Counting Up, Counting Down Trivia Quiz

Answer: Both these ages

At 40, Justin uses his remarkable computer skills to program his laptop to take him back in time. When he succeeds, he contacts his 21 year old self to try to change his past.

Answer: His marriage failed

He'd married a girl he'd been with since age 21. But eventually their marriage fell apart and she'd wanted nothing more to do with him. Years later he realised she was his only hope of ever being happy. He knew he had to travel back in time and stop himself from ruining the relationship.

Answer: Kloster

At 21 he is described as blonde, slightly pudgy and pale-skinned because he does not get outside (i.e. spends too much time on computers). When he becomes 40 he looks pretty much the same. Which is useful for impersonating one's 21-year-old self but annoying when he still gets asked for ID in bars!

Answer: 1999

The story begins in 2018 when Justin has just turned 40 and he wants to go back to 1999 when he was 21.

Answer: Computer Programmer

He was a computer genius who spent years trying to find a way to go back in time. He ended up combining physics with Virtual Reality and chaos theory. Considering how sophisticated Virtual Reality could be in 2018, this story may be quite plausible in a few years!

Answer: Email

As soon as he arrives safely in 1999, Justin gets himself organised. He rents a single apartment, puts half his "travel" money in a bank he knows his 21-year-old self has never used, and gets a second-hand computer with internet. He also procures a stereo, VCR and TV because he intends his younger self to stay at this apartment for a while.

Answer: $100,000

Before leaving 2018 he visits several antique shops and buys lots of 20th century cash. $100,000 does not seem to be a lot of money in Justin's time - i.e. he idly wonders how people could ever have lived on a sum (especially if they wanted to eat too!).

Answer: All these things

21-year old Justin emails this stranger back, commenting "I don't watch 'X-Files' but maybe I ought to!"

Answer: Produces a 2012 coin

Younger Justin gets "the fright of his life" when he meets an older man with HIS face. When one Justin speaks to the other, the voice doesn't sound as it does to his own ears, but rather on video.

Answer: If the Rolling Stones are still touring in 2018

When the question about The Rolling Stones is asked, both Justins have a good laugh. They realise they share a sense of humour and are indeed the same person.

Answer: "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!"

40-year-old Justin laughs. He had forgotten all about "South Park".

Answer: They fit together perfectly

As the text says, "Well they would, wouldn't they?"

Answer: Megan

She was a dark-haired beauty who eventually married Justin but broke up with him after too many arguments. 21-year old Justin is astonished when his older self reveals the unhappiness and grief in his future. He is devastated, but realises nothing else would make him work so hard one day to travel back in time.

Answer: Switch places

For once, Justin-aged-40 is glad he still gets asked for ID in bars because it means he can switch places with his 1999 self! It seems to work; no one in 1999 notices. Justin-at-21 is not happy about having to "take a break from himself". But he agrees to stay at the apartment his older self has procured while the latter relives his life at 21, and concentrates on romancing Megan. Justin-at-21 complains Megan is his girlfriend but Justin-at-40 reminds him they are the same person so technically he isn't stealing her from him.

Answer: False

No one notices or suspects a thing, they only comment Justin looks "tired". The plan seems to be working perfectly.

Answer: All these things

The flaw in Justin's plan all along was he was a 40-year old pretending to a be a 21-year old. Although no one suspected he wasn't 21, he did not have the young, reckless, heavy-drinking flair which attracted Megan to his younger self in the first place. To be honest, it is not really clear how older Justin intended to save his future marriage by "being" 21 again. Perhaps he just wanted to...er, be with her again?

Answer: All these things

Poor Justin-at-21 is so frustrated about an older man "romancing" his girlfriend and confining him to this apartment. But older Justin said it was be unwise for the two of them to be seen together, so younger Justin obeys...most of the time. He occasionally rings Megan out of sheer loneliness (and at one point saves the situation when she'd been on the verge of telling older Justin "Goodbye") and goes out without permission. On one trip he bumps into Lindsey, his old high-school girlfriend.

She cheers him up, although apparently disappointed he already has a girlfriend.

Answer: False

The whole plan goes wrong. Megan is at first impressed by Justin's improved love-making skills (not realising he is in fact twice her age!) but then they start to argue, just like in the original history only much earlier. She unceremoniously dumps poor Justin, telling him she never wants to see him again. Justin has changed things alright, but not for the better. Megan never marries him at all, and needless to say they will not be together in 2018.

Answer: All these things

Justin-at-40 has been weeping in frustration before himself-at-21 rings up. He decides to quickly use his laptop to return to 2018 before his younger self storms in to beat him up. When 21-year-old Justin comes home his older self has already gone. But that is not the end of the story...

Answer: All these things

As he walks into his "new" office, new memories from 1999 start coming back to him. After Megan dumped him he hooked up with his old girlfriend Lindsey Fletcher who's now his wife, he found the money in his apartment from the future (long since invested, banked, etc) and started studying the science which he knew was going to exist in the future having heard about it from the lips of his older self. It is ironic: his plan failed miserably but he is better off! Megan used to get annoyed about the silliest things.

This was a very clever story.
There are about a dozen other short stories between "Counting Up" and "Counting Down" in this book, but I wanted to do my quiz about these two.