Class of '59 (American Journey Book 4) Read Online Free PDF

this place. I'll bet he died right after writing this letter."
    "That makes sense," Mark said.
    Mary Beth glanced again at the letter.
    "It says here that you need only one crystal to make the tunnel work."
    Mark nodded.
    "I haven't tested Percival Bell's claim, but I have no reason to believe it's false. I took both crystals just in case I needed them."
    Mary Beth smiled sheepishly.
    "Can I have one?"
    Mark put a hand to his chin and studied her.
    "Can I trust you?"
    "No," Mary Beth said.
    Both of them laughed.
    "In that case, take one," Mark said.
    Mary Beth grabbed one of the rocks and placed it in a pocket. She felt conspicuously underdressed in a crimson University of Alabama T-shirt, yoga pants, and flip-flops.
    "Thank you," she said.
    "You're welcome."
    Mary Beth gazed at her new friend and noticed that he was not just kind and humble. He was also strikingly handsome. He had thick brown hair, brushed up in a pompadour, and a chiseled, shaven, boyish face that would turn heads in any century.
    "Has anyone ever told you that you look like a young Warren Beatty?"
    "Who's Warren Beatty?" Mark asked.
    Mary Beth laughed.
    "He's a famous actor. Or at least he will be a famous actor."
    Mark took a breath.
    "You probably know a lot of things about the next fifty-eight years."
    Mary Beth nodded at Mark and then glanced at the newspaper. She noted headlines that seemed torn from a history text. Nikita Khrushchev had fired one of his advisors. China's Red Army had put down a rebellion in Tibet. California was preparing to play West Virginia in the title game of the NCAA men's basketball tournament.
    "How much do you know about the future?" Mary Beth asked.
    "I know almost nothing," Mark said. He reached under his shirt, pulled out a magazine, and placed it on the table. "That's why I bought this. I wanted to read about the future."
    Mary Beth picked up the periodical, a special edition that touted its news coverage between 1942 and 2017, and quickly flipped through its pages. She noted a dog-eared page that featured photos and information on the Apollo program, the moon landings, and the space shuttle. She slid the open magazine across the table.
    "I see you like rockets," Mary Beth said.
    "I hope to build them someday," Mark replied. "I'll graduate with an engineering degree in a few weeks and hope to find a job at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory or another research facility. My dad worked at JPL until he died last fall."
    Mary Beth looked at him thoughtfully.
    "I'm sorry to hear that. Do you have any other family?"
    Mark nodded.
    "I still have my mom and a brother. Mom is in Fresno for the next several days. My brother, Ben, is upstairs sleeping. This is our spring break."
    "Do you attend the university?" Mary Beth asked.
    "I do. I live there most of the time too. I come home on weekends to look after my mother and do odds and ends around the house."
    "Have you lived here long?"
    Mark shook his head.
    "We moved in three months ago. Mom thought about selling the place after my dad died, but she decided to keep it. This was their dream home. She wanted to hold onto the dream even if she couldn't share it with my father."
    "I see."
    "What about you? Do you really attend the University of Alabama?"
    "I used to," Mary Beth said.
    "I figured as much from your shirt and your accent," Mark said. "I don't hear southern accents around here very often. It's pretty."
    "Thank you."
    Mary Beth blushed. She didn't know whether he was sincere or simply trying to weasel something out of her, but she accepted his compliment at face value. She liked compliments. She hadn't received many from handsome young men since that awful night in Tuscaloosa.
    "So you used to attend Alabama," Mark said. "Does that mean you graduated?"
    Mary Beth nodded.
    "I graduated a few weeks ago – or fifty-eight years from now," she said with a laugh. "I'm still trying to get a handle on this time-travel thing."
    "That makes two of us."
    Mary Beth smiled.
    "That's good to