"Forty, Counting Down" and "Twenty-one, Counting Up" by Harry Turtledove

Synopsis: This is a wish-fulfillment story that goes awry... only to work out in the end. Justin Kloster has found a connection between string theory and computers that allows him to go back to when he was twenty-one and set things right with his ex-wife (then just a girlfriend), Megan. But first, he has to convince his younger self that he's real and that he should be her boyfriend

Spoiler: The older Justin fails and heads home, dejected. The enraged younger Justin takes his older self's money to invest and build a company based on the scant yet do-able knowledge his older self supplies.

Creative Writing: Point of View:

1. Is one story necessarily better than the other? Why or why not?
   
2. Does Justin's story need two tellings, or would one do? Explain.
   
3. How might the two stories be combined into one for a dual perspective?
   

• Asimov's, December 1999
• Analog, December 1999
• Counting up, Counting down, collection