Life on Another Planet Ch. 23-27

The more he thought about it, the more Jesse was convinced this was a direction he wanted to go. The only question was whether he was intelligent enough to become a part of what he knew would be a major industry. He decided to consult with his father.

"I've been thinking, Dad. I've been reading about computers and the way they are developing. I mean, they are getting smaller, and yet more powerful. It seems like almost every week there's a new development with the computer and I'm wondering if I could get in on the ground floor with a computer company. I'll need to know a lot about them, and I was wondering if electrical engineering like you studied would be the right way for me to go."

"One day on campus and you're already thinking about changing your major?" He'd obviously caught his father completely by surprise. "What happened to journalism?"

"I don't think it's got the same kind of future as computers. I mean, people are getting their information by radio and TV today, but in the future, they may be getting it from computers, according to the experts. They're already talking about using telephone lines to send messages and information from one place to another. That would make the mail obsolete, wouldn't it?"

His father smiled. "Well, it's possible I suppose, but I don't think I'll see it in my lifetime. However, there's no doubt that computers are the way of the future. I guess electrical engineering would be a good start, but to be honest, I really don't know enough about them to say. You'd be better to contact a computer company and ask them what kind of education you'd need to be useful to them. I'm sure they would know what's required."

"Yeah. That sounds like a good way to go. I'll do that. Thanks, Dad," Jesse said with a nod and a smile.

Jesse found it easy to become frustrated with the slow and cumbersome methods of gathering information that existed in the mid-twentieth century. In his brief visit to the future, he had been spoiled by almost instant gratification when he was curious about something. And to begin with, he was curious about almost everything. Now, back where he had started, he would have to try to be patient as he sought the necessary answers to his questions.

Wednesday, September 27, 1961 12:05pm

Jesse had just settled in with his lunch tray and Popular Science magazine when he heard what he thought was a familiar voice.

"Do you mind if I share this table with you?"

He looked up and was frozen in shock. His eyes went wide, his face lost all its colour, and he was speechless. There in front of him was a vision from his past ... or more correctly, his future. There wasn't a single doubt in his mind that the gorgeous young woman standing there was the reincarnation of Candice Tanner.

"Well ... is it okay?" she asked slightly miffed, still standing and holding her tray.

"Uh ... yeah ... sure," he finally managed. "Sorry, you caught me by surprise," he mumbled.

Jesse was still in shock. How could this be? Was he trapped in some time warp or something? He struggled to say something coherent. This wasn't déjà vu, since he'd originally met her at the baseball game. But it was too similar for him not to be both stunned and baffled.

"Uh ... I'm Jesse ... Jesse Peterson," he said, wondering if she would confirm his suspicion.

"Hi, I'm Candice Tanner. I'm first year. How about you?"

Another shock to the system. He was only just accepting that this woman was a double for Candice when she confirmed that was her name. What kind of strange world had he found himself in? Again, he was rendered speechless, not knowing if he could form a coherent answer. Finally, "Yeah ... I'm frosh too. Are you from around here?" he probed, wondering what other parallels there were.

"No ... Cranbrook. How about you?"

There it was. The confirmation that he was dealing with another dimension in a world he no longer understood. He summoned his control and answered.

"West Van. Local boy," he managed, still reeling under the unbelievable circumstances.

"I'm living in a dorm temporarily. It's not the greatest, but at least I'm not alone," she told him.

"Oh ... yeah ... well, I come from home every day," he said, almost stammering. "How do you mean ... temporarily?"

My brother has an apartment near here, but he's about to go on rotation at the hospital. He's an intern at the General."

Another parallel might have completely put him off, but Jesse was beginning to get his wits about him. "So, you can move into his place?"

"Yes. I might have to share with him now and then, but it won't be often. He has a second bedroom, so it's going to work out fine for me."

"Lucky you. I carpool with some other kids who come from my area. I guess I am lucky. Mom's a good cook so I don't have to eat this stuff every day," he said, looking down at his lunch. He was forcing himself to have this conversation. His mind was reeling at the thought that this was happening to him. Were there more people besides Candice that he would discover in both worlds; now and the future?

She laughed. "I know what you mean. A couple of the girls have smuggled in a hot plate and we make some simple stuff like macaroni and cheese or spaghetti. We take turns cooking. But I can smell the stuff in the hallways and I'm sure someone is going to squeal on us sooner or later. We're not supposed to cook anything in our rooms. Too dangerous, they said. I'll be glad when I can move to David's apartment."

"Yeah," Jesse nodded absently. "What you need is a microwave," he said before realizing just what he'd revealed.

"What's a microwave?" she asked.

"Oh ... it's one of those new inventions scientists are working on. You can't buy one yet. Apparently it zaps the food and stimulates the molecules and makes food hot or even cooks it. Real science fiction stuff, you know."

Jesse was almost proud of himself for how he scrambled to cover his mistake. He was beginning to recover his equilibrium. He was going to have to be far more careful about things like that. He had no idea when the first microwave would come on the market, but it wasn't in 1961.

Candice looked at the magazine and then back up at Jesse. "You must be real smart," she said. "You read about this kind of stuff all the time, right?"

"Yeah ... I suppose," he lied. "It is interesting ... you know ... thinking about the future."

"My dad says we're going to get a colour TV one of these days," she announced.

"I bet it won't be long before everyone has a colour TV," Jesse offered. "After all, once you've seen one, why would you settle for black and white? I also heard someone is going to get a cable network going in Vancouver. That will eliminate roof aerials. Then they can go to work on making TV clearer ... you know ... like the movies."

"Do you think about this stuff a lot?" she asked.

Jesse shrugged. "I guess so. Don't we all think about what the future will be like? I know I wonder what kind of cars we'll drive fifty years from now."

"Hah!" she snapped. "My dad fixes cars and he says fifty years from now we won't be needing cars. We'll all have little helicopters to get around in."

Jesse laughed. "I don't think so," he said with a big grin. "This world will be too crowed to let a bunch of people fly around all over the place, crashing into each other the way they do today. You mess up flying at a thousand feet and you're toast," he added.

She shrugged. "Maybe they'll find a way to fix that too."

"Maybe," Jesse said, not wishing to get into an argument with her. He was still not quite able to reconcile how Candice in 2012 was here in 1961 as well. She couldn't be in two places at once, could she? Then again, he was ... or so it seemed. This was just getting crazier. He had to find a way to deal with it. He forgot about the magazine while he thought about what to say next.

"Uhhm, Jesse, do you have a girlfriend?" she asked, usurping his about-to-be-asked question.

"No. Why?" he asked, looking at her carefully.

"Just curious. I don't have a boyfriend, so maybe we can go on a date sometime ... if you'd like to," she tried tentatively.

He looked at her long and hard before, "Are you serious?" This was too much like their first meeting at the ballpark.

Candice looked unsure, but said, "I guess. I'm new here ... like you ... and I don't know anyone. You look like someone I could trust."

"I am a teenage guy, so ... I guess I'm as trustworthy as the next guy," he said. "My parents would shoot me if I wasn't when I was with a girl."

That brought about a giggle from Candice. "Yeah ... I bet they would, too. Sounds like your parents are something like mine. They'd shoot my brother if he messed up."

"Oh, that's right, you have a brother," he said, knowing that she was referring to Dave.

"Yeah, David. Like I said, he's studying medicine. He's going to be a doctor along with Pete Giesbrecht, my sort of other brother."

"How can you have a 'sort of' brother?" he snorted, knowing now what was coming next.

"Pete lost his parents when he was fourteen. He's been David's friend since they were little kids. My parents adopted him right away so he wouldn't end up in one of those horrible foster homes."

Jesse knew the rest of the story, so he chose not to pursue it any further. This went beyond coincidence. This was too strange to believe. Candice would end up with Pete, if history went according to the future. "Wait a minute," he thought. "How could history go according to the future?" He'd have to think about that.

"My sister is a nurse and she went to school here too," Jesse said, wanting to continue the conversation. "She's in Toronto now."

"Did you and your sister get along? She must have been older than you?" Candice suggested.

"Yeah, she was almost seven years older. She used to have to look after me when I was a kid. She hated that. She couldn't go out with her friends when she had to stay with me. I think that's why she moved to Toronto ... to get away from me," Jesse chuckled.

"I doubt that. Dave and Pete treated me pretty good, considering I was a little pest in pigtails and braces."

"I'm not surprised. Look how you turned out," he grinned. "They must have guessed you'd be a 'head-turner' when you got a little older."

"Nice try, smooth talker," she smirked. "Now, about that date. What've you got in mind?"

"Give me a chance to think of something," he said with a smile. "You just popped it on me a couple of minutes ago. You better tell me what you like and what you don't like."

Candice glanced up at the clock on the wall. "They don't ring the bell here like they did in high school. I have to get to my next class. Can we meet later?"

"Uhhm, I'm in a car pool and we leave around four just after my last class. Why don't we meet here tomorrow? That will give me some time to think about what we can do."

"Okay," she agreed with a nice smile, gathering up her book bag.

"See you tomorrow," she smiled as she left the table.

"Yeah ... tomorrow," Jesse smiled. What next, he wondered?

Thursday, September 28, 1961 11:55am

Jesse was determined not to be late meeting Candice. He had two things going for him. Thursday was a light day for classes. In fact, he had none that afternoon. He slipped out of Economics a couple of minutes early to make sure he got a table in the cafeteria for Candice. He had forgotten that the lunch crowd on Thursdays was lighter than the other days.

He had been thinking about his date with her and wondering how she would respond to him. He wasn't immediately going to have the kind of intimate relationship with her that he had in 2012, but maybe, with a little patience, he could develop something with her. The times were different, he kept reminding himself. Females didn't have the sense of freedom and sexual liberty that he had encountered fifty years in the future. The rules were very different in 1961.

"Hi," Candice said cheerily as she arrived at their table.

"Hi, nice to see you again," Jesse smiled, standing as she arrived.

"What are you going to do this afternoon?" she asked, setting her tray down.

"I'm going to be making some phone calls. I want to find out what kind of education I need to get involved in the computer world," he explained, watching her to see what kind of reaction she would have.

"Computers? Like those big machines you see in the movies sometimes?" she wondered.

"Yes. I've been giving it a lot of thought and I'm pretty sure of two things. One, computers are going to rule the world. At least, they are going to rule most machines. Two, I think they're going to get more powerful and smaller ... maybe even portable," he tried, again watching for her reaction.

"Really? What do you know about computers?" she wondered.

"A little bit," he lied. "Every magazine I pick up has an article about how fast they are developing newer, faster, more powerful machines. One of the magazines I read called it 'Runaway Technology.' In other words, it's developing really fast and it's very hard for companies and individuals to keep up. And it's not just big corporations that are doing it, either. Smaller computer companies are doing development too. Maybe that's where I could fit in."

"Wow. That's amazing. You really think they'll be portable some day?"

"I know it's hard to believe, Candice. My dad's computer at work takes up a whole room and six girls to punch cards to make it run. But it's like anything else; once you get something going, then a whole bunch of people jump in to make it better, so sooner or later I think it will mean a lot more people using computers and maybe even having their own," he said, trying hard not to sound too crazy.

Candice smiled. "That's good, Jesse. I'm glad you know what you want to do. I'm going to study business, then go to work for my family. One day, I may be the president of Tanner Automobile Limited. How's that for ambition?"

"I think that's great, Candice. You can do it. A good education and with your experience in the business and you'll be a big success," he smiled genuinely.

"You mean, considering I'm a girl?" she said with a frown.

Jesse shook his head. "Nope, not at all. There's no reason for you not to succeed. Maybe if you were in a big corporation it would be difficult ... or maybe impossible. Men like to think they rule the world, but the day will come when they recognize women have skills and can handle power too. You're lucky. You have a family business, so there's nothing stopping you if you have the support of your parents. Nothing at all," he smiled.

His smile brought about one on Candice's face as well. "I'm glad you feel that way. Not every guy does," she paused. "So, what are we going to do on our first date?"

"Well, there's an outdoor concert by Tom Rider at Theatre Under the Stars in Stanley Park on Saturday. Or ... we could find a movie. What do you think?"

"Oh, the outdoor concert sounds great ... provided it doesn't rain," she chuckled. "I've never been to one. It sounds like a fun thing to do. Let's take a chance and do that," she said, enthused at the idea.

"Great, I'll get the tickets and we'll make our plans at lunch tomorrow," Jesse smiled.

Saturday, September 30, 1961 11:05 pm

Jesse had wrapped a blanket and his arm around Candice's shoulders as they walked slowly toward the parking lot. The concert had been a great success, not only for the organizers, but for Jesse and Candice. They'd come prepared for the temperature drop in the evening, and Jesse's mother had thoughtfully prepared a large thermos of hot tea for them.

Candice was warm and happy. It had been a great evening, and Jesse was so thoughtful. She'd never had a boyfriend like him before. There was no doubt they were attracted to each other. She knew she was both attractive and sexy. Enough of her girlfriends had told her so. She wasn't a virgin, but she was hardly an experienced young woman.

At sixteen, she'd surrendered her virginity to a then boyfriend and it wasn't very pleasant. However, she tried again with another young guy she knew from high school and it was better, but never quite what she expected it to be. She'd read enough paperback novels to know that there should be more, but not with just anyone. When it came to Jesse, she wasn't so sure she could resist. He was decidedly sexy, and that was a big factor in her thinking.

They kissed as he stopped at her dormitory entrance. It was the same warm kiss that he remembered from her previously. She was still the voluptuous young woman that agitated his hormones when she was nearby. Why was she here? Why was her history ... her background ... the same as it was in the future? Jesse was beginning to wonder just what was real and what was imaginary. The more time he spent on this planet, the more he wondered if he was sane. He felt he was engulfed by a tidal wave. It just threw Jesse wherever it chose and it was out of his power to escape it.

Now, a realization was creeping up on him. He was beginning to feel dissatisfied with his return to "normal life." He missed the instant satisfaction that seemed to be the dominant feature of twenty-first century life. That was selfish, he knew, but he missed Kirsten as well. He could distinguish the difference in his feelings for Candice and Kirsten. It was subtle, but important. He was desperately in love with Kirsten ... or had been. Candice was lovely, and every young man's wet dream. But as warmly as he felt toward her, it wasn't the same intensity he felt for the big Swedish blonde. He was also still convinced that Candice was planning to be with Pete Giesbrecht.

He felt guilty because he was dismissing his family and friends as if they were an inconvenience. He knew that was wrong and he remembered just how lonely and heartbroken he felt when he had lost them the first time. Now ... was he seriously wishing he could return to the future and leave them behind? What kind of person was he that would wish for such a thing? Besides, he had no idea if he could return to the future. He had no clue how he'd got there in the first place, nor how he had managed to return. The more he thought, the more he worried for his future ... and his sanity.

So far, Candice Tanner was the only evidence that his visit forward had actually happened. She was real, of that he was sure. Her kiss, her touch, everything about her was just as he remembered her from before her accident. But it didn't answer any of the other questions. What could he expect to happen to him tomorrow ... or the next tomorrow? How did Candice get to be in two time places at once? Was she a time-traveller as well? Was that something that he could explore with her? Was it possible he was not alone in this strange double existence? Were there others like him?

~*~

Margaret and Michael Peterson lay together in their bed, not yet asleep.

"Mike, do you see a difference in Jesse since he was let out of hospital?" she asked.

"Yes, I do. I can't put my finger on it, but he is different. More mature is my first thought. Certainly thinking differently about the future ... his future."

"I agree he is acting more mature than before," she said. "He's put that awful incident with Juliet behind him, at least. He's already had a date with a college girl."

"Marg, have you not noticed that your son is a handsome and good natured young man? Why should we be surprised that young ladies are going to be attracted to him? There are thousands of young women on that campus to choose from."

"Yes, but so soon," she wondered. "I hope he uses good sense with these dates."

"If you're talking about sex, I hope so too. We've had our talk about that before, and I don't see him acting like he's not aware of his responsibilities. I think he's had quite a shock with this health thing. The doctors may not know what was wrong with him, but he's changed all right. He's more thoughtful about what he wants out of his life. That's a good thing, in my opinion."