Summary

Buddy wakes up disoriented, wondering what year it is. He reminds himself how old he is and that Maureen has been dead for twenty-one years before he begins his day.

Buddy continues his morning routine, checking the calendar and noting “September 4, 1995, 12:06 p.m. The moment the future ends” (86). Buddy drifts through his own thoughts, thinking of “the Zap” (87), some future.

Buddy flashes back to watching a Cubs baseball game with his father at age four. Teddy asks Buddy if he can think of any of the scores to baseball games. Buddy replies, with the score of a game that has already concluded. Teddy hints that Buddy should be trying to think of scores that have not yet happened, but stops prodding when Maureen asks him what he is doing.

Buddy continues working on his construction project, bolting steel slabs to the basement wall...