Your alternate ending

[Night Prowler]

If you could write an alternative ending, what would it be?

I came up with this:
Everything is the same as in the book from the beginning until Jake comes back to 2011 for the second time (first time being the nuclear 2011). He comes back to his house, takes his most important stuff and then comes back to the diner. Then he finds a way to destroy it in less than two minutes (bomb/gas leak or something like that). He goes back to 1958, checks if he can come back, but he can't 'cause the portal is gone. So then he kills Frank Dunning, saves that girl from being paralyzed, waits for Sadie to come to Jodie, then kills John Clayton, and then lives happily ever after with Sadie :D

[DeathStalker]

If you could write an alternative ending, what would it be?

I came up with this:
Everything is the same as in the book from the beginning until Jake comes back to 2011 for the second time (first time being the nuclear 2011). He comes back to his house, takes his most important stuff and then comes back to the diner. Then he finds a way to destroy it in less than two minutes (bomb/gas leak or something like that). He goes back to 1958, checks if he can come back, but he can't 'cause the portal is gone. So then he kills Frank Dunning, saves that girl from being paralyzed, waits for Sadie to come to Jodie, then kills John Clayton, and then lives happily ever after with Sadie :D
Going for the ol' "Happy Ending". OK, I can handle that. I'll have to think some more to see if I could come up with a different ending that I would like.

Welcome to the Board!

[GNTLGNT]

Jake & Sadie end up on "Dancing With The Stars"....The End...

[Douva]

Mr. King delivered exactly the ending I expected from him--I would have been thoroughly surprised if the ending had been anything other than bittersweet.

The one thing I wanted to see in the novel but didn't is what would happen if somebody from the past went back through the rabbit hole with Jake. And the one approach that I think might have made a passable happy ending would have been to have Jake and Sadie stop Oswald, escape through the rabbit hole, realize that they'd screwed up the future, go back again to create a reset, and then return to a future where there would now be two versions of Sadie Dunhill, the eighty-year-old version (restored by the reset) who'd never met Jake/George and the thirty-year-old version who'd traveled back and forth through the rabbit hole with him. After so much time was spent emphasizing that causing a reset allows the same items (hamburger meat, cash, etc.) to exist both in the unaltered past and in the present, I really wanted to see that happen with a person.

[Danpd66]

I like them Night Prowler and Douva! That is along the lines of what I would want to happen. I'll have to think it through before I post my "alternate ending".

[Cowboy]

Did someone mention "Happy Ending"?

[PrisonerNumber6]

Here's what J.R.R. Tolkien had to say about the nature of endings. He was talking about fantasy tales yet I can't help but think it has wider applicability. According to Tolkien, "The verbal ending-usually held to be as typical of the end as "Once Upon a Time" is of the beginning-"and they lived happily ever after" is an artificial device. It doesn't deceive anybody." Tolkien says "End phrases of this kind are to be compared to the margins and frames of pictures, and are no more to be thought of as the real end of any particular fragment of the seamless Web of Story than the frame is of the visionary scene, or the casement of the Outer World."

On the words an author chooses to end a story Tolkien commented, "These phrases may be plain or elaborate, simple or extravagant, as artificial and as necessary as frames plain, or carved, or gilded. "And if they haven't gone away they are still there." "My story is done - see there is a little mouse; anyone who catches it may make himself a fine fur cap of it." "And they lived happily ever after.” “And when the wedding was over, they sent me home with little paper shoes on a causeway of glass.”
It was Tolkien’s belief that these type of endings were effective because they, “Have a greater sense and grasp of the endlessness of the World of Story than most modern “realistic” stories, already hemmed within the narrow confines of their own small time.”


Contrariwise, Mr. K has always said, “Know when to right The End.” He’s also, however, the same guy who called endings “Paltry things.” Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle.


What do you think?

[Danpd66]

Here is an alternate ending for you!

One of the Stephen King forum users finds his/her own portal back in time, lets say somewhere around 1961 or so. If it were me I would purchase a '57 Fairlane or '58 Fury and cruise out to Jodie. Upon meeting Jake and telling him where I was from (of which he would have no issues believing since he is a time traveller himself) I would tell him that preventing the assasination of JFK carries dire consequences. Instead of preventing the assasination, I would inform him of the impending danger that Sadie is facing, and how Clayton has been watching their moves. I would assist Jake in stopping Clayton, stand up for Jake as his best man in the wedding and dance with the bride. I would then come back my own time where 11/22/63's ending has changed to a happier version!
:biggrin2:

That is just one of many possibilities running through my mind...silly I will admit, but hey! A guy can dream can't he?

[Rob_Marc]

Hello all,

I've never been much of a horror fan, so I've never picked up a Stephen King book before (I'm also not much of a reader, yet). This is my first Stephen King book I've ever read, and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed just about every page. I was also so deeply saddened when Sadie was killed,] that I lost interest in the book for about a week. I think it was because I was in love with her (Is that even possible to be in love with a book character?). But I did finish it, and really enjoyed the ending.

I found initial interest in the book when I saw King's interview on Today. At many times, I found it very difficult to even put the book down.

Back to the topic at hand, I think my ending would involve Jake being successful with Sadie at stopping Oswald, and him taking her back to the present to get her face fixed, and living happily ever after. But I guess that's not the way King writes books. I would have liked to see his take on someone coming from 50 years in the past, and how much of a culture shock it would be for her. It would be interesting to see someone all of a sudden being bombarded with all the changes that have happened since then. I'm only 30, so the '60's are well before my time, and I can't imagine how much has changed since then. It's one thing to live through those years and see the changes as it happened. They wouldn't be noticed as much for someone who lived through them than if someone, say, slept for 50 years and woke up a la Rip Van Wrinkle.

-Robert in Tx.

[Danpd66]

Robert, it is perfectly understandable to have fallen in love with Sadie, I know I did. My only saving grace is that she isn't real so my wife isn't TOO upset when I talk about her...:love:

[momone53]

Rob, welcome to the board. I hope you will continue to read Stephen King, or anyone elese for that matter. It can take to worlds beyond your imagining. Try the Dark Tower books, I think you will find that there is not much horror there. Also, Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption and the Body. Good luck and have fun.

And may you have twice the number.

[Oil-man]

Greetings all.

I was surprised to see this forum is turned off during the weekend. Oh well.

I thoroughly enjoyed 11/22/63. There was one loose end in the novel that I have incorporated into an alternate ending.

You may recall that Jake mentioned once or twice that when he was a child, his dog got out of the yard and was run over and killed by a truck. What if, in order to reset the butterfly effect all the way, it was Later-Jake who has to go to Younger-Jakes house, let the dog out of the yard and then kill it with a truck. That would be ironic, to say the least.

[GNTLGNT]

Here's what J.R.R. Tolkien had to say about the nature of endings. He was talking about fantasy tales yet I can't help but think it has wider applicability. According to Tolkien, "The verbal ending-usually held to be as typical of the end as "Once Upon a Time" is of the beginning-"and they lived happily ever after" is an artificial device. It doesn't deceive anybody." Tolkien says "End phrases of this kind are to be compared to the margins and frames of pictures, and are no more to be thought of as the real end of any particular fragment of the seamless Web of Story than the frame is of the visionary scene, or the casement of the Outer World."

On the words an author chooses to end a story Tolkien commented, "These phrases may be plain or elaborate, simple or extravagant, as artificial and as necessary as frames plain, or carved, or gilded. "And if they haven't gone away they are still there." "My story is done - see there is a little mouse; anyone who catches it may make himself a fine fur cap of it." "And they lived happily ever after.” “And when the wedding was over, they sent me home with little paper shoes on a causeway of glass.”
It was Tolkien’s belief that these type of endings were effective because they, “Have a greater sense and grasp of the endlessness of the World of Story than most modern “realistic” stories, already hemmed within the narrow confines of their own small time.”


Contrariwise, Mr. K has always said, “Know when to right The End.” He’s also, however, the same guy who called endings “Paltry things.” Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle.


What do you think?

I think you're correct, that somewhere in the middle may be true...but I can't help think that no story every TRULY ends, because our own imaginations will continue to gift characters with "life" within the confines of our own minds...and those storylines are indeed endless....

[tmac61]

Rob, your alternate ending is the same thing I would have liked to have seen, but being a long time (since 1980) Stephen King fan, I found the ending to be classic King, open ended, and bittersweet.

[Srbo]

Don`t know.
I know it`s fun to play the game, but I like the ending just the way it is...

[plastic_cactus]

Why didn't jake simply go back to jodie, meet sadie again, fall in love and live ALMOST the rest of his life with her? (during this period he would have long since explained the entire story of how they met before and how he was a time-traveler). Then, when the time was right (by then, an elderly man) he would say goodbye to his true love and leave that version of history through the rabbit hole. Then he would return one more time to reset everything then go back through the rabbit hole and let it "pop" out of existence once and for all.
This way he would be able to spend nearly his entire life with the woman and town he loved and there would be no consequences (or close to no consequences; as Mr. King points out, repeated journeys in and out of the rabbit hole leaves residue).

[fushingfeef]

I kept waiting for the portal to close up and strand him in either the past or the future.

[Danpd66]

Fushingfeef, I was kind of expecting that as well. Then he would have desperately had to seek out another portal and hoped that it took him back to a time before he prevented the assasination.

[not_nadine]

I was sort of expecting Jake/George to reveal where came from when he was out of it in the hospital.

[Welvice]

I really would like to know how Sadie would have reacted to the world of 2011. With and without nuclear war outcomes. I think all the electronica we use nowadays could be kind of shocking for her. With that, what if the president still was Obama, that would be a shock for a person who actually lived in a time of racism. But she might react the same to Hilary Clinton being the president of the USA, because feminism was a growing thing in the 60s as well. She might have mistrusted Jake after discovering that there HAD been a nuclear war, even though Jake said there wouldn't be, though it wouldn't be Jake's fault at all. I really would have loved to see Sadie entering the world of 2011.

[Rob_Marc]

Another thing I would've liked to see in this book, is Al not killing himself before Jake went back to stop Oswald. After all, wether you're there for 2 hours or 20 years, it's always 2 minutes later when you come back. Surely he could've suffered for a few hours to see his future when JFK was saved.

[doowopgirl]

I think the ending was perfect. I truly believe that EVERYTHING happens for a reason. So, by arbitrally changing one thing, you then have no control over everything else. Besides that, I don't think I could be satisfied with 'and they lived happily ever after'. No, the ending was perfect.

[sam peebles]

The only thing I would change is that I would end the novel a few pages earlier than King did. After staying at the motel for a while, and eventually deciding not to change things in the past, to not save the janitor's family or ever meet Sadie, Jake does what the Green Card Man has asked and steps back to his own time without making waves. That is where I would end it, him stepping through for the last time. It leaves things more open-ended, where we never learn the exact fate of Sadie, and can make it up for ourselves. In King's version we are told about how, after returning, Jake left Maine for Westborough (right next to me!!!) and eventually made his way back to Texas to meet an elderly Sadie. I'm glad King gave us this extra bit of knowledge to their fates, but if there was an alternative ending, I would leave it out.

[Danpd66]

Sam that would have been brutal! I don't know how I would have felt if there hadn't been any closure with Sadie. I probably would have been more screwed up than I was with King's original ending.

[sam peebles]

Haha. I agree Danpd that it would've hurt, but King's ending hurt me too. I don't know personally which one would've hurt less.

[MyWorld]

I have been a King fan since the late 1980s with Cujo (or Fire Starter) being my first book. This is my first post and I am glad it is here.

Hindsight is 20/20 and it is easy to say, "If I were writing this book, I would end it this way..." Most endings are the authors and endings come when the opportunities present themselves. However, this being said, if I were writing this book, I would have...

There is always that conspiracy theory about Oswald - was he the lone gunman? As far as the book is concerned, I would say no. Jake returned several times and each time he saved, or tried to save, the Dunning family. Because the past harmonizes, there should be a second gunman, Harry Dunning (making Jake no longer his good angel) or Arthur Dunning (Tugga got killed twice, why not a third time). Jake sees both Harry/Tugga and Oswald, has time to fire only once (which is Harry/Tugga because he is holding the rifle out the window), and kills Harry/Tugga. This spooks Oswald who has his own weapon, fires at Jake, and the story resumes as Mr. King wrote it (Jake falling down, etc). Jake would feel bad that not only was Sadie killed but someone (Harry or Tugga) in that family he returned to save killed Sadie and Jake had to kill him. The past harmonizes.

[PrisonerNumber6]

I'll be fair, I never expected to write one of these, however this idea just wouldn't go away. Whether that means bad or good is hard to tell, just cause an idea won't go away doesn't necessarily make it good. Anyway, my ending.

The story follows the book up to the point where Jake returns from the alternate future he created. He exchanges words with Richard Lang, the Green Card Man. Instead of being passive, Jake grows more angry. He accuses Lang of starting this whole mess, something Lang admits to in a veiled way. The name Dr. Frankenstein gets tossed out at one moment. Jake wants to go back and save Sadie but Lang tells him it's wrong. Jake and Lang argue. Jake reaches breaking point and punches Lang down and starts to leave. Lang tackles him, they struggle. Jake...what?...Pushes him so that Lang's impaled on something? cuts Green Card's throat with bottle glass? Lang does it to himself saying, "Is this what you want Jake?!!! Jake says, yes, it is what he wants. Green Card cuts throat. Jake leaves, catches bus to Derry and kills Dunning then save C. Poulin. He makes his way not to Dallas but Las Vegas and manages to catch Sadie on the rebound from her divorce. It's not easy but he gains her trust, and love. He's a big boost to her confidence through her divorce. They get teaching jobs and Jake saves enough so that one day out of the blue he asks Sadie if she'd like to travel around maybe see the world.

Jake mentions it was the craziest idea he's ever had, even crazier than stopping Oswald. Jake knows he might be tempting fate, but something in him just says go for it so he puts the question to Sadie. She considers this question and at last decides yes and Jake books them a flight to Europe, this is around 1958 going on 59.

Cut to present day in Derry Maine. Jake and Sadie, older now but still hale and still very much in love (Sadie looking especially ravishing with an unscarred face), are making there way past the Derry Civic Center. On the Marquee reads the following.

Coming Feb. 19th One Night only Derryfest Presents The Beatles 56th Anniversary Tour. With Musical Guests Eric Clapton and Mark Knopfler. Special Concert Broadcast presented by Rich "Records" Tozier's All Dead Rock Show. Special Exclusive Interview with Rich "Records" Tozier after concert.

Jake and Sadie look at the marquee then each other and smile. Sadie says she still has no idea how they could manage to be so lucky in running into them when they did. Jake admits he is too, he never knew the first thing about show business. They get in Jake's car and drive out of Derry. Jake comments that the place feels different from the last he was there, less haunted somehow.

As they drive away they pass through Lisbon Falls and Jake is overcome with nostalgia. He passes by Worumbo Mills and as he does, Jake sees someone on the sidewalk in front of the old building. As the car passes the man takes out an umbrella with he opens, then pumps twice in the air. The man then folds the umbrella and walks away, disappearing behind the Mill. Jake watches all this and sees the man look directly at him as he performs his actions. Jake screeches car to a halt Sadie is confused, wants to know what's the matter, Jake tells her to wait in the car. He runs around to the back of the Mill, looking for the Umbrella Man. He doesn't find him, but he does the man, but he does see the umbrella lying in front of the spot where the rabbit hole used to be. Jake thinks of picking it up, decides better, and walks off back to Sadie, and their life together.

So, what do you think?

[Pucker]

Well . . . it's clear that the story already has an "alternate" ending. Several times (well . . . okay . . . twice, that I can remember) Jake drops the line "if there is a you" (meaning us -- the readers) while explaining the potential consequences of all his toublesome mucking about in the past, which would seem to suggest that the author was meaning, ultimately, to leave him in the past. I suppose it may have been some kind of obtuse misdirection that went right by me, but it looked for all the world as if -- as so often happens -- the story simply refused to cooperate with the author's original intent. Time-travel stories are tricksy business, though, and you risk a lot when you present your protagonist as a deeply compassionate man and then have him decide that his own personal happiness is more important than everything else in the world at the end.

As a reader, I think it works very well as written. As a writer, I would have had Jake make the same choice, but ended it without him ever learning anything about the consequences of that decision. It's a matter of personal taste, but I simply prefer open ends to neat, tidy bows on everything.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Bleah!

But I guess that's just me.

:dunno:

[Danpd66]

I really like it PN6!

[AnnaMarie]

with about 100 pages left, I had an idea of how I'd like to see it end.

Jake manages to kill Oswald, he and Sadie make it back to the rabbit-hole, but as they go through, only Jake makes it back to the future. although things went through (meat) nothing living was ever brought through, so I expected it just wouldn't be possible. Then Jake is in 2012, Sadie's in 1963, and if he goes back...it's a reset. But, I like King's ending much more.

[Danpd66]

It would be interesting to know what other possible endings were tumbling around in King's head...I wonder if we will ever find out?

[onlyrichbyname]

My alternate ending would be this:

Jake is unable to remember Bonnie's name, and becomes hysterical when he is not allowed into the Book Depository. The commotion he causes attracts the police, who are particulary highly strung on this important day. When they see a man ranting and raving about the President being shot, they over-react and end up shooting Jake.

As Jake lies dying on the sidewalk, he hears the first shot ring out from the depository, and realises that his actions have distracted the police from doing their real job - i.e. noticing Oswald at the window with the rifle.

Jake dies horrified at the thought that his attempt to save Kennedy has actually provided the distraction that allows Oswald to assassinate him. He realises - all too late - that fate can not be changed, and the past can not be altered. Everyone is on a pre-determined path, and everything he has done, he was meant to do.

[jalexbrown]

Only seconds after stopping Oswald from shooting Kennedy, George hears a bang off in the distance and realizes someone else killed Kennedy. (Kennedy had lots of people that didn't like him, so it doesn't seem all that hard to believe especially since...)
...the past is obdurate.

[hossenpepper]

Jake/George opens a small burrito stand and also sells fried possum on a stick.

Later he buys a Trans Am and pretends he wrote all of The Doors music by giving them all of their songs in a notebook on Venice Beach. Jim Morrison tries to call him out...now you know why Jim died.

SPOOOOOKKY!!! :ghostface::bat:

[scout66]

I just finished the book. Don't really have an alternate ending. I DID wonder if it would be possible for Sadie to go through the rabbit hole, if that's where they ended up. I also wondered if the rabbit hole really brought you back to the same "when" as well as the same "where" via some kind of "reset" or if it only LOOKED like the same spot and time. There were differences, after all. The same spot on the same merry go round, or the same spot on a different one?

[Ravel]

Hi all :smile2:

I must say I was kinda touched by the ending. A man tries to make the world a better place, and he "only" ends up with less years to live and experiences no one is going to believe in. That's pretty sad, even for Stephen King.

But, I was just wondering: SK wanted to write the book in 1971. Let's assume that he would: Jake goes back to the past by only a couple of years. He could've discover what would happen if he'd change the past, but after he'd get back Sadie would be - more or less - at his age! This means that they could be together no matter what. I wonder if Stephen King planned to end it like that. Anyone knows?

I also wondered: Al got back from the past, but the world wasn't destroyed because of his actions. And he done much more than Jake planned: he saved lives, bought a lot of stuff there in just one timeline. So, technically, if Jake decided to stay with Saddie, it couldn't have been that bad for the world.

And: why killing her in the first place? Mike Noonan from "Bag of Bones" said that you only kill a hero if you don't have any idea what to do with him/her. Could it be the reason of such solution? "We would've get away with this if it hadn't been for you, Stephen King!" :ghostface:

[T4phage]

... A man tries to make the world a better place, and he "only" ends up with less years to live and experiences no one is going to believe in. That's pretty sad, even for Stephen King.



and the worst part of it..
he meets his soulmate
and share heartwarming/heartbreaking moments
with her
and in the end he sees her killed
and then sees her alive
but fated never to be together...

that is harsh

[tenngolfer]

I don't usually get "attached" to fictional characters, but Sadie is a very special gal. Too bad Jake didn't see it as strongly.

[tenngolfer]

I decided to jot down a few ideas, and one lazy attempt at an alternate ending for 11/22/63. As I have posted on this board before, the published ending is very classic Stephen King, and it is a great book. Why then write another ending? As I posted before, I don’t read books that have this good a combination of both character development and romance, which made me, want the romance to continue. All my divergent jots and my “lazy” written ending, all go the same direction, the same ending with the exception of when to divert the action path from the published ending. To someone who can actually write (not me) these could be a few more chapters or another book. I tried posting this once as a whole piece, but realized there were too many characters, so it will be in three posts.
Some thoughts on divergence from the published ending:


Jake argues with Zach Lang rather than take the all or none scenario. He tells Zach the past alters enough of itself to defend the future as needed. And he would not let Sadie go, and appeals to Zach’s “improved” historical knowledge/ perspective to find the least disruptive scenario to be with Sadie. The next step would either have Zack grudgingly giving Jake the info; or consulting with higher authorities before doing the same thing.
Rather than tear up the post card he almost send to Deke, he sends the post card. Now, Zach has the reason to reach out to Jake to let him know that he altered the future with the post card and must “fix it”. The easiest direction on this path seems to be, to have Zach tell Jake that Sadie was supposed to die at the hand of her husband, and her “good deeds” will also have some negative futuristic consequences. This would lead at least 2 different scenarios:

Go back immediately using the rabbit hole save Sadie earlier and bring her back to the future where the timeline can better accept her existence.
Stick with the published ending or a version of it, and add Jake getting the 80 year old Sadie to recognize him, then revealing to her Zack has contacted him and said he needs Sadie to write a note to herself of 1958 that would convince herself the deliverer of the letter was actually from the future and should be cooperated with at all cost. Then they could go to the future or Jodie of 1958, or another destination.

[tenngolfer]

Part 2.
Okay, now similar to the thought or two above, my thoughts on keeping Jake and Sadie together. It starts at the end of the book as it was published (why mess with the art created by Mr. King anymore than necessary?). To repeat the last lines of the book:
She speaks in a voice almost too low to be overheard by the music, but I hear her-I always did, “Who are you, George”?
“Someone you knew in another life, honey.”
Then the music takes us, the music rolls away the years, and we dance. How we danced! At first slow and gentile, then with each touch, with each handhold we moved as no years existed between us, our bodies moving to the beat, slow or fast, in perfect harmony with each other, as it was always meant to be.
Then suddenly she steps back from me, stops, and stares, then whispering to herself low again she calls me “Jimla”. A chill runs up my spine, before I can fully stammer out “what the …:” she whispers, “residue resides on true loves kiss” she steps forward in one big motion, and kisses me, long, sweet, passionate, most of all, energizing. I felt the energy build, then “explode” in a pulse that caused me to open my eyes, I could not be sure but I thought I saw reality itself ripple with a wave extending out from us.
I feel Sadie start to buckle in my arms, I hold her and she struggles back to stability. “Honey, are you okay”, I ask. She looks up slowly, and her eyes look at me knowingly, I’m seeing my Sadie in those eyes, the Sadie of 1963. My heart is beating fast, and I noticed her anxiety as well. “I love you” is the first words out of her mouth, continuing “I do not remember why or how, but I am drowning with feelings and emotions. I know I love you, I know you took care of me, you protected me and nursed me, and I nursed you. Where, how, and why, I do not remember. We had a life together, didn’t we George?”
“Yes Sadie, we were engaged, and very much in love”, I say never letting my eyes leave hers. She looks down, then up again in my eyes, and asks “George, do you still love me, why are you here, how can you love this old woman standing in front of you. I feel we knew each other in our youth, or at least young adulthood? How can I not remember being engaged to you, after all I still I remember the address of the house I lived in at age 5?”
“Yes I love you Sadie, now and forever, through decades and timeline strings, old age and youth, I could never forget you” I attest, then add “what did you say before you kissed me?” Her eyes light up, a memory, I realize she now has a memory. “I remember something, something that you need to see” she says, then she follows, “this body can’t take dancing for very long, would you like to go for coffee and dessert? Do you like poundcake?” With a grin wider than the Cheshire cat I say “yes… I do”.
Not being a writer, and for the sake of brevity, time now to skip ahead after Jake and Sadie have spent more quality time together.
Sadie brings out a lock box from the bedroom into the living room where Jake is seated on the sofa. She rummages through the contents and pulls out an old letter and hands it to Jake. The letter was postmarked Lisbon Falls Maine 1958, and addressed to Jimla Jake Epping in care of Deke Simmons, Jodie, Texas. “Deke gave this to me a few years before he passed. He held it for a long time, and told he wondered if he should have tossed it years ago” Sadie said, and adds “I know you said your name is George but I know you are more, and I think this letter is for you”. Jake holds the opened envelope and pulls out a one page letter and another sealed envelope. Jake notices the envelope is addressed to “Jimla”, and the letter itself is in two parts, the first addressing Deke:
Mr. Simmons,
This letter is of crucial importance to two people you cared for very much in the past; and potentially, ignoring it can shake the world if you do not help. Please heed my warning and deliver this letter as instructed. A librarian named Sadie will come to work for you in the next five years. Give this letter and the sealed envelope to her. Jimla, the second and true Jimla, will find her eventually, it is destined.
I scan on down to the second half of the page which addresses and instructs Sadie.
Sadie,
You have no doubt read Deke’s instructions and hopefully you now understand the gravity of the situation. Reach out with your feelings and you will know my words are true. Jimla is coming for you, again. Can you feel him now as you read this letter? Know truth, residue resides on true loves kiss. Jimla must read this letter, make sure he does. He will ask you for something, please give it to him. Search your feelings; you will know it is right.

[tenngolfer]

I tried to post part 3, but it did not show, so here it is again.
I open the envelope and pull out the second letter and a clear card that shines in rainbow colors as my fingertips touch it.
Jimla,
I can only start by saying I am sorry, so very very sorry. As I told you before we are only human, and as humans we make mistakes. Just like your mistake with JFK. In my time, we understand more of time and space then the scientists of your day, but we do not understand everything; and some of what we do not understand causes big mistakes. Although there is a science around attraction, love still is a baffling mystery now as it was in your day. The residue created has attached itself to you and Sadie, an energy that is even stronger when you are together than apart. Love and residue have their own energy, combined they are a power source. I should have let you save Sadie. She was meant to die at the hand of her husband, but the residue kept her alive for you to find her again. I now know you and Sadie could have been accepted by the timeline. And for the good she did in the current timeline, she has allowed one evil to live.
You were not there to occupy Sadie’s time, so she volunteered to supervise a busload of freshmen on a hike. She pulled a tick off of a boy named David Chandley. David would have once grown further and further ill from a tick bite, eventually passing away three years later. Without George Amberson, the residue altered string allowed Sadie to save David who later grows up to be a civil engineer with SSC Steel Corporation, a company bent on growing their steel empire. David would be assigned to check out an old building called the Kitchener Ironworks in the town of Derry, Maine for possibly re-opening. David disappeared in that building one hot summer day in the mid 80’s, never to be heard from again. While checking out the structural foundation of the basement, David found some unusual looking orbs, and took one for examination. Before he made it very far, he was struck from behind and fell into a very special bubble, similar to your rabbit hole, but into world very different from our own. The evil orb was protected from impeding destruction; later returning to our world to spread evil.
Even if you were able to go back and allow David’s fate, the orb is still residue that will be unchanged in a dimension that turns on a different set of gears than our own. Resetting your past, will not save the future. Yet you hold the key to the future, you are the Jimla; man, monster, and hero. Al unknowingly sought you out, in particular, because you were meant to travel through time. Kyle could not hear or feel Al’s presence in the past, but he knew you are the Jimla, something more than just Jake or George. The future needs saving, and you are the right man. I told you there were other bubbles, though I wanted to avoid the details. Now I must share with you the town of Derry, Maine is highly unusual for its bubble activity. The card you now hold is a computer that has been programmed to help you find the bubble you need, and the dimensional vortex David fell through. You are better off without the hat; the more complex communication part of the computer.The card will turn red as you near the vortex bubble, and will turn green when you find your time bubble to save Sadie, yes, to save Sadie. Once you return with Sadie take the card to the vortex and leave it. If the card stays within the short distance of the vortex for more than 2 minutes, and remains in the presence of the vortex, a 5 minute countdown will start followed by a large explosion to close the bubble. Hopefully, if you move fast, this will happen before the monster steps back through the vortex into our world.
Trust your feelings Jimla. More powerful than computers are those individuals gifted to see or feel the things most people cannot. Have you already figured out to trust your feelings above what you can see? The evil you will encounter feeds on those trusting in sight alone. The bubble you need to seek out is on the edge of the Ironworks. The card will help you, hold it, and think of a question, the answer will be there. To keep you from being tempted by the future, the computer has been limited. To save Sadie, you will have to move fast and you will need her help to defeat the evil. Apart from each other, the residue clinging to you or Sadie will smell like something “good on the grill” to the monster that haunts Derry. Together the power you generate, will give the monster concern, possibly even fear. Ask your Sadie of today to write her younger self a letter containing revelations only she can know, again this bubble will not give you as much time with Sadie while in the past, move fast. An evil has haunted Derry approximately every 27 years, until its death in 1985. There are never guarantees the progeny will stick to the same time line, but move fast.
Please forgive me, Jimla, I didn’t know.
Zach Lang

Mr. King allowed the readers of “11 22 63” to visit the world of “IT”. He gave us the timeline and location, and while searching for a way to let Sadie and Jake be together, it is just too tempting not to throw a plank across the void from one world to the other. Perhaps this was Mr. King’s intention all along. Both books are great works, worthy of sequels, and perhaps one that allows both to live. There are of course lots of ways to get there, here is one. I tried to leave opportunities by acknowledging Derry as a vortex, residue as energy, and a computer that could give handy information. Again, not a serious attempt to write, because I do not know what that is all about; and I’m sure I have made all sorts of logical, literary, and grammatical errors; I’m just trying to tie things together for my own pleasure.

[Izhitsa]

...
But, I was just wondering: SK wanted to write the book in 1971. Let's assume that he would: Jake goes back to the past by only a couple of years. He could've discover what would happen if he'd change the past, but after he'd get back Sadie would be - more or less - at his age! This means that they could be together no matter what. I wonder if Stephen King planned to end it like that. Anyone knows?
...
Wasn't Jake supposed to get a lethal dose of radiation in the 'Kennedy lives' world?

[cjp240573]

Only seconds after stopping Oswald from shooting Kennedy, George hears a bang off in the distance and realizes someone else killed Kennedy. (Kennedy had lots of people that didn't like him, so it doesn't seem all that hard to believe especially since...)
...the past is obdurate.

This would have been a "I didnt see that one coming"... twists.

[The Walkin Dudemar]

Sadie survives and she and Jake go to the Rabbit Hole to begin their new lives in 2011. The Green Card Man tells them about the de-stabilization issue and also warns them that Sadie will not like what she finds in the future and that she should remain in 1963. Ignoring him, they approach the wall, hold hands and step through. Jake feels Sadie's hand seem to shrink a little, the skin seeming to loosen on her bones. They get through and he looks at her and sees that she is suddenly 83 years old.

Jake realizes non-living matter (including once-living matter like beef, of course) from the past can make the transition unchanged, and persons from the future can return there just fine, but for persons native to the past, time will rapidly catch up to them. The story ends with Jake attempting to decide if he should chance returning to 1963 with her in the hopes she will regain her youth and weighing the odds that he will cause the end of the world through de-stabilizing

[JellybeanJay]

I was actually quite satisfied with the ending even though I really would have like to see Jake and Sadie find a way to be together.

[Unregistered]

with about 100 pages left, I had an idea of how I'd like to see it end.

Jake manages to kill Oswald, he and Sadie make it back to the rabbit-hole, but as they go through, only Jake makes it back to the future. although things went through (meat) nothing living was ever brought through, so I expected it just wouldn't be possible. Then Jake is in 2012, Sadie's in 1963, and if he goes back...it's a reset. But, I like King's ending much more.


YES! I thought of this as well. Then Jake meets Sadie in 2012. For him it would have been only a short time since he last saw her. For her, she'd have waited decades and when she finally sees him, he looks exactly as he did last she saw him decades ago. They end up together and live out her few remaining years.

This being said, I do love the book's ending.

[Matt Murdock]

Beautiful thread folks. Nothing beats SK's ending but its been great reading yours, some of them are excellent.

I myself thought that some how Jake/ George would have caused or facilitated the assasination then realised that there was nothing really that he could do to change the past on such a grand scale. He and Sadie would accept it and they would both live happily ever after.

[Ira4632]

Thought I would throw my two cents in for my first post and offer up an alternate ending. (Not that the original isn't great.)

Party lights hang over the street, yellow and red and green. Sadie stumbles over someone’s chair, but I’m ready for this and catch her easily by the arm.

“Sorry, clumsy,” she says.

“You always were, Sadie. One of your more endearing traits.”

Before she can ask about that, I slip my arm around her waist. She slips hers around mine, still looking up at me. The lights skate across her cheeks and shine in her eyes. We clasp hands, fingers folding together naturally, and for me the years fall away like a coat that’s too heavy and too tight. In that moment I make a decision: Sadie and I were meant to be together and knowing that she lived out her years in this timeline safely and successfully, yet alone, and never found another love like the one that we shared in that one long ago timeline, made me realize that I had to go back one last time and spend my remaining years with her, in her time. It was meant to be.

It was only changing large scale world events like stopping JFK from being killed that had caused the new future to disintegrate. That Al had re-sold 1958 meat hundreds of times in 2011, and that I had gone back and saved Harry’s family the first time and returned to a 2011 that wasn’t on the brink of collapse was proof of that. Surely I could go back one last time, and knowing now that Sadie, with Deke and Ellie’s help, had survived the crazed John Clayton’s attack in April 1963, I could arrange to come to Jodie and get hired as a teacher sometime after this and meet her and we could, and indeed would, fall in love again. I would steer clear of Lee Oswald and John Kennedy and trying to change any history beyond my own.
Was the time portal still there? Even though Al’s trailer was gone, something as dimension transcending as a rabbit hole to the past had to still exist, and even if it was hidden behind the drywall of the L.L. Bean Express, I knew that if it was there I would find it. I began to think beyond the uncertainty of how I would find the rabbit hole and began to allow myself the luxury of thinking of how I would spend the next five years after finding it before allowing myself to go to Jodie – I would become a real life J.D. Salinger, in his time, no less – writing novel after novel in seclusion, making as few alterations to reality as possible, until I safely made my way to Sadie again. I was no longer worried about the destiny of the world, I had my own destiny to fulfill.
Perhaps I would meet her on November 22, 1963, the day our President would again be killed. It would be a memorable day to (for me, again) meet your soulmate and although I knew, as I held the 80 year old Sadie in my arms, that in fact me and her younger incarnation were indeed soulmates and I would find my way back to her, it was confirmed to me that I would be successful by what elder Sadie said to me next, in a voice almost too low to be heard over the music. I did hear her, however—I always had. “I know who you are, George. Or should I say Jake?”

I looked deep into her eyes and froze as I wondered how she could possibly know that name, and before I could reply, she said, “You remind me so much of my late husband.”

“Your husband?” I ask. The ‘late’ part didn’t entirely register with me at the moment. She looked deep into my eyes. “Yes, my dear husband, the love of my life. You have his…aura. You… My God, you even look just like him.” She hesitated for a second and seemed to be deep in thought. “You look just like… him. Just like he looked the day I met him. The day the president was shot. We were married 39 years when he died in 2004. Two weeks shy of our fortieth wedding anniversary. He was a bit older than me.” I forced myself to not try to remember these details so specifically that I would know exactly when I would die, and assuming that this Jake she had married was in fact me, in the future yet also in the past, and assuming that nothing else turned out differently, it did seem that I would live a long and happy life.

My head was spinning as I tried to wrap my head around what elder Sadie was telling me and what it meant, even if she didn’t know it, although perhaps somehow, in some way, she did.

The music had stopped and I realized we were a spectacle – a 40 year old man and an 80 year old woman, deep in an intimate conversation – but I also realized neither her nor I cared.
“Thank you for the dance, Mr. Amberson, ghost of my late husband. Thank you for showing an old woman a little joy. It is getting late, and I must be getting home to bed.”

I bid her adieu as well. I had a long trip to get started on.

[The Nameless]

I really liked the ending and only really would have liked if they all live happily ever after in 2011 as an alternative, but I would have liked there to have been one expansion, maybe a multiverse theory type of thing - every action causes a different reality to play out, because I really would have liked to know Bev and Richie's reaction to the Dunning family being saved because Jake/George basically admitted he had to stop their Dad.

[SLCer]

It would've been fascinating, in a morbid kind of way, if Jake found an inability to return to the rabbit hole once he ventured to the 2011 reality he had created when he saved Kennedy. Then he's forced to live in that reality knowing full well the universe is probably going to collapse solely due to his messing with the past. Dark? Yes. Fitting? No. Interesting? It could be.

[unclelouie]

Alternate ending 1-
Maybe when Jake returned to 2011 after saving JFK, and then making the re-set trip, he would have ended up in an alternate 2011 and met a Sadie twinner. Same age as the Sadie of Jodie 1963, but with an iphone, Facebook page, and Takuro Spirit SUV. This would be sort of like the end of DTVII when Suze meets twinner Eddie in alternate NYC.

Alternate Ending 2-
When Oswald is killed, he ends up in Mid World. He then becomes a vampire, and regularly eats chow at the Dixie Pig with the low men and other vampires. Of course, he is taken out by Father Callahan and Bama Jake.

[oceantracks]

Well that's more like it. Love this ending! Nice writing.

I felt like this tale easily could have ended with him staying in the past. It was where, as he had said, he had the best time of his life, and he had actually nothing in 2011 but a mundane life and a wrecked marriage to hold him. On the other hand, with Sadie he had everything. I really think King blew it, but I'm in the minority I guess. Still love the book, just don't like the ending. I hate the taste of bittersweet I guess!

[unclelouie]

Well that's more like it. Love this ending! Nice writing.

I felt like this tale easily could have ended with him staying in the past. It was where, as he had said, he had the best time of his life, and he had actually nothing in 2011 but a mundane life and a wrecked marriage to hold him. On the other hand, with Sadie he had everything. I really think King blew it, but I'm in the minority I guess. Still love the book, just don't like the ending. I hate the taste of bittersweet I guess!


I cried like a baby at the end. I'd say SK did his job well :)

[MissingSadie]

Loved the book until the end. The ending was bad because everything Jake did never happened. All the relationships he made, all his interactions with Sadie and the kids from his high school in the past were wiped out. 800 pages of tying us emotionally to the characters was completely pointless. I understand why this happened, but I think it was too brutal. I really wish he could have somehow brought stayed in the past, but assuming Sadie had to die, this is my ending (please excuse the typos, I dictated with Siri on my iPhone. I had to split this post into two sections because of the length): In the end it was that Sunliner that made all the difference.

I ended up staying in the motor Lodge three to half days longer than my original personal ultimatum, depression pressing me to the bed, making every Physical movement a conscious struggle.

When I finally was able to put 1 foot in front of the other and head back for the rabbit hole, I began replaying the events for the millionth time in my head. I got to thinking about the Sunliner and it's final trip and how I watched that needle slowly move toward the H.

The Sunliner's gauge was not color-coded red and green like a modern temperature gage, nor did it swirl and alternate shades like th e card in Kyles hat. But the memory sparked the realization that I had a time continuum gauge right in front of me. I had seen the yellow card man's gauge go from yellow to orange to black and now I had seen my green card man's gauge move as well. I could visit my new green card Oracle from time to time to make sure I stayed in the green. So long as the card stayed Green and Kyle wasn't trying to decapitate himself like his predecessor, I could feel reasonably secure the planet wouldn't start shaking itself apart.

Was this a fool proof plan? Nope, but I was desperate for a reason to stick around and this was justification enough to push me over the edge.

Was I crazier than the man who I came here to stop? Was I crazier than Oswald for being willing to risk the universe for a girl? Probably, but my experiment wasn't that much riskier than many scientists in this century who liked to tinker with atoms and germ warfare weapons. Nobody knew for sure what would happen when they split the first atom. Or at least that's what I continuously told myself.

Besides, I came up with several more safety checks. I did go back through the rabbit hole that night, but with a whole new plan.

I spent the next week in the future compiling details on my 2011 world. I researched seismic shifts, Earth quakes, worl events, elections, weather patterns, Natural disasters of all kinds, and maybe a few sporting events as well. I decided that I could monitor these happenings over the next four decades to make sure the harmonics stayed harmonious. If things started getting out of whack, there was always the reset button.

The dates on my research where coded and changed so that it was less likely that a local yokel would get too get inquisitive about my interest in historical weather events if they were somehow taken from my control. It wasn't a great system, but I would have plenty of time to work on that later.

I also had a little comfort in knowing Al had made an untold number of trips back in time including a rather lengthy stay without any noticeable changes. Even my very disruptive stay that ended with the untimely end of Frank Dunning didn't seem to have ripples that went very far across the pond. And if the pond got too choppy, well I always had the reset button.

I often thought about the years I spent in the past leading up to The first failed assassination attempt on General Walker. When I thought about all the changes I had intentionally inflicted on the past as well as the amount of time I spent practically living in the Oswalt household, he still took a shot at the precise moment he was supposed to shoot, and he still missed his target by a fraction of an inch all the same. There is no way that I had not interfered in someway yet the past continued to realign itself. it continued to correct my small, but numerous changes so that Oswald's first assassination attempt went off as if I had never traveled back in time.

The best thing going for me was the obstinant Past itself. It didn't want to change anymore than I wanted to change it. Time, it seems, is like a potters hands. So long as the spinning clay only has minor imperfections the potters hands can continue to shape it according to the potters design. It is only when the spinning clay becomes excessively deformed that it begins to come irretrievably apart. Re- joining Sadie would be a small imperfection on the spinning clay pot whereas stopping the Kennedy assassination was practically overturning the potter's table. Time could contain, reshape and correct my relatively small medling.

The night before I was to head back to the old diner for another trip down the rabbit hole I had a knock at the door. Nervous and jumpy from too much time playing spy with Oswald, I approached the door cautiously. The bookie's boot to be side of my head could not have caused more of a cerebral reaction than what I saw when I open the door.

All I could say was her name Sadie. The years had changed her, but there was instantly no doubt who was standing before me. But I had no time to say anything else because she immediately collapsed into me in a wave of tears and apologies. Between the sobs I could make out "I know you told me not to come, but I had to see you one last time. "

"What do you mean I told you not to come?"

"You told me that no matter what happens I was never to come looking for you. I've waited for years, but knew this was the last night you would spend here, in the now, and I had to see you one last time. You have no idea how impossibly hard it is it has been to know exactly where you are and still have no contact with you after so many years of marriage. Every second since you passed away I have wanted to come find you with every ounce of my being. But I knew I couldn't, I knew that was the deal, but I also knew That you were heading back to your rabbit hole and out of my world forever in the morning. If I had shown up any sooner I may have interfered with what happened, but now your course is already set. You told me so yourself."

Maybe one day I will be upset with Sadie over this meeting, but right now anger was the last emotion I felt. We spent the rest of the night making relatively small talk considering our past, or our future, together. But Sadie seem to know better than I the less she told me about my future, our future, her past, the better.

For Sadie to tell her late husband's ghost goodbye one final time in the morning must have been terrible. It was hard for me to watch her suffer, but now I knew. I knew it was going to work. Seeing her there that day meant it worked. She didn't give me any details about what I was going to do, I had to figure that out for myself. But I could see it now, our fate had all ready been determined. It always has been. And one day my Sadie, the Sadie waiting for me in 1958, Would be standing here in the same 2011 house crying for the husband she desperately missed.

I'll never know what the right decisions were. I didn't save the Dunning family, I didn't save the blankety-blank girl. I didn't even interfere with the marriage between sadie and her insane first husband. These choices would always weigh heavily on me But I had to make certain decisions the best way I knew how. (The rest is continued on the next post).

[MissingSadie]

(Part 2 of my ending): I moved around small towns in Texas usually working short periods of time in the oil or cattle business. I spent little money, but no guns, nor any spy novel listening devices. My simple living allowed me to Save about the same amount of money I had last time I met Sadie in 1958. I made my reappearance in blankety-blank Texas With the same bogus teaching agrees on the same date as the last go around. I was still introduced to Sadie at the same party with Miss blankety-blank as last time. Sadie even managed to trip over the same chair and fall exactly the same way this time as well. Like I said, as long As the imperfections are small, time the past will continue to shape events as it originally saw fit.

Clayton still appeared at Sadie's house on the same night as before. I knew from reading the newspaper in 2011 he was always meant to show up and he was always meant to kill himself. Be a right or be wrong, I did stop him from rearranging Sadie's face with their own kitchen knife on this round. I did not, however, stop him from rearranging his own throat with said knife.

Even though I did not stop Mike from drinking at the dance thinking that I must have changed history with that encounter last time, So-and-so still died drunk driving and so on so still scarred her face. I could have easily stopped that, but didn't even try. I don't know if that was the right call either, But we still had the fundraiser again.

Sadie didn't seem to mind our age difference, it seemed to be less of an issue in the 60s then in the next century. I tried my hardest, and ultimately succeeded, and getting Sadie to drop the cigarette habit. I noticed in 2011 she did not smell of cigarettes and she was still living so I felt that was a habit that was meant to be kicked.

We still went on a date to see the so-and-so boxing match, but this time I didn't bet a dime. Well almost, I did have a side bet with Sadie, but I don't think she minded the payout. But other than the boxing match I tried not to play the fortuneteller this time around.

One of the only times I used my fortune-telling to my advantage was a few nights before I proposed to say. I felt like she had to know the truth before she agreed to marry me. So I told her enough to convince her of where I had come from. Despite my best efforts leading up to that night I still made many of the same mistakes I did before with off-the-cuff remarks and slang from nearly half a century in the future. So much of what I showed her only confirmed that I was out of the ordinary to begin with.

We tried to live the humble life of a librarian and her teacher husband. We heeded any perceved guidance from the obdurate past. When trees unexpectedly fell on the road, we turned around and went home. When garbage trucks came flying through red lights, we turn around and went home. But such unusual events were very rare. When you're not trying to stop watershed events of world history the past tends to leave you alone. We lived life with the grain and not against it.

Sadie was not able to have children, and we thought more than once if that was not the past keeping us in line. But we did adopt and raise two wonderful children, twins abandoned at ???? Church.

All of the world events and weather information I brought back to 1958 stayed on track just like they had when I was using Al's book. I also made several trips back to see Kyle the green card and over the next ten years. He always ask me to reset my changes, but with less fervor each time we met.

I always make these trips back to blankety-blank alone. If the green card was no longer green I like to think I could Have made the hard choice, but I don't know. I do know I could not make the impossible choice if Sadie were with me which is why I come here alone.

I am writing this in the same blankety-blank motor Lodge, but this will be my last trip to blankety-blank. Kyle was not here this time and after some cautious but thorough searching I found no trace of the rabbit hole. I can only imagine that this particular bubble is gone.

This was a bittersweet discovery as I no Longer have a choice about returning and resetting the past. But at the same time I cannot make any missteps, Because I have no choice about returning and resetting the past.

This was always the way it was meant to happen. Kennedy was always going to be shot, not shot, then shot again. The Dunning family was always going to be slaughtered, saved twice, Then destroyed again. The needle on the record of time may have skipped a few times, but these events were pre determined, They were destined to happen. (Again, I really wish Sadie and Jake could have lived together without ever resetting the past, but this is the next best thing for me. This post was therapy for me after getting to the end of the book and going into some sort of strange loosing a fictional character depression.)