Your alternate ending

[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.)