Chapter 5 chapter Five

Both of them knew in their hearts that the gambling game was over.Word had spread of his and Frank's names that no bookmaker or casino in America would take a large bet from either of them. Of course, there are other ways to bet, maybe they should bet on a name with a better image. The accounting department is in that office and the legal staff is located across the hall down here Frank was showing Jeff around his Seagrand Building. The prototype of modernist architecture.) The rented office on the fifteenth floor, the office is in the middle of decoration, and he obviously had a lot of fun from the introduction process.With Jeff's permission, Frank chose this building as his office, and he was also in charge of mediating all the details, from the formation of this future company to the hiring of secretaries and bookkeepers.

Frank had dropped out of law school.The two of them have a tacit understanding: Frank will oversee the daily operations of the company, while Jeff will be responsible for investment and the overall direction of the company.Frank no longer questions Jeff's advice, but since the success of the World Series project, an odd rift has developed between the two partners.They seldom gossiped, but Jeff knew Frank was drinking harder than ever.The old curiosity had been replaced by a surge of fear about how much Jeff knew, and how he knew it.The subject was never brought up between them again. Walk across here in the reception area, and in a few weeks from now, you'll see a great big man sitting at this table, and here we are!

This is an expensive office that gives the impression of comfort without being oppressive.Behind the large oval oak desk, a black Barcelona chair awaits its owner.Opposite the table is a bar full of bottles and a lavish floor-to-ceiling cabinet that can accommodate audio-visual equipment.The floor-to-ceiling windows inlaid on both sides of the wall can overlook the Hudson River on one side, and the row upon row of high-rise buildings in Midtown Manhattan on the other.Several lush potted plants bring greenery to every corner of the office, and the Pollack painting in the frame is the best testimony of the creative value of human beings.On one wall Frank hung a blown-up photograph of Shaddock, a horse decorated with flowers, wearing a championship wreath after the KFC Derby.

Thanks to you bro.Frank laughed. Jeff was moved by Frank's hard work.Frank, this is awesome! Of course, as long as you don't like it, you can change it immediately.Designers know that this is just the beginning, and it needs your approval, because you are the one working here after all. It's all good, I'm really taken aback, don't you tell me any designer came up with the idea of ​​hanging a picture of Shaddock. No, Frank admits, I suggested it, and I think you'll be delighted. This will give me a lot of inspiration. That's what I think.Frank laughed.God, every time I think about how quickly these things happen Heck, I think you know what I mean.Moments of childish joy come and go quickly.After experiencing these things, Frank has aged a lot: Frank can't handle those difficult questions, unanswered questions, and unexplainable overnight riches.

All in all, Frank looked away at the reception area and said, I have a lot of things to do today.I ordered some of the latest office calculators from Monroe, which were supposed to arrive two days ago.If you just want to sit here and get a feel for the place It's all right, Frank, just go about your business.I'd love to sit here for a while and think about something.Thanks again, what a job you did, mate. They shook hands and patted each other on the shoulder with a slightly twisted gesture, expressing their camaraderie.As Frank strode toward the nearly empty office cubicle, Jeff sat down in the Barcelona chair behind the massive desk, relaxing in the chair's comfortable envelope.

Everything was easy, even easier than he imagined.Derby, Belmont Marseilles, World Series replays. With the huge sums to be won from these sure-fire bets, Jeff can now do as he pleases without limits, with as much ease as before, if not easier. He has begun to study stock prices, review the known future state of the world, and use this knowledge to extrapolate the current state of the market.Although he couldn't remember every economic ups and downs over the years, he was sure he was perceptive enough to consider small recessions and unrelated recessions. Some investments can be done for sure, such as IBM, Fuji Xerox, and Polaroid.Others require more thought. He has to connect ongoing or imminent social changes with the companies that might benefit from them.Jeff knew that the rest of the 1960s would be a time of general prosperity, Americans would travel for business and pleasure, and businesses should invest in hotels and airlines in the future.Boeing's stock price is about to start growing significantly.Although the hypersonic program, which was mostly bluffing, would soon be discontinued, the then-unannounced Boeing 727 and 747 would become the main commercial airliners for the next twenty-five years.The aerospace business will have its share of hits and misses, but Jeff is sure there will be a detailed study that will help him remember which company got the most lucrative Apollo contract and ended up building the Space Shuttle fleet .

Jeff gazed down the commercially active banks of the Hudson.It was a long time before Japanese cars invaded America, and America's love of big cars was approaching its peak, he noticed on day one; investing a million in Chrysler, GM, and Ford wouldn't harmful. RCA (Radio Corporation of America) is also a good short-term investment, as color TV is about to become a household staple and it may be years before Sony's devastating impact on the US market. Jeff closed his eyes, probably dizzy from all this.The monthly financial crisis, the lifetime frustration of a job with too much responsibility and too little pay, all these worries are in the past, not only in the past, but there is no need to worry about it in the future.Who cares how these things happen?He is young, rich, and will soon have untold wealth.He doesn't want to change or even question at all, let alone return to an alternate reality he's lived in, or maybe an alternate reality he's imagined.Now he can have everything he ever wanted, and still have the time and energy to enjoy it to the fullest.

Regardless of whether the Republican nominee is Goldwater or Rockefeller.The Baker scandal is unlikely to affect the re-election of the president. Serious impact, but if the investigation is further escalated, the move to shake off Johnson within the core of the White House's power may indeed affect the election.The more immediate concern of the Kennedy staff will be Can we watch something else?Sara pouted.I don't understand why you care so much about these politics.There is still a full year until the next presidential election. Jeff gave her a small reassuring smile, but didn't answer the question.

Tax cuts and the Civil Rights Act.Unless enacted before Congress recesses on December 20, the bills will face tougher challenges in the White House and Senate spring sessions, forcing Kennedy's campaign into the shadow of ongoing congressional wrangling. It didn't unfold in an atmosphere of double victory as he expected. Shara took a deep breath quietly, then straightened up from the sofa and walked to the stairs leading to the second floor of the mansion on East Seventy-third Street.I'll be waiting for you in bed, her voice came over her shoulders, naked under a sheer pink nightgown, I mean, if you still want it.

Despite the ongoing blame for the Bay of Pigs incident, and despite his confrontation with such heterogeneous entities as the AFL and CIO and the steel industry, for most people his person and image remained inseparable.His unrivaled youthful charm, charming wife, loving children, his family's tragedies and triumphs, his poise and sense of humor Jeff rewinds the tape in the machine, a doomed prototype of the Sony VCR that cost him over eleven thousand dollars, a full decade ahead of its time.The screen lights up John again.Kennedy's black-and-white images are so familiar, yet heartbreaking: Kennedy sitting in his famous rocking chair with his signature smile, Kennedy reaching out to embrace Jr. John and Caroline on the airport runway, Kennedy and his brothers on the runway. Run on the beach in Hyannis Port.Jeff didn't know how many times he had seen the footage of Kennedy's public life, and for twenty-five years, the short film was always followed by the open car in which Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, the hysterical fear, the blood on Jackie's clothes, and her Roses in the arms.But those images don't exist yet.Tonight, on the news program that aired two hours ago, there was no picture of Jensen inheriting the mantle of power from Kennedy, nor the funeral procession through Washington, D.C., nor the ever-burning flame as the camera faded out.The people mentioned in the news this evening are alive and full of energy and have many plans for the future of themselves and their country.

His charisma and great sense of humor give his promised new frontier at least a semblance of authority. Some see him as the heavenly savior who will bring prosperity to modern America.What the new Kennedy re-election team should make good use of is this very positive image, not his real first-term achievements.Sorensen, O'Donnell, Sullinger, O'Brien, and Bobby.Kennedy, fully aware of the strengths and weaknesses of his candidate, and the power of the fast-food myth.You can almost be sure where their focus will be in the upcoming campaign. THE NEWS BEGIN Amidst the extravagance and pomp, footage of French President Charles de Gaulle visiting the Shah of Iran, Jeff turns off the TV.He thought about Kennedy being alive, and he had thought about it a lot these past few weeks.Who knows, if Kennedy hadn't died, which direction he would have taken America?Will he bring the United States continued prosperity and racial harmony, and will he allow the United States to get out of the quagmire of the Vietnam War as soon as possible? Kennedy will be alive three weeks from now. Unless, unless unless what?Jeff's fantasies are a little creepy and corny, but irresistible nonetheless.However, this is not a TV drama, nor is it a sci-fi plot.Jeff is here, in 1963, who has not yet woken up from the disaster, and the greatest tragedy of this era is about to be staged in front of him who knows too many secrets.Is it possible for him to intervene?Is this appropriate?Although he only established the future enterprise, his actions have begun to have a great impact on the economic situation of this era, but in this space-time continuum, there is no sign of unbearable tension. Of course, Jeff thought there was something he could do about the imminent assassination other than appearing on the sixth floor of the Texas Book Warehouse on November 22nd to meet the killer in person.Perhaps a call to the FBI, a letter to the secret service?But there must be no one in charge who will listen to his words. Even if they really take it seriously, he may be arrested as a suspicious accomplice. He went to the small bar by the patio entrance to get a glass of wine, and thought about it.Before the presidential motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza, entered the assassination site, and left in tragedy, he would have been dismissed as crazy to have mentioned it to anyone.They'll pay the damned price before it's too late to do anything for the world. What should he do?Stand by?Just because he was afraid of making a fool of himself, he allowed history to repeat itself cruelly?Jeff looked around at the house, which was more upscale than any house he and Linda had ever dreamed of owning.It took him only six months to get it all, and it's almost as if he can now have a lifetime of glory and wealth, just because he knows what's going to happen in the future.But he knows something else, and if he doesn't act, he'll never be in the mood to enjoy these accomplishments. He had to do something, one way or another. On the 15th, he flew to Dallas and went into the first phone booth he encountered at the airport after getting off the plane.He flicked through the phone book for names beginning with O, and found the person he was looking for, and though it was like no other, the words came to Jeff as vividly as if they had been etched in fire. Oswald, Lee. H 1026 North Beckley Road 5554821. Jeff wrote down the address and rented a blue Plymouth from Elvis Rent-A-Car.The girl at the car rental desk told him how to get to the area he was going to. He drove back and forth past the white beam-framed house in Oak Bluff six times, back and forth.He imagined going to the door, ringing the bell, and talking to a soft-spoken young Russian woman named Marina, who would answer.What would he say to her?Your husband is going to assassinate the President of the United States and you have to stop him?What if it was Oswald who answered the door?What should he do? Jeff drove slowly past the unremarkable little house again, thinking of the man who lived there, lurking in the shadows, waiting in secret, plotting to shake up the cushy, complacent world. He left the area directly.At a K︱Mart in Fort Worth, I bought a cheap typewriter, some typing paper, and some gloves.Then back to the ordinary Holiday Inn located off the East Airport Expressway, he put on gloves, opened the paper, and wrote a letter in a nervous mood: To John.President Kennedy The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC President Kennedy: You have isolated Cuban Prime Minister Castro and the liberated people of Cuba.You are the oppressor, the enemy of free peoples throughout Latin America and the world. If you come to Dallas, I will kill you.I'll kill you over the head with a powerful rifle and use your blood to bring justice to the freedom fighters of the Western Hemisphere. This is not just an empty threat.The bullet is loaded, and I will sacrifice my ego if necessary. I will kill you. Cuba must win! plum.Harvey.Oswald Jeff filled in the address of Oswald's house, drove back to town, and dropped the letter in a mailbox two blocks from the strange beamed house.An hour later, forty miles southeast of Dallas, the gloves were soaked with sweat.When Jeff threw the typewriter off a bridge into a large lake in the middle of nowhere, the taut leather made his hands sluggish.He finally felt a lot more comfortable throwing those damn gloves out of the car window near the desolate town that happened to be called Gunbar.Now, he felt his hands were relaxed and clean. He spent the next four days in his room at the Holiday Inn, talking to no one except to order room service and showing up only to buy the local paper.On Thursday the nineteenth, the message he was waiting for appeared on page five of the Dallas Herald: Lee.Harvey.Oswald, who was arrested by the Secret Service for threatening to assassinate the president, will not be released on bail until Kennedy wraps up his one-day visit to Texas this weekend. On the plane back to New York that night, Jeff was very drunk, but the alcohol did not affect the taste of victory and the ecstasy that filled his head.He imagined a world in which the Vietnam War would be replaced by negotiations, where the hungry would be fed, and racial equality would be achieved without blood world. As the plane landed, the lights of Manhattan lit up like a radiant harbinger of the bright future Jeff had just created. At ten past one Friday afternoon, his secretary opened the office door without knocking, and she stood there unable to speak, tears streaming down her face.Jeff didn't need to ask what happened, he felt as if he had been hit directly in the gut by an invisible heavy object. Frank came in after her and told the young lady softly that there was no work to do today and that she and the others could go home.He dragged Jeff, and the two left the building together.People milled dumbly up and down Park Avenue, some sobbing in public, others clustered around cars or transistor radios.Most of them just stared blankly ahead, moving their legs back and forth absentmindedly in a slow, dazed pace that was not at all like a New Yorker should be.It was as if a major earthquake had just knocked down the solid concrete jungle of Manhattan, and no one could find a firm foothold in it.No one knows if the street will collapse again, or even split in two, swallowing the whole world.In a moment of shaking, the future has come in front of us. Frank and Jeff found a table in a quiet bar off Madison Avenue.On the TV screen, Air Force One had already flown away from Dallas, carrying the body of the president on board.There seemed to be a pair of eyes in his mind, and he saw Jensen announcing his succession as the president, with Jacqueline, who was at a loss, beside him.Kennedy.See bloody clothes, see roses. what happened now?Frank asked. Jeff pulled himself back from the horrifying thoughts to reality.what do you mean? What's next for the world?What will be the fate of the United States in the future? Jeff shrugged.I think a lot will depend on what Johnson does and what kind of president he will be.Do you have any idea? Frank shook his head.You don't have to guess, Jeff.I've never seen you guess a thing.You know it. Jeff looked around to call a waiter, but the waiters in the bar were all watching TV, listening intently to young Dan.Read's twentieth summary of the afternoon's events.I do not know what you're talking about. I don't know, not 100% sure.But something is not quite right with you.Weird thing, I don't like it. Jeff saw that his partner's hands were shaking.He must have badly needed a drink. Frank, this is a terrible thing, today is a weird day.We were all devastated. you are not.You're hit differently than I am, not like everyone else.Nobody in the office even tells you what happened.As if they don't need to be said, as if you already know what's going on. Stop talking silly.A burly police officer is being interviewed on television to explain the current statewide manhunt in Texas. What did you do in Dallas last week? Jeff looked at Frank with tired eyes.what you up to?Check with travel agency? That's right.what are you doing there Help us research the real estate there.Dallas is a rapidly growing market, despite what's happening there today. Maybe things will change. I do not think so. Don't you think so?Why? I just have this feeling. We've been following your feelings for a long time. We can still go on. Frank sighed and ran his hands through his prematurely thinning hair.No, not including me.I've had enough.I want to leave. Hell, we haven't even started yet! I'm sure you will do well.But, Jeff, things have gotten too weird for me.I can no longer work with you and it makes me uncomfortable. Help me, God, you don't think I have anything to do with that, do you? Frank raised his hand and interrupted Jeff.I didn't say that, I don't want to know.I just want to leave.You can continue to use most of my shares as working capital. After a few years, or how long you need, it doesn't matter, and you can pay me from the profits.I recommend Jim.Spencer, you can turn my business over to him, he's a good guy and knows what he's doing.And he will honestly do what you tell him to do. Damn, we built this all together!From Emory, Derby, we've come all the way That's the past tense, when it was fucking smooth sailing.But old man, I'm going to cash in my chips now and get out. what are you up to? After law school, I thought.Make some good, solid investments yourself.I'm tired of this high-stakes life. Come on, Frank.You will miss the opportunity of a lifetime. I don't doubt that.Maybe one day I will regret it, maybe, but now I have to leave.In order for my heart to be at peace.He stood up and held out his hand.Good luck and thank you for everything.These things used to be interesting. They shook hands, and Jeff thought about what he could have done to avoid it.Maybe nothing works, maybe things just happen. I'll have a chat with Spencer on Monday, and Frank said, if the world was as peaceful as ever, America wouldn't have collapsed by then. Jeff gave him a meaningful look.Will do. Good to know about it.Take care, mate. After Frank left, Jeff shifted his seat to the bar and finally had a glass of wine. Jeff was on his third drink when the CBS Express broke into the news.A suspect in connection with the assassination of President Kennedy was arrested.I repeat, Dallas police have arrested a suspect in the assassination of President Kennedy.The news pointed out that the name was Nelson.Bennett's men are homeless and sometimes involved in left-wing movements.Authoritative sources revealed that a phone number was found in Bennett's pocket, and the source of the number was traced to the Soviet embassy in Mexico City.We'll have further news on this latest shocking story once The patio of this East Side house in New York is bleak and bleak in the November wind; it's a design for summer, which is out of this world.Tables with glass tops and reclining chairs with polished chrome frames add to the bleakness of this sunny day. Jeff tightened his cardigan, thinking about what had happened during those unstoppable days in Dallas, thinking about it for the hundredth time in two days.That damned Nelson.Who the hell is Bennett?After Oswald was arrested, he was a hired killer waiting to replace him?Or is it just a hapless ghost who happens to meet a lunatic, and everything is manipulated by forces far beyond any human conspiracy, so as not to interrupt the flow of reality? He understands that there is no answer.In this reconstructed life, there were too many things he couldn't understand.What is the reason for this particular incident that is easier to answer than other questions?But it mocked and tormented him.He tries to use his foreknowledge to reshape fate in a positive way, but its power is far beyond his trivial gambling and investment tricks, and all his efforts are just small ripples in the torrent of history.The killer's name was changed, that's all. He thought, what does this event herald for his future?He had hoped to be able to use the benefits of his pre-acquired knowledge to rebuild his life but is everything destined to be only superficial, quantitative changes rather than real qualitative changes?Will his wish for true happiness encounter inexplicable setbacks just like his involvement in the Kennedy incident?Again, all questions were beyond his comprehension.Six weeks ago, he felt like God knew everything, and his accomplishments seemed limitless.But now, everything is once again marked with question marks.He felt the numbness of despair he hadn't felt since his boarding school days, on that dreadful day, by that little bridge Jeff!Oh my gosh, come on!They killed Bennett, right on TV, right in front of my eyes! He nodded slowly and followed Shala into the house.The murder footage replayed over and over again, like he knew it all along.The man looks like Jack.Ruby, wearing the hat he usually wears as a gangster in a B-movie, suddenly appears in the basement hallway of the Dallas County Jail.A pistol appeared on the screen, it's too late to say, Nelson.Bennett died, his bearded face twisted in agony like Lee.Harvey.A distorted reflection of Oswald's fully documented death. Jeff knew that President Johnson would soon order a full investigation into the events of the bloody weekend, led by Chief Justice Earl.A special committee directed by Warren will be formed.They will try to find answers, but the results will be in vain.Life goes on.