Things that never happened. And things that did.
Richie really should have read Mike's book. At the time, he'd been more worried about It, and Bowers, and the whole trying not to die thing, but he really should have read it.
He'd decided to head up to Derry relatively quickly. Getting out of New York had seemed like a good idea, and something had been calling him there. Calling him home.
He hadn't been in town more than three hours before he started to remember things. Something was wrong in Derry. He just couldn't remember what it was.
When he hears about the Black Spot--a nightclub at the army base, run by the black soldiers who weren't allowed in the bars in town--something jogs his memory again. But the prospect of booze and an apparently really good jazz band helps him get over his hesitation.
He survives the fire, but barely. There's a moment when he really doesn't think he's going to make it out alive, but someone uses a vehicle or something to break open a wall, and he manages to get out at the last minute. He's standing outside, watching it burn, watching the people who couldn't get out burn, when he meets Will Hanlon. It doesn't occur to him that he knows the name, will know the man's kid, until twenty minutes later. He's on the floor and laughing maniacly for the next half hour, and doesn't stop until he remembers it all.
In one timeline, Riche makes his way to London. He's burned, tired, and slowly remembering things he would really prefer to forget, but he makes it there.
In another, Richie never finds out about the stasis machine. He bluffs his way into a job at the Derry News, which allows him to know everything that happens, though he misses squirrel notes. He places some excellent bets on sporting events, elections, and the like, and spends what he doesn't save on booze. He spends an insane amount of time researching Derry--he doesn't have Mike's notes, but he remembers a little of it. 27 years in between, give or take. He has 27 years to prepare.
He avoids his family, Back to the Future levels of awkward still in his mind, but keeps an eye on things. He spends a lot of time worrying--what would happen if he changes the future?
Richie never gets to find out. It doesn't know exactly who Richie is, but it knows that something is strange. It knows that Richie's a threat. This time, in 1957, when It starts murdering, the first death isn't a child. It's Rich Fandome, and he's found beaten in the road, at the same spot that Ben Hascomb would enter the Barrens a month later, starting off the real cycle.
He doesn't have a big funeral, and his will leaves his (not unimpressive) assets to Fandom High, in Virginia, to be donated in 2008. There's a note, informing the school that "you suck, and your island sucks, and your creepy angels suck, and your squirrels suck. And I hate you." All of the research he's collected--acres and acres of documents, practically--are to be sealed and given to Mike Hanlon on his 18th birthday, "for the book". There's also a page in the will insisting that his grave be nowhere near any statues, or pictures of angels, and that it have a squirrel on it. This is done, and it stands until 1985, when Richie and the other Losers basically blow up the town.
He'd decided to head up to Derry relatively quickly. Getting out of New York had seemed like a good idea, and something had been calling him there. Calling him home.
He hadn't been in town more than three hours before he started to remember things. Something was wrong in Derry. He just couldn't remember what it was.
When he hears about the Black Spot--a nightclub at the army base, run by the black soldiers who weren't allowed in the bars in town--something jogs his memory again. But the prospect of booze and an apparently really good jazz band helps him get over his hesitation.
He survives the fire, but barely. There's a moment when he really doesn't think he's going to make it out alive, but someone uses a vehicle or something to break open a wall, and he manages to get out at the last minute. He's standing outside, watching it burn, watching the people who couldn't get out burn, when he meets Will Hanlon. It doesn't occur to him that he knows the name, will know the man's kid, until twenty minutes later. He's on the floor and laughing maniacly for the next half hour, and doesn't stop until he remembers it all.
In one timeline, Riche makes his way to London. He's burned, tired, and slowly remembering things he would really prefer to forget, but he makes it there.
In another, Richie never finds out about the stasis machine. He bluffs his way into a job at the Derry News, which allows him to know everything that happens, though he misses squirrel notes. He places some excellent bets on sporting events, elections, and the like, and spends what he doesn't save on booze. He spends an insane amount of time researching Derry--he doesn't have Mike's notes, but he remembers a little of it. 27 years in between, give or take. He has 27 years to prepare.
He avoids his family, Back to the Future levels of awkward still in his mind, but keeps an eye on things. He spends a lot of time worrying--what would happen if he changes the future?
Richie never gets to find out. It doesn't know exactly who Richie is, but it knows that something is strange. It knows that Richie's a threat. This time, in 1957, when It starts murdering, the first death isn't a child. It's Rich Fandome, and he's found beaten in the road, at the same spot that Ben Hascomb would enter the Barrens a month later, starting off the real cycle.
He doesn't have a big funeral, and his will leaves his (not unimpressive) assets to Fandom High, in Virginia, to be donated in 2008. There's a note, informing the school that "you suck, and your island sucks, and your creepy angels suck, and your squirrels suck. And I hate you." All of the research he's collected--acres and acres of documents, practically--are to be sealed and given to Mike Hanlon on his 18th birthday, "for the book". There's also a page in the will insisting that his grave be nowhere near any statues, or pictures of angels, and that it have a squirrel on it. This is done, and it stands until 1985, when Richie and the other Losers basically blow up the town.