by John Huegel
“Say mister, do you think the Cowboys will do any better this year?” asked Andy to the cab driver. That was just what the cabbie needed to start his rant about the poorly performing four-year-old professional football team, and Andy and Tom followed the discussion with interest, having downloaded the Cowboy’s team history before leaving. Of course, the driver didn’t know that within three years, his maligned Cowboys would take over the NFL east and be ranked #1 or #2 for nearly all of the next 20 years.
Soon, the cab pulled up at the imposing Sheraton Dallas Hotel, and a bellman rushed out to take their bags to the desk. “Good afternoon, Mr. Watson. Glad to see you again. And with your family this time!” said the bellman.
Liz sent, *Now how in the blue blazes did you pull THAT off?*
Tom shrugged and sent, *Uh, I guess I come back after this is done and show up early a few times. Remind me to do that, OK?*
*Well, since it obviously happened, you must have done well.* replied Liz. She sent to the kids, who caught on to the later/earlier trick.
Tom paid and tipped the cabbie, and walked to the desk with Liz at his side to register.
The Sheraton Dallas Hotel was a large, imposing structure just off of Pearl Street. Constructed of concrete and glass, it was a grand place for 1963.
Check-in was uneventful, and they were assigned a suite on the 25th floor of the 28-story building, at the time, the tallest west of the Mississippi. The bellman chatted with them about their plans and highlighted various amenities available at the hotel.
The room itself was grand. With three bedrooms and an impressive view of the city, the kids were in awe of the view and the luxury of the place. “We have never stayed at a place like this up north,” said Andy.
“Well, enjoy it while you can, because we check out in two days, and they may be quite busy days, indeed. Shall we freshen up and take in a bit of shopping?” asked Tom.
“Yes!” shouted Laura and Jenna. Andy just rolled his eyes. He was already bored, and shopping would not help the matter.
They left the hotel and used their downloaded city maps to plot a walking path that would take them past many of the city’s finest stores. They knew they could take very little back with them, but a couple more items of clothing or jewelry would be added to Wardrobe 12 on their return.
Their stroll took them down Main Street, straight into a large Nieman-Marcus department store. There they shopped for items very similar to the styles they were wearing. Liz chose a plaid skirt and blazer, while Jenna and Laura both opted for lighter summer dresses with large buttons and belts. Andy and Tom settled for a new tie each, and a new cap for Andy. “Great, just what I wanted,” griped Andy.
After a light lunch in a bright streetside café, the family continued their shopping, and made small talk out loud as they sent private observations to each other.
Continuing their walk, they passed a magazine stand. “Hey Dad, can I buy a Sports Illustrated?” asked Andy.
“Sure, I don’t see why not,” said Tom. Andy chose his magazine and his dad paid in change. Andy was a happy young man!
Returning to the hotel in the late afternoon, they were walking through the lobby toward the elevators when their Timeline alert flashed bright orange. Immediately they stopped and turned and headed for the couches in the waiting area. *What can that be?* sent Jenna to the family.
*I don’t know, just stay low. Laura, pick up that magazine,* sent Tom. Out of the corner of his eye, amid the blinking yellow of the Timeline alert, he recognized one of the photographers that would take historic images tomorrow at the fateful event. *It’s Marie Muchmore! What would she be doing in this hotel? She lives right here in Dallas! Oh, she has a receipt, I think she delivered a dress to someone here. Geez, that was close!*
As Marie left the hotel, their Timeline alerts all went back to green, and after a moment to gather their wits, they took the elevator up to their room to drop their packages. Then, they headed up to the top floor where they had a quiet dinner at the exclusive Chaparral Club.
Later, the kids were restless after dinner. Laura, browsing through the hotel’s notebook, said, “Hey, there’s a kid’s recreation room on level 2. Can we go down?”
Liz and Tom thought for a moment, and Tom said, “Sure, as long as you are careful with your Timeline alerts. Come back up at 10PM please, or we’ll have to send to you.”
“OK, Dad!” said the kids as they raced for the door. Finally, some time with other kids!
Heading to the second floor, they found the recreation room. Accustomed to video arcades and sophisticated home video equipment, they were a bit disappointed with the single black and white television and a couple of game tables, but they brightened as they saw a half dozen other kids their age scattered throughout the room.
Laura, the most outgoing of the three, but still shy around boys, approached another young lady about her age. “Hello, I’m Laura,” she said to the young dark-haired girl wearing a plum colored dress.
“Hello, I’m Susan. Where are you from?”
“We’re from Erie, Pennsylvania. Those are my brother and sister. We’re here with my Dad and Mom. My dad’s a salesman, and he’s here this week so we came to see the President.”
Susan brightened, and said, “That’s neat! I’m here with my Dad and Mom too. We come here a lot, and we are thinking of going over to the parade route tomorrow.”
Laura’s TimeLine sense flashed yellow. She thought and said, “You should try for the start of the route. I hear it’s less crowded there.”
Susan said, “That makes sense. I’ll tell Daddy when I go back up.” Laura’s alert faded to green.
“So, who do you like better, Roy Orbison or Frankie Valley?” asked Susan, moving closer to Laura.
“Well, I’m more of a Beach Boys girl myself,” said Laura, and they launched into a great girl discussion about the handsome male entertainers of the year.
At the table games, Andy and Jenna sat at a table with a couple of boys. “Hi, I’m Tom and this is Dave,” said the smaller of the boys. “We’re both staying here, but we’re not brothers or anything.” Dave smiled but didn’t say much.
Andy replied, “I’m Andy and this is my twin sister Jenna.”
Tom said, “You are twins? You don’t look the same.”
Jenna said, somewhat shyly, “We are fraternal twins. We were born at the same time but we aren’t identical.” Dave was smiling at her, and she smiled back.
Tom said, “Hey Andy, want to play RockEm SockEm?”
Andy smiled and said “You betcha. I have a lot of practice on this game!”
As Andy and Tom squared off with the red and blue robots, Dave quietly asked, “Jenna, do you do puzzles?”
Jenna blushed, and replied, “I love puzzles! Would you do a jigsaw with me?”
Dave smiled, and they moved off to a card table and chose a medium-sized puzzle which they proceeded to dump, sort and start to work the edges, without speaking.
As the kids played with their new friends, the time passed and the chaperone gave a 10 minute notice. The Watson kids, having made new friends, regretted needing to leave them.
David finally asked Jenna, “Um, Jenna, do you think I could, um, maybe write you sometime?”
Jenna blushed and felt warm all over. She was falling for this young man! But she thought about it. She would never get the letter. It would arrive in Erie about the time her parents were born and no one would ever respond. She liked Dave, but she knew that she would never see him again, and if they ever met in real life, he’d be 50 years older than her once she was born.
She said, “Dave, we’re moving soon and I don’t know where. Why don’t you write your address down and I’ll send you a letter when we get back to Erie?”
Dave brightened and ran off to get a pencil and paper.
As Jenna took his address and said her goodbye to Dave, Andy and Tom, as well as Laura and Sue, were saying farewell to each other. Happy as they were to be with other kids, t
hey were sad to know that they would never see them again.
On the ride back to their suite, they were quiet and reflected on their situation as observers in time. It was hard being a kid in a time machine!
Chapter 28: A Fallen Giant
Thursday dawned clear and warmer. The Watsons took breakfast in their room, and commented about the delay from ordering to delivery. They showered, dressed and mentally rehearsed their positions for the motorcade. Tom and Andy would be on Zapruder’s side of the street, about 50 meters upstream of the famous amateur filmmaker, and 200 meters from the Texas Book Depository, where Lee Harvey Oswald would fire three deadly shots later that day. The ladies would be at the corner of Houston and Elm, with a clear view of both the president’s car and the windows of the Depository. They would be spread out but within eye contact of each other, and Laura and Jenna would be together. They would visually ID other cameras and stay clear of their field of view.
They agreed to start recording on Tom’s signal, once they entered their Taxi which would drop them near the parade route.
As their taxi arrived, Tom sent, *OK, gang, start recording.*
*ENHANCEMENT RECORDING ON.*
The blue light confirmed recording for Tom, and the family messaged back, *Recording*.
It was 11:45 AM. America was about to lose a leader.
“Market and Main, Driver,” said Tom. All during the cab ride, the family was churning with dread, but they knew they had to put on a pleasant face for anyone who would see them. They made small talk about the weather during the short ride from the hotel to their dropoff point.
12:00 PM. Leaving the cab, the family took a moment to hug each other. Each one sent, *I Love You!* to the others, and they broke up into two teams to get into position. The crowds were already starting to form, and they wanted to make sure that they had a clear line of sight.
12:10 PM. Tom and Andy stayed close as they kept an eye out for CIA, Secret Service, and most of all, photographers. They also knew that many people would head up the grassy knoll in search of the gunman, so they stayed clear of that area.
12:20 PM On the other side of Dealy Plaza, the ladies stayed together at first, and then Liz remained in one spot and the girls wandered a bit down the street to be in front of the president’s car when it passed. There were five people, ten eyes, and a perfect triangulation.
12:25 PM. *Five minutes, people. Kids, this is going to be pretty shocking. Brace yourselves,* sent Tom.
12:27 PM. The police motorcycles roared into the plaza. *I see movement in the Book Depository window!* Sent Liz. *Girls, don’t be overt about it, just move your heads like you’re looking all over.*
*I see it too,* sent Laura.*There’s people on two floors. A group on the fifth floor and one guy above them. That’s Oswald, right?* sent Laura.
*I think so. Jenna, you and I keep eyes on the shooter. Laura, you and the boys watch the motorcade.* sent Liz.
12:29 PM. The president’s 1961 Lincoln Convertible Limo came around the corner with the President and First Lady in the back and Texas Governor John Connally and his wife Nelly in the front. The president caught Andy’s eye and raised his hand in a small wave. Andy’s eyes flashed red. Then the President lurched forward and a strange look came into his eyes. Jacqueline turned to him and the Governor turned to face back and then as he turned to front, he was hit from behind as well. Andy and Tom could hear the Governor scream, "Oh, no, no, no. My God. They're going to kill us all!"
And then the president’s head exploded from the third shot.
As Jenna and Liz watched the killer methodically fire round after round from the Depository window, Tom, Andy and Laura all saw the president’s death play out in front of them. Laura screamed and wanted to cover her eyes. Andy was nearly sick, but his biological ability quickly suppressed the nausea. Tom could only watch helplessly as Jacqueline cradled her dead husband’s body and the Secret Service piled onto them both. Within seconds, the limo raced away toward Parkland Memorial Hospital.
But the President was already dead, and there was nothing anyone could have done to stop it.
Except for five people in the crowd who knew exactly what was going to happen and when, and they didn’t do a thing about it.
Chapter 29: Aftermath
The Watsons didn’t have to do a lot of acting over the next couple of hours. As stunned and shocked as the rest of the crowd, they found each other and stood and watched as people reacted. They saw the Deputy Sheriff kicking the grass, saying “Oh, Damn, Oh Damn”. They watched as people joined in a manhunt over the grassy knoll. They saw police talking to someone who saw something at the Book Depository, and they witnessed the beginnings of the investigation that would eventually lead to Oswald’s capture and subsequent murder by Jack Ruby. And they knew that Lyndon Johnson was just sworn in as the new President, the Secretary of State was returning to US soil from an aborted trip to Japan, and the nation was about to mourn the death of a great leader. The world was about to change, and the Watsons were the cameras from the future, witnessing it all.
As the shock penetrated the nation’s psyche, the excitement at Dealy Plaza gradually waned. As the area cleared, the family decided to walk back to the hotel in silence. No one even sent thoughts to each other. Finally, as they approached the Sheraton, Tom sent, *Recorders off, team.*
Back in the hotel room, the kids broke down. Andy said between tears, “He saw me. He waved to me. I flashed red, and then he was shot.”
Laura said, “I didn’t realize it was so violent. So brutal. It was unreal…”
Jenna sobbed, “We could have stopped it. We could have run into the street and stopped it.”
Liz said to them, “Now listen to me. You couldn’t have stopped it. Do you know what happens to observers who step into a red placetime? An agent comes in before you did it and stops you. They prevent you from doing it. And then you’re done forever as an observer. So it would have been impossible for any of us to actually change that event. Please don’t feel responsible for today. We were here as cameramen and women, not as a superheroes. And remember what they told us at Time Camp: To change the past, we may destroy all of the future, including us and the entire Guild.”
It was a long night, filled with nightmares and tears. But as they arose on the 23rd of November, the pain and shock was starting to fade a little, and they had at least a small sense of hope that they would recover and move on.
They chose to have their last breakfast in 1963 among other people. They ate in the lobby café, where they struck up a conversation with another family from out of town. The small talk helped root them in the moment, the year, and it cemented their position as a family of observers.
Checkout was short and sweet. Another cab ride took them to the office where TimeStation 3 was housed. Mary was once again there, and she knew to handle them carefully, following their stressful first mission. *You are all amazing,* she sent. *I could never do what you do. And you don’t know how valuable your recordings will become over the centuries.*
*Thank you Mary. We hope to see you again under better circumstances. Look us up if you ever see us active at Time Camp*
*I’ll do that. Save travels, Watson family*
And with that, they returned to Time Camp, at +1 minute from their departure.
They headed straight for Brain Dump upon arrival, and then they met Jade. She saw they were in pain, and spent some private time with each one, talking them through their stress and guilt. After everyone had spent some time reflecting and talking with Jade, Max came in to meet them.
*Tom, Liz, Laura, Andy and Jenna. You did a wonderful job on your first assignment. The recording is spectacular, and your decision to cover both the shooter and the President was brilliant. Your reactions were natural and incredibly deep. I know this hurt you and it will take some time to heal. So please relax for as long as you need, and let me know when you are ready to talk again.*
They spent nearly two weeks recovering. Some of it wa
s in the recreation area, and other time was spent reliving their recording, studying more about the event and its impact on America and the world. But much of their time was spent together, just being a family. Midway through the second week, Tom snuck off briefly, and went back to October 1963 and planted the seeds of familiarity at the Sheraton Dallas Hotel by checking in and out several times over the course of a month. He became a regular at TimeStation 3, where they used the booth to bounce him around 1963 to establish his alibi as a fabric salesman. He returned to his family a minute later.
Finally, their recovery nearly complete, the family became restless and they decided to contact Max.
He met them in an open courtyard in one of the recreation gardens, surrounded by flowers and carefully manicured bushes.
“You look one hundred percent better, Watsons,” said Max.
