Chapter 11

With the end of school, came an opportunity to work full time. I needed to work full time so I could earn more money. Another advantage of coming back to this time period was that I could invest my money in stocks. The problem was that I never paid much attention to the stock market in my previous life. What I did know, however, was that certain companies especially in the upcoming age of the personal computer would be very good investments especially if you could get in early. Companies like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot, which would become the dominant companies in their industry, were just starting out. Companies like Microsoft, Intel, Apple, Google, and Dell were not even in existence yet. All would go on to become huge companies. I would need money to invest in those companies when the time came. I didn't want to become a financial tycoon; I just wanted to be rich enough so that Jack and my parents would always have someone to fall back to if times got tough.

By the end of July I had a good sized nest egg in terms of 1969 dollars of about two thousand dollars. Now I was ready.

I went to the library, to read the Wall Street Journal; looking for any indication as to when McDonalds was going to go public. I read in one of the columns that the company had gone public in June. I had missed it. I made arrangements with a friend's father to open an account with his brokerage house. Because of my age I had to have my father sign the papers as well. I had to convince him that I knew what I was doing and that this was a long term investment in my future and that I would not be touching this money for 30 or more years.

"Well it's your money; you earned it, so I guess it's yours to lose if you want. Personally I would keep it in the bank, it's safer."

I placed an order to buy $2,000 worth of McDonalds as soon as possible. I could see the puzzled look on my broker's face,

"Some day that company is going to be the largest hamburger seller in the world."

He just laughed and said,

"Okay, the customer is always right."

As I walked out of his office, I thought to myself,

One down, about four more to go.

That night I couldn't sleep. I was thinking about what I had done so far and how I had changed the lives of my parents and Jack and myself for the better. Now I had to figure out just how our future lives would affect history; and what we could do to minimize the effects. I was also feeling the strain of keeping my secret hidden from my parents and Jack. I had to tell Jack, but when, and how could I make him believe me. I formed a tentative plan, which would take almost a year to complete. The first phase of the plan would take place during the summer.

One morning, as Jack and I were finishing up our work outs, I said,

"Jack, I have something to tell you which is going to be very difficult for you to believe. Please sit down."

"This sounds serious Anne, is everything all right?"

"Yes; everything is fine." I took a deep breath and began,

"Jack, have you ever heard of reincarnation?"

'Yes, sure, that's when a person dies and then comes back as another person. Why?"

I looked him right in the eye and held his hands as I said,