Running Out Of Time

The next morning, Jessie worries about the mystery of Ma’s request. She completes her morning chores and gets ready for school. We learn more about her older sister, Hannah, who Jessie believes is too cautious, and Andrew, Jessie’s favorite of her four younger siblings. Jessie wonders if her father, the town blacksmith, is aware of what Ma is planning.

At school, Jessie recites the presidents of the United States for the teacher, Mr. Smythe, who Jessie dislikes. Jessie notes that many of the schoolchildren have been out sick lately. On her way out of school, Jessie’s youngest sister, Katie, begins feeling ill; Jessie carries her home. After dropping Katie off, Jessie runs to the woods to meet Ma, who tells Jessie that Katie and the other sick children have a disease called diphtheria. She reveals that Clifton is a historical preserve and that the year is 1996.

Ma explains that Miles Clifton, Clifton’s founder, created the village as an “authentic” tourist site where outsiders could secretly view people pretending to live in the past for 24 hours a day. Ma reveals that there are cameras everywhere: in the trees, mirrors, and walls. Jessie remembers seeing boxes in trees and thinking the trees were haunted; she was beaten for asking about them. Ma explains that people originally volunteered to live in Clifton, herself and Pa included. She says Pa was always more interested in the role-playing than she was. Ma had been a nurse before moving with Pa to Clifton, while Pa had been an unsuccessful blacksmith until they relocated. At first, Ma claims, the volunteers were treated well, given modern medicine, told the truth about the village at age twelve, and allowed to leave if they chose. Recently, things have become more restrictive and violent.

Ma gives Jessie a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a jacket. She explains that Jessie will have to venture out into the modern world to secure medicine for the sick children. She gives Jessie a pack of supplies and the phone number of a man named Isaac Neeley. Ma believes that he can help because he was vocal against the founding of Clifton. Jessie is to find a payphone outside; she is to tell Mr. Neeley about the diphtheria epidemic so he can report Clifton to the board of health. The large rock in the woods is actually a trapdoor to the outside. Ma helps Jessie change her appearance and climb down into the dark tunnel to make her way out of Clifton.