11.22.63

Jake takes a day to rest, then arranges for a taxi to return him to Lisbon Falls. On the ride, he learns there has been a major earthquake in Los Angeles. When he arrives at the Kennebec Fruit Company, there is a new Yellow Card Man, only his card is green. The man calls to Jake, referring to him as “JIMLA” (1019).

The new Yellow Card Man, Zack Lang, tells Jake that he is a guardian of the rabbit-hole, which he calls a “bubble.” The other Yellow Card Man, Kyle, lost his sanity because of the strain of knowing about all the different strings of time. He says it will happen to them all. Jake realizes that the card in his hat indicates his level of sanity: Green is sane, yellow is growing insanity, and orange is total insanity. Black is death.

Zack tells Jake that each time he goes through the rabbit-hole and changes something, it causes a new string to develop in time. When he returns and resets time, he leaves behind a residue. This is the cause of the harmonies Jake noticed. Zack tells Jake that no one has ever changed something as big as Jake has done by stopping the assassination of President Kennedy. Zack tells him he has to go back to 2011 and see what he’s done, and then he needs to go through the portal twice more to set it all back to normal.

Jake goes through the rabbit-hole and finds himself in an unused public bathroom rather than Al's Diner. Lisbon Falls is nothing like the place he left behind five years ago. The Kennebec Fruit Company is gone, and the few businesses that were on this street are closed and abandoned. He sees a group of kids harass an old man in a wheelchair, and he goes to help. After he scares the kids away, he realizes the old man is Harry Dunning.

Jake takes Harry home and asks him to fill him in on recent history. Harry tells him a horrifying story of multiple natural disasters, the use of nuclear weapons, terrorism, and political unrest. President Kennedy won reelection but, unlike Lyndon B. Johnson, failed to pass Civil Rights legislation. U.S. race relations continued to deteriorate, leading to the election of white supremacist George Wallace to the presidency. Wallace used nuclear weapons in Vietnam, creating a violent world order marked by frequent use of nuclear weaponry. As Jake and Harry speak, the earth trembles and a terrible watery sound rumbles around them. Jake realizes the gravity of what he’s done and quickly returns to the rabbit-hole to set things right.

Zack is waiting when Jake steps through the rabbit-hole again. He calls to him and tells him he needs to return to his own time. He says the rabbit-hole will soon close up and there will no longer be any danger of reality being destroyed. Rather than return, however, Jake runs away.