The Time of Our Lives

Thirteen-year-old Kathy loves the mall more than almost anything. She wanders through every store with her friend Julie, plays a piano she dreams of performing at Carnegie Hall, imagines marrying Kyle Chambers, and talks endlessly about clothes without buying anything. When she steps into one final fashion store, however, she emerges to discover that ten years have passed.

Julie is suddenly twenty-three, and the mirror shows that Kathy is too. Everyone knows Kathy as the “mall lady” because she spends nearly all her time shopping. Julie assumes her confusion is a breakdown and hurries away to prepare for her wedding that afternoon. Kathy races home, only to find strangers who have lived there for seven years and have never heard of her family.

At Julie’s wedding, Kathy cannot locate her parents or anyone else she recognizes. She meets Kyle, now an adult who has been living in Chicago for eight years. Kathy cannot remember the name or even the sex of her sister’s baby, yet she can recite the exact fabric blend in her dress. Worse, Kyle has married someone else. He explains that he tried repeatedly to contact Kathy, but she was always at the mall and never seemed interested.

Kathy’s former piano teacher, Mrs. Singer, is horrified by the talent Kathy has wasted. Challenged to prove she can still play, Kathy sits at the church piano and finds that no music comes to her. Her dreams of concerts, marriage, and a meaningful future have vanished while she drifted through stores. She breaks down, realizing that she has traded ten years for nothing.

Twelve-year-old Jeremy wastes his time differently. He spends nearly his entire life in a recliner watching television and traveling from channel to channel with a remote. His comfortable routine ends when police burst into his house, announce that television watching is now a state offense, confiscate the set, and tell him to find something worthwhile to do.

Jeremy tries reading *Moby-Dick* but cannot continue beyond its opening words. He goes to the garage intending to pull weeds and discovers an old portable television instead. The police catch him watching it, so he grabs the set and runs. Trapped at the edge of a two-thousand-foot cliff, he would rather jump than surrender his television. He leaps, survives, and races toward a state line where television remains legal.

Four police helicopters fail to stop him, but a veteran officer reaches the border first. Jeremy begs for a single hour of viewing. The officer looks at the risks he has taken for television and decides that arrest is unnecessary; continuing such an empty life will be punishment enough. He allows Jeremy to cross the line and leaves him to face the worthlessness of his obsession.

Years later, Jeremy and Kathy admit that they are time wasters. Jeremy owns six televisions and keeps another in his car for stoplights. He has become so accustomed to commercial breaks that, while leaving dinner guests to fetch mustard, he announces, “I’ll be right back after these messages.” Kathy still thinks constantly about shopping and has even held a funeral for a canceled credit card.

A mysterious guide named Rodlyn Serly offers them a chance to confront their past and repair the future. They find their younger selves in the television department of Osborne’s at the mall. Adult Jeremy begs the boy to turn away from the screen, read a book, make friends, and do something constructive. Adult Kathy pleads with the girl to leave the sales and practice the piano while there is still time.

The children will not listen. Young Jeremy cares only about reaching the next commercial, and young Kathy insists that a wool sweater is calling her name. Their older selves warn, “These are minutes you’re never going to get back,” but the truth makes no difference. The younger pair walk away, leaving the adults trapped in the consequences of years they cannot reclaim.

Kathy and Jeremy have finally understood that time stops for no one. Regret cannot recover missed opportunities; only the present can be used differently. Because they refused that lesson when it could change their future, they remain lost among the shadows of the Twilight Zone.