Exceptional Past and present meet Saving Mr. Calvin : Interlude by Jim Wile

Background A story about the origin and the future of the game of golf See Author Notes for the list of characters and unfamiliar terms.   Recap of the past few chapters: After Kevin and Ernie’s return, they all finish the round of golf and retire to the clubhouse where they sit down for a beer and discuss the latest trip to Altoona. After discussing the most recent trip, they realize the most important aspect of that was Abby and Kenny’s swing suit. None of them has heard of it in 2032, which begs the question: whatever happened to it? Art Calvin is asked to explain his take on their time travels, but before he gets to that, he discusses his take on the state of the game today. He is pessimistic, not only because of all the environmental restrictions but also because of the current generation’s emphasis on fast-paced, short attention span, instant success approach to life which appears to be at direct odds with the nature of the game. He is on the verge of giving it up himself. He leaves after that, putting the guys in a funk, and they leave soon after. Kevin goes to his favorite thinking spot to think about the lessons of the trips and decides he must do something with the knowledge and inspiration he’s gained to save the game from extinction. He begins conceiving of a way to preserve the game and works on it until 2:00 AM. The next morning, he calls his two friends to join him and discuss their travels, which they do with fond remembrances of not only their travels but of golf in general. Kevin reveals to them that he has conceived of a solution for keeping the game alive for future generations: what he calls the “ultimate simulator.” He describes the major components of the simulator to Ernie and Paul and how it should cater to virtually any player’s desire in how to play the game—from the fast-moving techy generation to the more traditional player seeking to preserve the game as they used to know it, but without the detrimental aspects of it. They learn that Art Calvin had actually died four years previous and that they had encountered his spirit when they played with him. They vow to undertake a feasibility study and make a decision in six weeks whether they will form a startup company called AC Golf (named after Art Calvin) to build a prototype. They still wonder what happened to Abby’s swing suit.   Interlude   Altoona, Pennsylvania 2032     Kenny Payne pulled his ringing phone from his pocket. “Hello.” “Hi, my name is Kevin Parsons. I live in Santa Barbara, California. Is this Kenny Payne, one of the inventors of a golf swing suit back in 2002 to 2004?” Long pause. “Yes, it is. Would you mind if I put my phone on speaker so my wife can hear this?” “Do you mean Abby? I would love for her to hear this too.” Kenny put the phone on speaker then. “Yes, Abby is my wife. How is it you know about the swing suit, Kevin? It was never commercially available.” “That’s a good question with a rather long and perhaps unbelievable answer, but I assure you it's true. My friend Ernie Dombrowski will also be calling E.J. Budrowski shortly.” “Hello, Kevin. This is Abby Payne. I would also like to know how you found out about the suit.” “Hello, Abby. As I was saying to Kenny, when I start telling you my tale, you may be tempted to think you're talking to a crackpot and want to hang up immediately. I implore you not to. I hope I'll be able to convince you I’m for real, as I’m hoping Ernie will be able to convince E.J. as well.” Kenny looked at Abby with a quizzical look but said, “Okay, Kevin. Give it a shot.” “Thank you. I’m going to start by saying that you don’t know me at all, but I know both of you intimately, at least until the late summer of 2004. That’s the extent of my knowledge about you.” Abby said, “Kevin, you sound like a young man. Do you mind if I ask how old you are?” “Not at all. I’m 28 years old, and I was born in February, 2004.” Long pause. “So let me get this right,” said Abby. “You knew us ‘intimately’—your word—when you were just a few months old in 2004?” “Not quite, Abby. I actually met you two years earlier than that, in 2002—yes, before I was born. I told you this would be unbelievable, but let me tell you and Kenny something that may help to prove I’m for real. I first encountered Kenny and E.J. as they were leaving Kettle Creek Country Club from the kitchen door to the parking lot right after the two of them had come in second place in the Member-Guest tournament, four strokes behind the winning team. Kenny went home then, and that very night was the night you first told Kenny your idea about the suit. You got the idea because your daughter, Claire, was having trouble learning the swing, and you thought she needed to feel a proper swing.” Very long pause as Abby and Kenny stared at each other. Kenny then said, “Okay, Kevin, you obviously know things about us that are true. I don’t know how just yet, but we're willing to listen. How is it you know these things?” “Alright, here’s the unbelievable part. Do you promise not to hang up immediately when I tell you?” “We promise,” said Abby. “Kenny, I shared your mind from the time you walked through that kitchen door in 2002 until you walked back through it two years later when you went in to find the chef to plan the victory party for Abby’s true victory in the 2004 Club Championship. The actual winner, Dana Padgett, cheated by using the suit which she had stolen from Claire’s locker. My friend, Ernie, was with me and shared E.J.’s mind during the same time period. That door to the kitchen was a time portal which Ernie and I went through from our time here to your time back between 2002 and 2004. We just got back from 2004 a few days ago.” Another long pause. Kenny said, “Kevin, of all the possible explanations of how you know what you know, that has to be the last one I might have guessed. Alright, answer me this: If you were inside my mind, were you privy to my memories of earlier times than that?” “Yes, but only memories that you actually had during that time. Would you like me to tell you a few?” “By all means, but leave out the x-rated ones!” Kevin laughed. “Fair enough. You and Abby met on the campus of Penn State University in March of 1987. You were sitting on a bench outside a fraternity when Abby came out the front door. You found out she was supposed to have gone to see One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest that night, but ended up at the fraternity party instead. You discussed the books of Ken Kesey, and you both preferred Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion. A few months later, you performed the Heimlich maneuver on her cat named Lester, who was choking, and he befriended you after that. How am I doing?” “Well, I haven’t hung up on you yet. So why exactly have you called me now, 28 years after the fact?” “I want to find out what happened with the suit.” “And why do you want to know that?” “Because I want to purchase a whole bunch of them and use them in a new golf simulator my friends and I are planning to build and market.” Abby said, “Kevin, can we call you back later? Kenny and I need to discuss a few things first. You say your friend Ernie is also calling E.J? I think we’d like to discuss that call with him before talking with you again. I promise we’ll call you back.” “That’s fine, Abby. Take all the time you need. I assume you have my number there in your phone, Kenny, so I'll look forward to your call.” “Okay, Kevin. Bye for now,” said Kenny and hung up. He looked at Abby then. “Can he possibly be for real?” “Strange as it seems, I don’t know how he could have known all the things he knows about us without being in your mind somehow. For example, did anyone ever observe you and E.J. both exit and enter Kettle Creek through the kitchen door to the outside when you did? And who besides us would have known how you saved Lester?” Kenny thought for a minute. “The only ones who might have known all this stuff are Claire and Greg. But they would have told us if someone had been asking them about it. Also, did you ever tell anyone that we both preferred Sometimes a Great Notion to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest?” “Not that I can remember,” said Abby. “Alright then. Why don’t we reserve judgment until we talk to E.J. about his conversation with Kevin’s friend Ernie. Seems odd, doesn’t it—Ernie Dombrowski and E.J. Budrowski, Kevin Parsons and Kenny Payne? Why don’t we Google these guys and see if they're for real?” “Okay. You take Parsons, and I’ll take Dombrowski.” After a few minutes, Abby said, “Well, Dombrowski is real. He’s even in Wikipedia. It says he is 29 years old, got his PhD from Berkeley in computer science, and was the inventor of the ‘Shepley Recurrent Series algorithm’ used in financial prediction software and many gaming apps. He is also an independent consultant to a variety of businesses, including transportation and insurance companies. He resides in Santa Barbara.” “I found some info on Kevin Parsons too. He is a mechanical engineer employed by Wright-Madison Inc. in Santa Barbara, and has worked on projects for both the automotive industry and the aerospace industry. These guys sound like they are for real. What do you think?” “I think—“ Just then, Abby’s phone rang. The caller ID indicated it was E.J. “Let me take this and see if E.J. just had a similar call.” She answered the phone then. “Hi E.J. Let me guess. You just had a very strange phone conversation with Ernie Dombrowski?” “And you and Kenny just talked to Kevin Parsons who claimed he was inside Kenny. Are you there too, Kenny?” “Hi, E.J. Yeah, Abby just put her phone on speaker. So, are these guys for real?” “I don’t know. Seems kind of incredible. That’s why I called you. What do you think?” Abby said, “Much as I hate to admit it, we can’t think of any logical explanation for how he knew what he knew about us. Not that what he told us was logical either, but it is an explanation. So, what did Ernie tell you?” “He said he was a time traveler and met us just a few days ago, but back between 2002 and 2004 and that he occupied my mind during that time. When I told him I don’t remember having any awareness of him at the time, he said it didn’t work that way. He said he was me, but I wasn’t him and that he didn’t actually take over my body or anything, but he just seemed to jump into my mind and share it for a couple of years. Sounds incredible, yet he knew things about me that no one else could possibly know except maybe for you, but I don’t even remember telling you some of what he knew.” “That pretty much jibes with what Kevin told us too,” said Kenny. “Did Ernie say why he called?” “They plan to build some sort of high-tech simulator, and they want to use the swing suit in it and wondered what happened to it. I told him that Abby would be in the best position to explain it and that we would get back to him on that. I Googled him, and he seems legit. So, what do you want to do about this?” Kenny said, “We did the same thing—Googled both him and Kevin. They do seem legit. We also told him we would get back to him after discussing this for a while with you.” E. J. thought for a minute and said, “Abby, I defer to you. You're the inventor of the suit. What would you like to do about it? I’m game for talking to them again if you are.” “I’m not convinced about this time travel business yet, but he did pique my interest in possibly resurrecting the suit. You know how disappointed we all were not to be able to make a go of it back then because that damn Chinese company screwed us. Perhaps now there’s another source for the dysprosium needed in the manufacture of the servo motors. If there is, we might be able to move forward with it. My interest in it waned after a few years of trying to find another source, and I moved on to other projects. But maybe it’s finally time to give it another try. Okay, E.J. I’ll set up a Zoom meeting with them and invite you to it in a couple days.” “Alright, you two. I look forward to it. Bye for now.” “Bye, E.J.,” Abby and Kenny said together.     Author Notes CHARACTERS - 2032 California Kevin Parsons: The narrator of the story. He is a 28-year-old mechanical engineer living in Santa Barbara, CA. Paul Putnam: A good friend of Kevin who is an electrical engineer. Ernie Dombrowski: Another good friend of Kevin who is a computer genius. Art Calvin: An old, retired golf course architect whom the boys meet one day while golfing. CHARACTERS - 2002 USA Kenny Payne: Abby's husband. He's the co-owner of a golf equipment company and former mechanical engineer. He helped fabricate the swing suit with his partner, Eddie Phillips. E.J. Budrowski: Abby and Kenny's friend, a retired computer science professor who helped in the programming of the swing suit. Abby Payne: She is an expert mathematician and engineer and inventor of the swing suit. Claire and Kevin Payne: Kenny and Abby's two grown children.

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