Dinner was had at the Pig Pit, a classic Americana roadside diner that still existed in the present. It was a place of grease and huge drinks, so Jace’s mom never took him there. But thanks to his uncle, he had been a patron about a dozen times. The menu had barely changed, just like the sports décor and memorabilia on the walls. Between Jace’s bites of his grilled chicken sandwich, likely the healthiest available item, he retold what had transpired in Jared’s backyard to Wes, who was disappointed in himself.

“Yep…” He sipped on the day’s third soda, this one in a large white styrofoam cup. “I remember it pretty vividly now. Sadie may have hid at the bottom of that old scummy pond, but to my credit, I sacrificed some skin in those thorn bushes and staged a comeback.” He rubbed his arms as he remembered the wounds. “Well… originally.”

Jace shrugged. “Guess we shouldn’t mess with the past anymore.”

“Yeah. I, uh, wasn’t planning to originally. I just kind of acted on impulse back there. And I definitely shouldn’t be messing with my younger self. Heh, yeah…”

“I’m having a hard time believing that.”

“I’m serious. No more interacting with me or my friends. Way too dangerous.”

“Yeah, okay. Sure. Did you do any of that on your first visit?”

Wes lazily swirled a double-fried French fry in his ketchup and answered, “No. Not at all. I only observed Wessy a few times. I was more interested in what all was going on in the town around me. You know, what all those ‘other cameras’ I mentioned were seeing. You remember when you came over and watched The Truman Show?”

Jace swallowed a chunk of meat and nodded.

“I’m kind of getting at something like that. Did you wonder what was going on in the rest of the town while everyone else was watching Jim Carrey doing stuff? I mean, things are always happening, around the whole world, and there are all these little events that you miss because you weren’t in the right place at the right time. And unlike in the movie, it’s guaranteed that there are millions of storylines you’re missing out there.”

“Maybe, but how many are actually interesting? Most days are pretty boring…”

“Buddy, you’re eleven, you’re not supposed to have any boring days yet.”

Jace ignored the comment and asked, “Are you sure there isn’t some duplicate version of you running around right now?”

“I really don’t think so. If that were the case, we’d have seen another, or a whole bunch of other Weses in that guy’s kitchen the moment we came through.”

“So… does that mean there can only be one time traveler per person at the same time? And I do really wonder what’ll happen if you went back without me…”

“Again with the questions, that I don’t have answers to. Stop worrying so much. We’re not here to experiment with time or even find out how any of this works.”

“But that’s what I’m more interested in, than only doing stuff in this year…”

“There’s still plenty left to do! I have some big plans for us. To start with, right after we’re done here, we’re gonna see a movie at the old theater.”

“What movie?”

“It’ll be a surprise.”

“And are you planning on having another soda there?” Jace eyed his current one.

Wes shrugged. “Yeah, probably. I’m on something of a taste tour.”

“Uncle Wesley! Four in a day? That’s crazy! I wanted to say something back at the Target, but I thought you’d at least stop there! Even if they were all diet, drinking that much would be bad for you. Mom doesn’t drink more than one a week.”

“Good for her. Soda’s never really affected me. I just like some bubbly.”

“Do you want diabetes? You’re lucky they haven’t made you fat yet.”

Wes slurped up the last of his drink and looked down the empty straw. “Yeah. Always wondered why they didn’t. Must be my metabolism or something.”

“Can’t you just drink something else? What’s wrong with water sometimes?”

“Because water is really boring?”

“Then add some flavor drops to it.”

“Nah. They don’t really help enough.”

“Then try some with seltzer water?”

“Ugh, gross. I hate any kind of sparkling water. Stuff’s like drinking liquid salt.”

Growing impatient, Jace continued, “So why not juice or tea?”

“Juice has sugar anyway. Tea’s too bitter. I know adults are supposed to like bitter things, but that hasn’t kicked in for me yet. I drink milk when I’m at home. I don’t really go for canned or bottled soda. But a good old fountain drink… I can’t pass that up.”

“And you like them enough to drink the stuff all day?”

“Geez, dude. Did your mom tell you to bug me about this at some point?”

“No. But she’s commented on it before…” Jace finished his sandwich and took a breath. “She also said you drank an entire liter on a dare at one of your birthday parties.”

“That was awesome. That wasn’t even regular stuff. That was a bottle of Surge—it’s like a super soda. I got a bunch of them for my thirteenth. It was a hardcore party.”

 “Uncle Wesley… You got problems.”

“I can’t help it, okay? Sheesh, is this what you wanted out of me? I don’t like talking about my failures, bud. So maybe I have an addiction. Is it really my fault? I gave into peer pressure when I was young! We all drank the junk, all the time back then. It was like our fuel. And I never really weaned myself off of it.”

“But doesn’t it keep you buzzed all night? What did you do with all that energy?”

“Video games. Movies. You know, the obvious stuff. It kept me awake and productive. ‘Life moves pretty fast,’ as Ferris Bueller put it. I didn’t want to miss a second. The kid who stayed awake the longest, got to experience the most pop culture.”

“How much sleep did you get each night when you were my age?”

The waitress came by and dropped off the receipt. Wes looked at it and started digging around in his wallet for some loose bills as he ran some calculations in his head.

“I dunno, uh… Five hours, usually?”

Jace seemed pleased “At least you admit you have a problem. Mom always says she’d be proud of me when I let something out during our talks.”

“Great. You’re expecting me to tell you all about myself, aren’t you? What do you want to learn about next? What deeply seeded flaws should I expose in the Pig Pit?”

“Mom says a lot of your problems are right on the surface.”

“All right, then. Time to see a movie! Come on,” Wes said and grabbed Jace by the arm, an aggressive action that wiped away his smug look.

“Just don’t have another drink at the movie. Promise?” Jace asked as his uncle paid the bill at the register and three members of a biker gang passed by behind them in search of grub. “You can break the industry’s hold on you. I believe in you!”

Wes rolled his eyes and looked down at Jace, offering him a reassuring thumbs-up. He saw so much of his half-sister in him, which came to little surprise as she pretty much raised him on her own. He had to admit, he could be an endearing child.

“Jace… The line between kid and adult is kinda blurred when you’re around me.”

“Someone has to get you to act your age on this trip.”

“Ha, haha. Hm. You can try, little man.”

• •

Minutes later, Wes pulled into a parallel spot close to the small, community-run cinema. Downtown had quieted for the night, but The Queen Theater was an oasis of light and activity. There were a number of movie posters on the exterior walls, although its old marquee, surrounded by warm incandescent bulbs, only listed four flicks.

“There she is,” Wes said as he leaned on his car, facing the theater across the empty street. “The old Queen. Theater I grew up with. I started going to the megaplex by the highway like everyone else when it opens next month, but every now and then, I’d come back and see something here. Until it closed in 2005. Sad day.”

“The building looks so small,” Jace observed, the venue’s façade no wider than the hair salon and restaurant that flanked it. “How did they fit even just four in there?”

“She’s longer than she is wide, but, yeah, the theaters are a little… cozy. In a good way. I think there used to be two of them. Then they split both in half so they could have more showings. So, wanna take a guess at which one we’re seeing?”

“Okay. Uh, well… I’ve seen Pocahontas, so it’s probably not that one.”

“I know you’ve watched pretty much all the Disney movies. So that’s one down.”

“Judge Dredd is rated R, right? Mom always gets mad when you show me those.”

“Heh, yeah. But it’d pretty much be a PG-13 by 2020 standards. Also, it’s a total cheesefest. Maybe we’ll see Mr. Stallone shout ‘I am the law’ sometime, but not tonight.”

“So… I guess we’re seeing Apollo 13. At least that’s educational.”

Jace looked at Wes for a confirmation, but he only got a smirk in return. He looked at the marquee again, back at his uncle, and dropped his shoulders.

“One more guess, pal. I think you’ll get it this time.”

“Oh come on! We are not seeing Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. They’re a joke!”

“Yep. The original one. Not… that remake thing from 2017.”

“No, for real! They’re a crazy meme right now back in our time. Everyone keeps posting GIFs of the show, and it’s still funny because of how stupid it looked!”

“Yeah, I know. That’s kind of what got me inspired to see it with you.”

“Uh-huh…” Jace let out his biggest sigh of the day yet. “And then you’ll lecture me afterwards, telling me how great it was, and that I should’ve taken it seriously.”

“Nope. Let me let you in on a little secret about entertainment.”

“What, that eighty percent of it is crap?”

“Come on,” Wes started walking across the street, “I’ll tell you as we go in.”

After Wes got tickets at the box office, they went into the lobby, which had the furnishings of a theater from the golden age. Gilded pillars held up a ceiling with a mural depicting films made before the 1970s—so to see an outrageous, modern movie about teenage ninjas in bright spandex fighting people in alien suits felt a bit out of place. Most of the moviegoers at this hour were of the older set or teens; the latter, Wes mentioned, would all but disappear once the big chain theater sprouted up a few miles away.

“You can see bad movies and shows, too, and still get enjoyment out of them. Now, I certainly wasn’t like that at your age, and I don’t think I really knew any other kids that understood that either. Not that we have great taste to begin with when we’re young, mostly because we don’t know any better and just want to be entertained, right? So, for you, it’s not so much about what’s well-made or crap. It’s about what appeals to you and what doesn’t. The Power Rangers not appealing to you isn’t a surprise.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because I didn’t like them either. Heh.” Wes handed the tickets to the taker, and the two began their trek to the last screen in the back, passing by many more posters on the way. “Yeah, I had a high tolerance for a lot of stuff, but the Rangers, I never ‘got.’ It all just seemed overwhelmingly silly to me. I was eight when the show first started airing, so maybe I was a little too old, but still, I never knew why they were so popular. Even Arthur and Colin fell victim and bought backpacks they only used in fourth grade.”

“So… Does that mean you haven’t seen this movie?”

“Nuh-uh. Only ever saw the trailers. So, let’s both experience it for the first time and make fun of it. We end the day with some cheap laughs. Sound good to you?”

“You want me to laugh… at a movie I won’t like? I’d rather just not watch it.”