Read Class of '59 (American Journey Book 4) for Free Online Page B

least I don't think it is," Mary Beth said. She walked to the table, picked up a newspaper, and handed it to her sister. "Look at the date."
    Piper felt her head lighten as she scanned headlines with crazy words like "Khrushchev" and "Communist." This was a dream, she thought. This was her subconscious playing a trick. This was a sign that, at the tender age of eighteen, she was going insane.
    She appealed again to Mary Beth.
    "Will you please tell me what's going on?" Piper asked.
    "I already have," Mary Beth said. "We've traveled to the past. We're standing in the same house we've occupied for a week. We're just doing it in 1959."
    Piper closed her eyes for a moment and tried to process the unusual start to her morning. She had wanted to do something different and exciting on her California escape. Now, on the second-to-last-day of that escape, it appeared as though the vacation gods had granted her wish.
    Piper glanced at the newspaper in her hands and tried again to make sense of the date, the headlines, and the photos of people with goofy haircuts. She looked at Mark.
    "Can I keep this?"
    "Be my guest," Mark said. "I've already read it."
    "Thanks."
    No one in the room said anything more for nearly thirty seconds, which Piper considered a blessing. She wanted to think this over in blessed silence. She needed time to ponder what she had seen and what two strange men and her normally levelheaded sister believed was real.
    Mark finally broke the quietude. He stepped forward, placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, and said something that made no sense.
    "It looks like you haven't done much since we left."
    "How could I?" Ben asked. "You left a minute ago."
    Mark looked at the clock and smiled.
    "Thanks for confirming my suspicions."
    "What suspicions?" Piper asked. "What are you talking about?"
    Mark turned to Piper.
    "Your sister and I returned to the same moment we left in 1959. Even though we spent fifteen minutes walking around the property and talking to you in 2017, we came back to the exact same time we left. Time stood still, as I thought it would," Mark said. He looked at Mary Beth, who returned his smile. "That opens up a whole new world of possibilities."
    "What do you mean?" Piper asked.
    "I mean the four of us are in a great position to spice up our vacations. Ben and I can travel to 2017 and return as if we had never left 1959. You and Mary Beth can do just the opposite. You can do anything you want."
    Piper looked at Mary Beth.
    "Is he serious?"
    Mary Beth nodded.
    "I don't like this," Ben said.
    "What's the matter?" Mark asked.
    "What's the matter ? I'll tell you what's the matter. You've had fun all morning. I've done nothing but walk around in my bathrobe while you drag girls into the house."
    Mark laughed.
    "Is that your way of saying that you want in?"
    "You're damn right," Ben said. "I want to do something today besides mow the lawn and study for my algebra exam. I want to see 2017. I want to see the future."
    Piper glanced at Mark and Mary Beth and saw them exchange knowing smiles.
    "I think we can arrange that," Mark said to Ben.
    Mary Beth stepped forward and looked at everyone.
    "I know we can," she said.
     

CHAPTER 9: BEN
     
    Hollywood, California – Friday, June 2, 2017
     
    Ben laughed to himself as he recalled the day his father had taken him to lunch at an outdoor café in a rough part of Los Angeles. He had been fifteen at the time and completely clueless about how other Californians, particularly much poorer ones, lived.
    "Keep your eyes peeled and your ear to the ground," Ted Ryan had said before they started their meal. "You can learn a lot about the world by watching and listening."
    Sitting with Mark, Mary Beth, and Piper at an outdoor table at Wanda's of West Hollywood, a bakery and coffee shop, he couldn't disagree. He had learned more about the twenty-first century in eighteen minutes than he had the twentieth century in eighteen years.
    Dogs in 2017 wore more clothes than their