Lost in the Novel

The new Stephen King novel, all 800 plus pages of it, sits on the nightstand and softly, discreetly, insistently whispers my name.  It takes every ounce of will power I have to resist this seductive siren call - the battle was on the moment I saw the package in the mailbox - I might as well try to ration my breathing as expect to be able to put it down once I start.

The dust jacket is slick on top, the title and author's name in black against a crimson background, but the bottom section is matte finished in muted colors, a representation of a newspaper clipping from the day Kennedy was shot.  It includes the famous picture of the unprotected limousine with the president and the first lady smiling at the crowd, a picture that is etched in the mind of everyone my age or older.  "JKF SLAIN IN DALLAS" the headline reads, 'LBJ TAKES OATH".

The premise of the novel though, is that time travel can change history, so the back cover headline reads "JFK ESCAPES ASSASSINATION, FIRST LADY ALSO OK!"

If only it had happened that way, I think, running my fingers across the cover.  Where might be all be if Kennedy had lived.  What would the current world be like.  I've never been able to let go of the idea that things would be infinitely different and better.

The idea of time travel, of changing the future by altering the past has always intrigued me and bewildered my senses ever since my first sci-fi novel.  Trying to comprehend what happens to the future - which is the present - if the past becomes the present and is modified has always made me fuzzy headed.  For example, if I were to go back in time and somehow prevent my parents from marrying ....well, I'd never have been born so how could I have traveled back?  And where does the future go while I'm off changing the past?  If I want to return from the land of then to the land of now, do I even exist if I was never born?  Great stuff for a novel and nobody does it better than Stephen King but still a little muddling for my simple mind.

50 pages, I think.  I could read 50 pages and put it down until tomorrow.

But... no.  50 pages would lead to 75 which would lead to 100 which would lead to a long and sleepless night and maybe even calling in sick in the morning so I could finish.  50 pages would be just the first step to a lovely seduction and it's a work week.  When it comes to the novels of Stephen King, time is my best friend and worst enemy.  Resolutely - but still fluttering from anticipation - I set the book aside.  A few minutes later I move it to the end table in the sunroom where I imagine it's safely out of sight and out of reach.  I promise myself I'll wait for the weekend.  I can do 800 pages on a weekend without even half trying.

 Anticipation lulls me to sleep.