Lincoln

Jimmy Barclay is crouched inside a broken-down shack in Virginia, and there is a frightened man hiding with him. Soldiers are moving through the trees outside, and the man is sure they will be found. Jimmy pushes him down under the potato sacks, tells him not to move until he hears them leave, and then walks out the front door with his hands high, chattering away about how he got lost hunting squirrels with his slingshot. The soldiers are Confederates, and their sergeant does not quite believe him. He is about to search the shack when a shell bursts nearby - one of General Grant's calling cards, the captain says - and instead of searching, the men take Jimmy along with them.

For days Jimmy travels with the ragged, hungry column. He has already seen City Point and Richmond, and now the soldiers halt at a quiet crossroads called Appomattox. One of them, Mr. Johnston, passes along a rumor that the army is about to surrender, and the sergeant tells him to keep such talk to himself. But the rumor is true. When General Robert E. Lee rides back from the courthouse, a Union soldier confirms it, and the sergeant, wild with grief and anger, pulls out a pistol and aims it at the man he blames for everything. Jimmy grabs his arm and shouts, and the shot is never fired. General Ulysses S. Grant, who knows Jimmy from earlier in his adventure, quiets everyone down. Lee apologizes for his sergeant and promises to do all he can to smooth the way ahead, and the two generals say a courteous goodbye. Grant feeds Jimmy a hot meal and takes him back to Washington, where the president has been worried about him.

Washington is one long celebration. Banners hang everywhere, bands play, and Abraham Lincoln tells his secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, how good it is to hear joy again after four years of war. There is work waiting, though - the whole Union has to be put back together before Congress returns in December. Lincoln tries to talk Grant into coming to the theater that night, but Grant is leaving for Philadelphia, so the president invites Jimmy instead. Stanton, fussing like an old mother hen, warns Lincoln to stay away from public places, insisting the danger is greatest now. Lincoln laughs him off, and Jimmy runs outside to watch the troops parade past.

In the street he bumps into two men he has met before, David Herold and Lewis Paine, and they take him to a smoky saloon to meet their captain. The captain is charming and full of questions. Does Lincoln tell Jimmy his plans? Which theater will he be at tonight? Jimmy, not thinking, mentions that Grant has gone home and that the president asked him to come along instead. Then the captain sends him off for a sarsaparilla, and at the counter the barkeep mentions the captain's full name: John Wilkes Booth. Jimmy goes cold. He knows that name. He knows what is about to happen. But Paine catches him before he can reach the door, and Booth has him locked in the back room.

Alone in the dark, Jimmy prays for a way out, and his hand finds the remote control Mr. Whittaker gave him. He presses the button, and he is out - but he does not wait. He runs for Ford's Theater, shouting that the president is in danger, and a doorman blocks the way. There is a struggle, a shot, and then Jimmy is back in Odyssey with Mr. Whittaker holding on to him.

Why bring me back, Jimmy asks. I could have saved him. Gently, Mr. Whittaker explains that history cannot be changed by anyone, which is why he had asked Jimmy to wait. The reason for sending him at all was so he could see it, feel it, learn from it, and use what he learned on the one thing that can still be changed - the future. They talk about why Lincoln mattered so much, how he refused to let the country come apart, and how God gave the nation the leader it needed when it needed one most. Jimmy admits that history is turning into one of his favorite subjects after all, and Mr. Whittaker points him toward the library downstairs. Then he asks whether Jimmy still thinks his video game beats the Imagination Station. Jimmy says the Imagination Station wins - but only just barely. Thanks a lot, Jimmy.