Jamey and Hayden sat on the bed, their grandfathers radio between them. It was one of the few possessions he had as he spent his last years living with the Robinsons. It was a dull rainy Friday and the boys had been exploring the attic when they found the wireless.
Jamey switched it on and it crackled to life. "And in sports news," came the fuzzy voice of the announcer, "The Undertown Undertakers were thrashed by the Puntville Predators in game 5 of the football season yesterday at a final score of 24-18. Hayden reached over and turned off the radio. "Dude what was that for?" asked Jamey, "It's just a football game."
"Yeah but game five of the football schedule this season- the Undertakers versus the Predators- isn't until next week," replied his brother. The boys stared in confusion at each other for a moment before their mother called them downstairs for dinner.
Come the next week and as it turned out, the Predators beat the Undertakers 24 points to 18. The boys raced upstairs as soon as they saw the report on the television. "Dude, that is totally freaky. The guy on the radio was right," said Jamey. Hayden looked at and examined the radio closely. Over the last few days, he had mainly forgotten about the device, although like his brother, it had niggled at the back of his mind. "It's like the guy was looking into the future," he said after a while.
"Or maybe this signal receives signals from some kind of hole in the fabric of time and space." Jamey grabbed the radio from his brother and flicked the power "... Kodak Harley took the top trophy in the Merbrah Cup today, the three year old colt and proud jockey Tom Windsor posed for the press as they collected their prize". Jamey turned down the volume. "Dude, we could make a killing out of this!" he told his brother.
"What do you mean?"
"If this radio broadcasts stuff from the future, then maybe we can make money out of this from school."
"Yes, that could totally work."
So for the next three weeks the boys had the best tips on who won the professional football games, they could predict who would win the local talent quest, even helping to capture an escaped criminal by warning the police ahead of time to where the man would be hiding.
One night they locked themselves in their room as usual. The radio clicked on and the familiar roar of static reached their ears. Nothing happened. "Must be broken", grumbled Jamey and he then went to the bathroom. Hayden stared at the radio for a moment, shook his head and went downstairs to get a snack. No sooner had he closed the door, the radio cut in on the announcer. "a fire broke out at a local school earlier this morning. The flames have all been extinguished however several students perished in the blaze. Two victims that have been positively identified are Jamey and Hayden Robinson".
Exactly one week later, Mrs. Robinson received an unexpected visit. A policeman stood at the door with a sullen look on his face. "Mrs. Robinson, I am truly sorry to be the one to tell you this. You'd better sit down."
