Holloway’s ex-boyfriend but had stopped when people gave him too much guff about falling so low when she’d risen so high.

  And now that she’d won the Time Lottery? Life wasn’t fair. Why hadn’t he won? He needed a second chance. A third and fourth chance.

  He flipped through the shopping channels until he found the Time Lottery press conference. He’d come this far. He couldn’t stop watching now. He’d bought the newspaper for an entire week since the drawing, and he’d watched more news than he had in two years. But ever since hearing the press mention Dawson…he had to know her plans. Laney. His Laney. Was she going back to see him?

  That’s what he would have done. If she wanted the same thing… that was fate. He’d always felt they were supposed to be together. If it weren’t for that stupid audition, they would have married and raised a passel of Tobys. He even might have gone to college. She’d wanted him to, even though she’d had no such plans herself. Ever since he’d met Laney in fifth grade she’d been obsessed with Hollywood. Their first outing alone was when she made him sneak into a movie theater to see The French Lieutenant’s Woman because she simply had to watch everything Meryl Streep was in. All those weird accents. Couldn’t the woman speak regular English? After Lane left Dawson, Toby wouldn’t watch a Streep movie. He couldn’t.

  If only he could have kept her from going to that audition, strapped her down to a chair, if need be. He’d make her happy. He’d show her life could be good, even in small-town Minnesota.

  On television, a GQ type with blond hair strolled out on the stage. Toby recognized him from the drawing. Mac-something. The guy took a seat at a table that had two mikes on it. Toby turned up the volume.

  “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I want to welcome you to your final chance to speak to our three Time Lottery winners. As you can imagine, they’ve had an interesting week pinpointing the decisions they wish to change. In a few moments they will have the chance to share their decisions with you. The number of details they share are at their own discretion. Please respect that. Obviously, most of us would want to go back and change a negative into a positive. And such negatives are often embarrassing.”

  A reporter jumped the gun and asked a question. “But doesn’t the TTC need to know the details?”

  “Yes, we do. And the winners will be interviewed by a few choice personnel and their decisions noted. But the wonderful aspect of the entire time-travel phenomenon is that it is not dependent on the TTC understanding the moment in question, but relies on the winner’s own thoughts, their own brainpower, and their own Loop to bring them back into their own lives to the right point in time. It’s quite miraculous.”

  “But what—?”

  The Mac-guy raised a hand. “Let’s introduce one of the winners, shall we?”

  “Yeah,” Toby said to the TV. “Now would be good.”

  “Without further ado, I would like to introduce to you a woman who has earned herself a place in the hearts of an entire nation. A woman who is as charming in person as she is on-screen. May I present to you Lane Holloway.”

  Toby applauded with the audience. “Yay, Laney! Go get em!”

  Laney looked gorgeous in a long brown skirt, long-sleeved blouse, jacket, and boots. Classy, classy lady. And those golden-brown eyes when she looked in the camera…

  “Good evening, everyone,” she said. “I’d like to make a statement, and then I’ll answer a few questions. First off, I am very honored to have been chosen one of the Time Lottery winners, and I want to assure everyone that I will not waste this chance. Much of my life is an open book, and I’ve heard complaints that I shouldn’t be greedy, that I already have so much, have attained so much.”

  She looked down, and Toby recognized a glimmer of the insecure girl he once knew. “There is no defense for me winning such a chance, and frankly, I am peeved by those who believe I need to create one. The Time Lottery is just that. A lottery of chance that’s all about chance. A second chance.” She took a deep breath. “I plan on returning to my hometown of Dawson, Minnesota, to the year 1987, to my high-school years.”

  Toby jumped from the chair, sending the chips flying. “Yes! She loves me! She still loves me!”

  He forced himself to sit down because she wasn’t done. “As you all know, though I may have been successful in my career, my love life has been less satisfying. And so I am going back to take another shot at a past love.”

  Dozens of hands were raised with questions, which could be summed up into one: “What’s his name?”

  She looked to the man beside her. “I’d really rather not say.”

  He leaned close and said something.<
br />
  As the press waited for her answer, Toby grabbed the sides of the TV. “Say it! Tell them it’s me!”

  Laney looked at the camera. “His name was Toby. That’s all I’ll say.”

  It was enough.

  He kissed her face on the screen. She still loved him! That’s all that mattered.

  Kansas City

  Mac paid the babysitter, went into the family room, and shut off the television she’d left on. He emptied her half-full can of Dr. Pepper into the sink, the pop and sizzle marking its descent down the drain. The room smelled of microwave popcorn, and he found its source on the counter. He took the bowl to the kitchen table, sat, and absently pinched the last few kernels from the bottom. The press conferences were over. They were a success. Even Wriggens was satisfied. No small feat.

  Mac had seen the three winners safely to their rooms at the Regency and had spent the last of his energy reassuring them that everything would be fine. Lottery jitters were inevitable. For tomorrow was D-Day. Departure day. The lives of David, Vanessa, and Lane would be changed forever. Whether they stayed in their Alternity or came back, the experience was significant and indelible. This memory they would not forget.

  Mac shoved aside the popcorn bowl and got up to shut off the lights. Though he longed to talk to Cheryl, he knew it was best she wasn’t with him right now. For many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that she’d been called to the hospital for emergency surgery on an accident victim. Though her presence would have been a balm, it also would have been a distraction to a mind already fragmented and weary.

  He entered the foyer to lock the front door and, as happened every time he completed this mundane chore, was reminded of the one time when the door hadn’t been locked. When evil had entered this house, killed his wife, and hurled his tiny son across the room. If only…

  He shook his head against the daily—if not hourly—mantra and headed up the stairs. He’d had his chance to go back. He’d refused, because to live in the past with Holly would be to leave his son here alone. He would not do that to Andrew. He could not. No matter what his pain.