Her parents are separating, on the brink of divorce. It is March of 2020-the pandemic is just beginning to blow up. Tori and her mom are packing to move to Boston, while leaving Bob, her dad, back at the apartment where his family has lived for decades. Bob grew up there. Tori’s bedroom was her father’s bedroom when he was a boy.
As she’s gathering up her things she overhears her dad talking to someone on the phone. He has it on speaker and she overhears things which startle and confuse her. Relations are gnarly between Bob and his family. He’s crabby and depressed. After that mysterious phone call ends he has a brief conversation with her.
Tori was trying to charge her cell phone when things became weird. Suddenly a teenage boy is in her bedroom-he’s demanding to know what she is doing there? Because this is his bedroom. Time has flipped. It is suddenly March of 1980-it doesn’t take long for Tori to realize this boy Bobby, is her future father.
This is where the story becomes really fun. Tori and Bobby get to know each other and she starts to comprehend that this guy who will become her father many years later is a wonderful person. She wonders what turned him into an embittered adult? This is also where we encounter a captivating question: if we could go back in time can we then alter the future?
Young Bobby is a Star Trek fan. Tori already knew this about her dad. If you are familiar with that classic TV series you might recall episodes where they time travel and deal with the ethics of altering outcomes. Tori is astonished by 1980s New York. The book is full of vintage flashback moments. This reviewer’s favorite 1980 moment happens in a record store. Do you remember records? They were before CDs. Life was so different.
The key element in this story, the theft of a priceless jewel from a museum, was inspired by actual events. Was that burglary the crucial action that set into motion the cascade of misfortune that transformed bright, bubbly Bobby into bitter, bummed out Bob? I’ll leave those details for readers to experience in this cleverly conceived time travel adventure.
Vick Mickunas of Yellow Springs interviews authors every Saturday at 7 a.m. and on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. on WYSO-FM (91.3). For more information, visit www.wyso.org/programs/book-nook. Contact him at vick@vickmickunas.com.
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