The Year of the Jackpot Read Online Free PDF

came out with a large roll of tracing paper.
    “We’ll spread it on the floor. Here they are, all of them. The 54-year cycle—see the Civil War there? See how it matches in? The eighteen and one-third-year cycle, the 9-plus cycle, the 41-month shorty, the three rhythms of Sun spots—everything, all combined in one grand chart. Mississippi River floods, fur catches in Canada, stock market prices, marriages, epidemics, freight-car loadings, bank clearings, locust plagues, divorces, tree growth, wars, rainfall, Earth magnetism, building construction, patents applied for, murders—you name it; I’ve got it there.”
    She stared at the bewildering array of wavy lines. “But, Potty, what does it mean?”
    “It means that these things all happen, in regular rhythm, whether we like it or not. It means that when skirts are due to go up, all the stylists in Paris can’t make ’em go down. It means that when prices are going down, all the controls and supports and government planning can’t make ’em go up.” He pointed to a curve. “Take a look at the grocery ads. Then turn to the financial page and read how the Big Brains try to double-talk their way out of it. It means that when an epidemic is due, it happens, despite all the public health efforts. It means we’re lemmings.”
    She pulled her lip. “I don’t like it. ‘I am the master of my fate,’ and so forth. I’ve got free will, Potty. I know I have—I can feel it.”
    “I imagine every little neutron in an atom bomb feels the same way. He can go
spung!
or he can sit still, just as he pleases. But statistical mechanics work out all the same and the bomb goes off—which is what I’m leading up to. See anything odd there. Meade?”
    She studied the chart, trying not to let the curving lines confuse her.
    “They sort of bunch up over at the right end.”
    “You’re dern tootin’ they do! See that dotted vertical line? That’s right now—and things are bad enough. But take a look at that solid vertical; that’s about six months from now—and that’s when we get it. Look at the cycles—the long ones, the short ones, all of them. Every single last one of them reaches either a trough or a crest exactly on—or almost on—that line.”
    “That’s bad?”
    “What do you think? Three of the big ones troughed back in 1929 and the depression almost ruined us… even with the big 54-year cycle supporting things. Now we’ve got the big one troughing—and the few crests are not things that help. I mean to say, tent caterpillars and influenza don’t do us any good. Meade, if statistics mean anything, this tired old planet hasn’t seen a trend like this since Eve went into the apple business. I’m scared.”
    She searched his face. “Potty, you’re not simply having fun with me? You know I can’t check up on you.”
    “I wish to heaven I were. No, Meade, I can’t fool about numbers; I wouldn’t know how. This is it. 1952—The Year of the Jackpot.”
    M eade was very silent as he drove her home. When they approached West Los Angeles, she said, “Potty?”
    “Yes, Meade?”
    “What do we
do
about it?”
    “What do you do about a hurricane? You pull in your ears. What can you do about an atom bomb? You try to outguess it, not be there when it goes off. What else can you do?”
    “Oh.” She was silent for a few moments, then added, “Potty, will you tell me which way to jump?”
    “Huh? Oh, sure! If I can figure it out.”
    He took her to her door, turned to go.
    She said, “Potty!”
    He faced her. “Yes, Meade?”
    She grabbed his head, shook it—then kissed him fiercely on the mouth. “There, is that just a statistic?”
    “Uh, no.”
    “It had better not be,” she said dangerously. “Potty, I think I’m going to have to change your curve.”
II
    RUSSIANS REJECT UN NOTE
MISSOURI FLOOD DAMAGE EXCEEDS 1951 RECORD
MISSISSIPPI MESSIAH DEFIES COURT
NUDIST CONVENTION STORMS BAILEY’S BEACH
BRITISH-IRAN TALKS STILL