The Joke at the End of the World: a Novel by Scott Dikkers

Author:Scott Dikkers [Dikkers, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scott Dikkers
Published: 2020-10-20T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

Dad Explains Things

“When you were just a little sprout, it was about 2009, we had the Internet. We had iPhones. Hope and change won the White House. It seemed kind of like the future was here, and it was bright. That kind of future was something I worked my whole life to help bring about. It was an exciting time. So I had this big idea. I thought, wouldn’t it be amazing to visit this future, from the past, and see all these changes like a time traveler? I started by thinking of my dad, who grew up in the 1950s. What would he think if he were somehow transported to this future? I was captivated by this idea. Obsessed, really. I knew I couldn’t give an experience like that to my dad, obviously. And I couldn’t give it to myself. But there was someone I could give it to. You. I hatched this idea that if I could raise you in the 1950s, as much of a real, bona fide 1950s as I could create, then you’d get treated to the surprise of a lifetime. And I went all out. Money was no object.”

“I know. I read your dumb book.”

“Oh. Okay. You read that. Well, I wanted it to be the most real time-travel adventure imaginable. Like the best carnival ride in the world. I wanted to capture the wonder of time travel and have it be as real as—”

“But it wasn’t real. It was all a big lie.”

“It wasn’t so much a lie as it was one of those little white lies you tell when you give someone a birthday present, but you don’t tell them where you’re hiding it. That’s how I saw it.”

“You can’t tell one of those types of lies for somebody’s whole life. You wouldn’t even let me see my mom.”

“That was unfortunate. She wasn’t onboard with the whole 1950s thing. I couldn’t risk her tainting the project. I wish that could have worked out differently.”

“I wish you didn’t do it at all.”

“I know you feel that way. But that’s not the whole story. The worst part of it is, I always planned to take you on the trip when you turned 12. It was the perfect age. And I couldn’t delay that because I was afraid you were starting to figure things out. If that happened, it would all be for nothing. Then, four years ago, we got a new president. He was a bully and a con man, and a throwback to all the worst things about the 1950s.”

I didn’t realize my dad hated Dwight D. Eisenhower so much.

“And in the years after that, it started to feel like the whole world was coming to a crashing end, with race riots, the pandemic, climate change, bees going extinct. Suddenly, the future seemed awful, and scary, and not exciting or fun at all. When I started all this, I couldn’t have imagined the future would be so bleak. That was just terrible timing.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.