Chapter 8: The Who (Part 2)

Saturday, Feb 7 1983

Joe was feeling a little better today, but he was still scared to go into work. He considered taking his lunch break at noon to avoid being at his monitor for 12:20, but he felt like that would be running away from his problems, and he knew better than to do that. He sat at his desk and stared at the clock. It was 12:19, and officially the longest minute in history. Right when the clock finally got around to 12:20, Joe swiveled his head to the monitor and saw the kid casually walk in. Today’s theme was the letter “T,” and Joe rationally decided not to freak out, but to think about what this all meant. He eventually reached the conclusion that this kid must be doing some sort of anti-security protest, and all other connections to Joe were quite simply coincidences. After finding some closure in thought, the rest of the day went by smoothly. Joe retreated back to his house where he spent the rest of the night with his family watching movies and playing board games.

February 7, 1983  12:20:00 PM

Pam noticed something strange going on with Joe throughout the night. “Joseph, you’re thinking about something aren’t you?” Pam asked as they were getting ready for bed. Joe didn’t want to admit that the kid from the elevator was haunting his thoughts, and he replied to her with a simple “not really hunny I guess I’m just kind of tired.” Pam eventually fell asleep in his arms, but Joe simply could not close his eyes. The second his eyes shut, it was like the doors of the elevator closed and began to replay every little skit that kid had put on for Joe. He couldn’t escape it. Finally around eleven thirty Joe dozed off in a light stage of sleep. He just wanted the sun to rise and for it to be Sunday so he could relax all day and not go back to work. After what felt like a full night’s sleep, Joe suddenly woke up to a cold sweat. It felt like somebody had taken off all his blankets and doused him with ice water. Something weird was happening. His arms felt like pins and needles while his head felt like it was on fire, overworked from overthought. He looked back at the clock, and what he saw made him cringe. It was exactly 12:20 AM. Joe felt like his soul had been thrown outside of the Earth’s atmosphere, and he was now being forced to watch his life unfold from a distance. Without thinking, Joe got up and got in his car. He had to go to work. There was something in those videos that he had to figure out.

Footage from February 5, 1983  12:20:00 PM

Joe's frantically-written napkin

Once he unlocked the door and turned the lights on, he looked in the records for the tapes of everyday throughout the week. With some fast forwarding, he was able to set up the monitor to play the videos of the kid walking into the elevator everyday back to back. When the tape for Thursday started to play, Joe paid special attention, as it was the first time he had seen it. The kid certainly showed up that day, and his words all began with the letter “R.” After watching the sequence several times, Joe found an old napkin on his desk and scrambled to write down some of the words from every day’s skit. What he eventually found sent him into a state of euphoric shock. Taking the first letter from every day’s words eventually spelled out a clear message. It was a message so simple yet so mysteriously relevant to everything Joe had ever thought of. “Go For It.” Go for it.  Joe instantly knew what this all meant. This was not just some random kid, he was a prophet to Joe’s entire existence, and his mission was to get his life back to where it should be. All Joe had ever needed was that one pat on the back from a total stranger, a little nudge of encouragement that did not come from a biased friend or family member. He felt like God himself was handing him the keys to his destiny, and trusting him to know how to drive.  Joe grabbed the napkin and drove home faster than he had ever driven in his life. He busted into his bedroom and found Pam lying half awake, as she had woken up earlier after hearing the garage door open. “Pammy wake up. There’s a few things I gotta say to you…”

And as they say, the rest is history.