On the first day of 1990, Wes and Jace had lunch in the mall food court around noon. The holiday rush done and gone, the place was sparsely populated outside of a few wandering teens twiddling away their winter break, or some older folks making gift returns. Wes seemed to be in a sour mood. Jace, waiting impatiently at the other side of the table with his slice of pizza already munched, tapped his fingers and sighed.

            “You gonna tell me the plan or what?” he asked.

            “Plan…” Wes mumbled and finally took another bite of his pie.

            “Yeah, I mean, we can’t afford another night at the hotel, and we can’t go anywhere in time right now because the quartzes aren’t working.”

            “Uh-huh… That’s a… A real pickle, isn’t it?”

            Jace glared at him, then eased up and replied, “I say we talk to André. He was your time-science business partner guy in another future life. I bet he’ll set us up with a place to stay while we figure out the problem.”

            “I don’t want to hang out with him right now, Jace. I mean, I’m still just trying to wrap my head around… everything. If I’m in his presence too long, he’ll end up telling me more creepy things about my older self, intentionally or otherwise.”

            “Is that really a big deal?”

            “I don’t want to hear more of that crap! How’d you like it if I sat here and told you that you become a horrible, selfish, obsessed weirdo in a couple decades?”

            Jace shrugged. “I’d try to change for the better.”

            “Augh… It was my fault all of this happened in the first place. André wouldn’t have made the door that led this version of me to the past, if not for old me.”

            “C’mon, stop trying to see the bad in everything. Maybe this whole adventure we’ve been having will keep you from being an old obsessed dude to begin with. Plus, it gave us a chance to help your friends. And save Ash. Look at the good parts.”

            “I know, I know…” Wes’ face disappeared into his hands. “I just… don’t know what I’m supposed to do now, even if we do get back to ’96. We have to prevent the earthquake, sure, but then what? Everything feels so messed up.”

            “What do you want to do? Maybe you should just ease up on all the plans and schemes. Have some more fun in the past, like we did when we first went back.”

            “I guess… I could just wait a few years, let time go by. There’s a lot to like about the early 90s. Maybe we’ll figure out the quartz by the time we catch up to ourselves.”

            “I hope you aren’t serious. I’ll be, like, seventeen by then.”

            “That’s okay. I’ll just go back in time, to right now, let this version of myself have his turn, and then as my older self, I’ll take you back home. Older, and wiser.”

            “Sounds… like a big waste of time.”

            “Oh, hey, there you are!” Wes exclaimed, waved, and looked past Jace’s shoulder.

            Jace flipped around in his seat, but only saw the Sam Goody that would become the arcade; no sign of a forty-something version of his uncle.

            “Wes, quit playing around…” Jace mumbled and faced forward to stare at him. “Now isn’t a good time for another ‘nostalgia attack’ or endless jokes.”

            “I’m just asking for a few more hours to wrap my mind around everything, bud,” he exhaled sharply. “I stayed up late with a racing mind and woke up all out of sorts.”

            “André really messed you up that much, huh…”

            “It isn’t just him. I was messing with the quartz last night, and…”

            “Did you figure out how to fix it?”

            “No, but… Never mind. I’ll tell you later. I just feel a little off, is all.”

            Jace followed Wes’ eyes as he watched another teenager pass by, this one with acid-washed jeans, a denim vest, and dyed green hair. By this point, his uncle had studied about a half dozen of them over the course of their lunch. It wasn’t in any sort of creepy way; more like he was some sort of documentarian, quietly observing the wild teenager in its natural habitat. Then Jace remembered a recent talk.

            “You really think 80s kids are something special, don’t you?”

            “I mean, I did tell you that I kind of wish I got to be one.”

            “Yeah, yeah… You wanted to grow up with the best Saturday morning cartoons, golden age Nintendo, Michael Jackson, MTV, John Hughes, The Goonies… Blah, blah.”

            Wes smirked, adding, “And all without late-stage capitalism and the internet ruining things just yet. Okay. One more good look at the mall circa 1990, then we go.”

            Jace tagged along with Wes as he toured the place, now able to get a better look at all the stores—especially those that wouldn’t be around in a few years.

            “Isn’t it great, getting a chance to live in even more years?” Wes prattled. “I mean, think about it, kid. According to history, you exist in four—five?—additional years than you would’ve without this whole experience. I don’t think we’ve shown time travel the proper respect so far. Problems and bumps in the road aside, it’s an amazing thing.”

            “Yeah, I guess…”

            “You know what I want to do, Jace? Or be, rather? A fifth-dimensional being, able to walk through time like we’re walking through the mall. Pick a store, or a year,” he gestured towards Sheepers, “and visit for a bit. Hang out with the locals. End of the day, you go back to your time-space station or whatever. Changes aren’t permanent; no risk of screwing up the continuum.” Wes turned around, walked backwards, and started using his arms in an expressive manner. “Revisit the best years of the past, like they’re a fine wine. See an awesome moment otherwise lost to time. Get answers to nagging questions. If André just kept developing his science project instead of filling the role of a retiring Biff Tannen, he could’ve ended up with something capable of doing that.”

            Jace, hands in his jacket pockets, shrugged and replied, “I dunno, Wes. You still have to live in the present, no matter what year you’re in. We’re both still aging. I should be about at the end of sixth grade by now. What’s there to really do with your own past, other than think about it, maybe watch some old movies, play a few old games?”

            “You could take a day off and literally relive a better day, that’s what I’m saying! Time’s a bitch, Jace. Just keeps moving ahead, and details and stories fade away and get lost. It takes a lot of work to get through a single day, and then what? You just have to eventually forget everything that happened during that day? It could’ve been terrible, or amazing, but after a year, it barely matters anymore. If I were a super hero, my power would be time travel. That’s all I’m saying. I never want to forget.”

            Jace sighed again, replying, “You come up with a lot of funny ideas, Unk.”

            “But don’t we already have the power to do it all, almost?” Wes took the quartz out of his pocket and locked his eyes into its translucent angles and pink sheen. “We could go anywhere with this thing, right? The distant past, the far future, Taco Tuesday at the Corny Cantina, a rainy Friday afternoon in 1985…”

            “Something special about that day?”

            “I was born. Other than that, nothing much.”

            Wes’ eyes turned to two teenage guys walking past, both of them looking tough with ripped clothing and t-shirts from heavy metal concerts. They looked like a couple of punks, but Wes didn’t care. It only mattered that they were somehow interesting.

            “You lookin’ at something, dude?” one of the two said after he and his buddy stopped and turned around as they walked past. “Got a problem?”

            “None at all,” Wes assured them. “Just thinkin’ about how great the 80s were. I hope you cool kids enjoyed it. Never going to be another decade like it.”

            The two’s broship had mannerisms similar to Bill & Ted. They looked at each other, laughing like Wes was the lamest adult in the world.

            “Whatever you say, ass munch.”

            They snickered and got back to walking through the mall to find someone else to mock. Jace gave Wes another curious glance, surprised he didn’t seem insulted.

            “You really are in some sort of mood…” Jace mumbled.

            “I’m telling you, kid, I suddenly feel… free… Weird, confused, but free.”

            “And how’d that happen?”

            “Still trying to understand it myself. One more place I wanna check out.”

            As they headed towards the exit by the JCPenney, Wes stopped for a moment to observe a group of tweens about Jace’s age at a table. Three boys were going through each other’s trading cards, while listening to some Billy Joel on a portable radio. Once they noticed Wes, they stopped their chat and looked over at him, a little weirded out.

            He grinned, gave a thumbs up, and said, “You guys are gonna love the 90s.”

            “Okay, Wes, that’s enough,” Jace grumbled and pulled at his arm to hasten their exit. “Probably not a good idea to keep doing that.”

            “Yeah. They’ll find out on their own, anyway. I shouldn’t spoil the surprise.”

            Jace followed Wes out of the mall, and the two kept going without boarding a bus, walking right down the sidewalk that bordered a busy highway. The weather was warming, and the last remnants of snow were melting away down the storm drains.

            “I know we’re out of money, but are we actually going anywhere?” Jace asked over the noise of the traffic. “Or is this another one of your tours?”

            “Like I said, I just got one more destination in mind,” Wes shouted back.

            After traversing a few more crosswalks over wide swaths of asphalt, the sight of the sprawling mall’s exterior disappeared and Wes turned left, taking them down a quieter side street full of strip malls and auto part shops. Another couple of blocks later, he stopped in front of a large, run-down building with a currently empty parking lot. A one-eyed pirate mascot overlooked the venue from a marquee above the entrance, from a faded painting that looked like it was right out of a 1950s magazine ad.

            “What’s this?” Jace wondered as they stopped and looked. “I haven’t exactly been on the street behind the mall that much. Another place that closes?”

            “Well, yeah, but it’s still around another couple years. It’s only empty right now because it’s New Year’s Day. As you can see from the sign, this is Jolly Roger’s Treasure Trove. Eh… My history’s a little fuzzy here, but I think it was the original kids’ place to be in town. Kind of a junior remnant of Royal Valley’s brief casino days. It closes before King Arcade opens. They knew they’d lose the last of their business.”

            “So… another arcade?”

            “It’s pre-video arcade. I believe it opened in the late 50s as a roadside attraction after the interstate was built nearby. Carnival and boardwalk games, mostly. And it has a mini-golf course out in the back. Hazy mems of this place; didn’t go that often. But I bet my dad did when he was younger. I just wanted to stop by while I had the chance.”

            “Is it important to you, somehow?”

            “I… Yeah, maybe.” Wes sighed and slid his hands into his pockets. “I had my seventh birthday party here, shortly before it shut down. It was fine and everything, but something happened that has always nagged at me, and my mom was never really forthcoming on the details when I asked about it once I was older…”

            “Something to do with your dad again?” Jace asked earnestly.

            “Guess you know me by now. Yeah… That guy.”

            “We already walked this far. Let’s try and find out what happened.”

            “I’m sure it’s just typical adult drama, Jace.”

            “Don’t care. You got me curious. So let’s figure out the quartz thing and go.”

            Wes thought it over for a minute or so, then took out his time crystal and gave its error messages their hundredth look. He spotted the dumpsters on the side of the next building over, and Jace went with him to their next time-travel safe point.

            “Alright, punching it in…” Wes clenched his teeth and specified the temporal destination at 07-05-1992, and guessed the time at around noon. “Here goes nothing.”

            Squeezing his synchronized quartz tightly, Jace waited for something to happen. Unsurprisingly, nothing indeed did. Wes exhaled and looked at the quartz, frustrated.

            “Any new ideas?” Jace asked him.

            “I… I don’t know. These things are borderline alien technology.”

            “C’mon, you’re an IT guy, even if you might be a little rusty by now. I get that you’re in some sort of funk, but there has to be a way to figure it out.”

            “I know! Augh…” Wes rubbed his forehead and grumbled. “I’ve looked through every menu, error log, quantum tuning configs that I barely comprehend…”

            “Maybe you’ve been overthinking it. I think you told me once what usually ends up solving the problem when someone calls you up asking for help. What was…”

            Wes’ eyes grew a little wider and he stared at his nephew. “… Restarting?”

            “Yeah. Works for my iPhone when it’s acting stupid. How’s this so different?”

            No way it’s that simple… Wes thought, and looked down at his quartz.

            He replied, “That isn’t as obvious as you’d think, Jace. I never saw a restart or shut down option anywhere when I looked. Still, I wonder if…”

            He pressed his thumb down on the glowing circle that acted as a general confirmation button, and kept it down. After five seconds, the pink glow of the quartz faded, and the glassy structure became clear. He let out a faint gasp, and then he and Jace watched as it began to pulsate steadily another few seconds later. Some verbose boot-up messages scrolled by, most of them disappearing too quickly to catch.

            Those that stuck around long enough to read included, “Initializing… System check in progress. Memory check complete, all blocks OK. Charge level 28%. ERROR: Temporal link mismatch. Re-establishing… Success. Current time: 13:10:02—1-1-1990.”