Ever since he left Jumanji, one question had been on Spencer Gilpin's mind: those words in Alex's treehouse - what did they mean?

Well, it was 2017, and there was no question a quick Google search could not answer. Spencer opened the browser on his phone and entered the following words into the search box: ALAN PARRISH.

He tapped 'Go', and his jaw dropped in amazement at the results that came up.

A few Google searches later, Spencer had obtained Mr. Parrish's personal email address from Parrish Shoes' contact information webpage.

He could scarcely believe that the CEO of a respectable local company could be the same person who had built a treehouse in the jungles of Jumanji. Was he? There was only one way to find out.

Spencer opened his phone's email and began typing out a new message:

To: alan*parrish(a)parrishoes*com

From: spencergilpin(a)gmail*com

Subject: JUMANJI

Dear Mr Parrish,

My name is Spencer Gilpin and I am a student at Brantford High School.

I'd like to enquire if you ever visited a jungle called "Jumanji".

Yours sincerely,

Spencer Gilpin

59-year-old Alan Parrish nearly fell out of his chair when he read the subject of that one certain email in his inbox. It's not possible, he thought to himself. Surely that...that...nightmare is nothing but a distant memory by now.

No, his common sense told him. It must be true. This Spencer Gilpin kid could not conceivably have learned that cursed word any other way. Somehow, despite his and Sarah's best efforts to dispose of it in 1969, the diabolical game had found its way into the hands of another player…

Trembling, Alan typed out a reply to Spencer's email:

To: spencergilpin(a)gmail*com

From: alan*parrish(a)parrishoes*com

Subject: Re: JUMANJI

Dear Spencer,

How did you learn that name?

Regards,

Alan

A few minutes later, he received a reply:

To: alan*parrish(a)parrishoes*com

From: spencergilpin(a)gmail*com

Subject: Re: JUMANJI

Dear Alan,

I and a group of my friends played it.

Spencer

Alan cursed. He knew it, somehow he knew it. He shuddered to think what this Spencer and his friends must have gone through. Did they lose years of their lives like he had? Did they see things that still haunted them in their sleep?

Still, Alan's business mind demanded that he ask Spencer one more question before jumping to conclusions. He typed:

To: spencergilpin(a)gmail*com

From: alan*parrish(a)parrishoes*com

Subject: Re: JUMANJI

Dear Spencer,

What sound, if any, did the game emit?

Alan

Alan sent the email, and received another reply a few minutes later.

To: alan*parrish(a)parrishoes*com

From: spencergilpin(a)gmail*com

Subject: Re: JUMANJI

Dear Alan,

It gave off the sound of beating drums.

Spencer

There it was. Undeniable proof that this Spencer was indeed telling the truth. Alan decided that it was safe to open up to this young stranger about their shared experience. He typed out the following reply:

To: spencergilpin(a)gmail*com

From: alan*parrish(a)parrishoes*com

Subject: Re: JUMANJI

Dear Spencer,

We need to talk. Here's my number: +1-012-345-6789

Alan

Spencer furiously typed out a WhatsApp message to Alex Vreeke. He couldn't wait to tell his new friend about his latest discovery. Granted, it was odd to be such close friends with someone two decades older than yourself, but Jumanji had a remarkable knack for forging bonds between wildly disparate individuals.

It never ceased to amuse Spencer that Alex's WhatsApp profile picture was a seaplane. Apparently he never wanted to forget his time in Jumanji.

Spencer finished typing out his message and hit send.

Spencer Yo, Alex. I found the guy we've been looking for: Alan Parrish - owner and CEO of Brantford's very own Parrish Shoes. Phone number +1-012-345-6789

Alan's breakfast was interrupted by a WhatsApp message from a strange phone number. He picked his phone up and read it:

+1 456 123 0987 Hello Mr Parrish, my name is Alex Vreeke, Brantford local. My friend Spencer Gilpin told me to get in touch with you. In 1996, when I was 16, I found a remarkable video game called "Jumanji" and started playing. Long story short, I just want to say, Thank you for the treehouse, sir.

Alan couldn't believe what he was reading. So someone else had moved into the treehouse he built in the jungle all those years ago? That must mean that not only had Spencer Gilpin and his friend Alex Vreeke played Jumanji together, but Alex at least had been sucked into the game just as he had.

But why did Alex describe Jumanji as a video game? That was an odd detail to include. Alan decided to reply to this Alex to probe for further details. He also noticed that he was in fact in a group conversation with Alex and Spencer. Even better - he wanted to hear from both of them personally.

Alan typed out a reply:

Alan Hi Alex, pleased to hear from you too. A video game, you say? Interesting. Are you sure it wasn't a board game?

Spencer was intrigued to read Alan's response. He hadn't expected this question at all. Seconds later, a new message arrived from Alex.

Alex Now that I think back, yes, it WAS a board game which my dad found on the beach. At least, it used to be a board game, 'cause when I opened it the next day, the board was gone. In its place was a video game cartridge which I plugged into my console, and what happened next is a long story.

Spencer was shocked to learn that Jumanji was able to change its form like that. If it could transform from a board game into a video game overnight, what other forms had it taken throughout its life, and could it possibly return again in another form?

Apparently, Alan felt the same way:

Alan #& *! I knew Sarah and I should have done something else rather than chuck it into the river!

Spencer Who's Sarah? Did she play the game with you?

Alan She's my wife. Yes, both of us played the game way back in 1969, when we were kids. We then took a long hiatus and resumed the game in 1995 with a couple of kids who moved into our house.

1995! Spencer thought in astonishment. That meant...

Alex 1995? That's just a year before I started playing!

Alan Well, we finished the game in 1995, but when we won, it brought us back to the very moment we started playing in 1969. We changed our future and the two kids never ended up playing it after all. It's complicated.

Spencer was puzzled. That certainly hadn't happened to him and his three friends. When they returned to reality, the console and cartridge had been just the way they had set it up in detention.

Spencer I'm so lost right now. If you could change your future and cause the new players to never play the game at all, how come I and the others still remember playing it?

There was a brief pause before another reply came from Alan.

Alan Now I'm the one who's lost. I think you two had better explain to me from the beginning how you found the game and what happened next.

Alex Well, I popped in the game in 1996, chose a playable character from the game's menu screen and got sucked into the game as my character, a pilot. I was stuck there for 20 years, although it seemed like only a few months to me. During that time I found your treehouse and moved in.

Spencer Last Friday, I and three friends from school wound up in detention together. We found Alex's old console there and fired it up. Like Alex, we each chose our own avatars and boom, we were teleported right into Jumanji. While there, we found Alex, rescued him, beat the game and we all returned home. Alex got sent back to 1996 while the rest of us re-emerged back in detention.

Spencer waited to see how Alan would react to this news.

Alan Fascinating. It seems this game is far more sinister than Sarah and I realised. Back in my day, it was simply a board game which brought out dangers from the jungle into the real world. Imagine monkeys, mosquitos, a stampede, a hunter named Van Pelt, spiders, and a monsoon all running amuck in the midst of town.

Spencer Van Pelt? Geez, not that guy again…

Alan You met him? Big game hunter with a moustache and hat?

Spencer marveled at how Alan was constantly giving them details about Jumanji which conflicted with what they knew about the game.

Spencer Not exactly. While we were there, he was a professor with an army who controlled all the jungle animals with a magic stone. Creepy guy with bugs crawling in and out of his facial orifices. Young and clean shaven.

Alan I never encountered that in the game. Did this Van Pelt have a first name?

Spencer Yes. It was Russell.

Alan Ah, he must be a relative of the Van Pelt I knew then. I never found out my hunter's first name.

That made sense to Spencer. It was not unheard-of for game developers to revamp their characters every once in a while, and he supposed that Jumanji was no different.

Spencer I guess being a jungle threat runs in the family.

Alex Wait, Alan. There's one thing I don't understand. If the board game version simply brought things out from Jumanji into the real world, how did you wind up in the jungle in the first place?

Alan I was the only one of the four players who got sucked into the game. It happened on my first roll of the dice. I was forced to wait in the jungle until another player rolled a 5 or an 8. Unfortunately, that player didn't show up until 26 years later.

So Alan had lived in the jungle and the treehouse for 26 years! Things were starting to become clearer to Spencer. He shuddered to think of how both Alex and Alan had been trapped inside the game for decades, waiting for new players to come and rescue them. What if the rescuers had never come?

Spencer Which was one of the kids you mentioned earlier, right?

Alan That's right. A brave young man named Peter Shepherd and his big sister Judy. But enough about me. I'm dying to learn more about how the game has evolved since I last played it.

Alex Well, it's a video game now. It's got playable characters, levels, mission objectives and lives.

Alan Wow, that seems like a huge leap from the roll-the-dice, snakes-and-ladders-type game I played. But I assume that there's still a jungle island inside with monstrous creatures, wild beasts and hunters?

Spencer Everything you just said. But the thing is, we didn't go into the game as ourselves. Instead, we became the character avatars we selected at the start of the game. There were five to choose from:

1) Jefferson "Seaplane" McDonough

Pilot-Rascal

Handsome young man.

Alex took him.

2) Franklin "Mouse" Finbar

Zoology Expert-Weapons

Short black backpack guy.

My best friend Fridge chose him.

3) Dr. Smolder Bravestone

Archaeologist-Explorer

Strong muscular man-mountain.

That was my character.

4) Professor Shelly Oberon

Cartographer-Curvy Genius

Overweight middle-aged man.

Our friend Bethany chose him (!)

5) Ruby Roundhouse

Killer of Men

Hot kick-ass redhead.

My girlfriend Martha took her.

Just like in a video game, all of us had three lives and special skills and weaknesses.

Alan That sounds awesome! I wish I had been given special skills and multiple lives when I got sucked in at age 11. Would have made my life in the jungle so much easier.

No special skills? No extra lives? And at age 11? Spencer was astounded to learn that an ordinary boy had been trapped in Jumanji for over twenty years... and survived. He had a newfound admiration for Alan, and wondered how he would have reacted if he were put in the same situation. He thought back to how even the mighty Dr. Bravestone had been reduced to just one life, and hung his head in shame.

Spencer Actually, we all still ended up dying a lot and it was a really tense situation in there. One or two of us nearly died for real despite having three lives. There was also a rather straightforward plot about returning a green jewel called the Jaguar's Eye to a large jaguar statue. Van Pelt and his minions tried to stop us and we also had to contend with the various creatures in the jungle. We progressed through the game in about five different levels:

1) From the Deep: Escaping hungry hippos

2) The Mighty Roar: Outrunning VP's goons on bikes

3) The Bazaar: Defanging a snake

4) The Transportation Shed: Stealing transport and crossing a canyon

5) The Defenders: Avoiding jaguars and replacing the jewel

We finally won when we placed the jewel back in the jaguar statue's eye and called out "Jumanji!"

Alan Aha! I knew it! When I played it, we had to move our tokens along the board snakes-and-ladders style and call out "Jumanji!" when one of us reached the center of the board. The one who made the winning roll happened to be yours truly. I'm elated to hear that the final cry of "Jumanji!" is still a part of the game. One more question. What did you guys do to the game once you finished it?

Spencer realised that Alan was asking the both of them if they had destroyed the game. Given that Alan and his wife had tried to dispose of Jumanji when they finished their game, he wondered why the game console and cartridge was still in Brantford High School in 2017. Why hadn't Alex destroyed it himself?

Spencer We dropped a bowling ball on it. The console, the cartridge, everything. It's smashed into a thousand tiny pieces.

Alex I didn't dare destroy it in 1996. I wanted to, but I was afraid that would mean Spencer and his friends wouldn't come and rescue me in 2017. So I left it untouched in the hope that my friends would go on to play it in their own time.

Spencer was moved to read this. He wondered what would have happened if Alex had destroyed the game himself in 1996. Would he and his friends still remember the Jumanji experience? He theorised that the game could still have spat Fridge, Martha, Bethany and himself into an alternate 2017 with their memories intact, just like in the movie 'Back to the Future'. Still, he wouldn't have it any other way. Playing the game had made them all better people, and Spencer would not trade those valuable life lessons for anything in the world.

Alan So you basically just left the timeline alone.

Alex Only with regard to the game. Spencer tells me I did manage to fix the rest of my future. It seems that in the original timeline, my father became miserable and our house became run down over 20 years. Now all that horror has been avoided and I live a happy life with my parents, wife and kids.

Alan I'm so pleased to hear that. I originally found the board game locked in a chest buried deep underground. Much later, I came to realize that whoever buried it there must have wanted it never to be found or played again. But the drums... the drums drew my attention to it and I dug it up, not knowing what I was getting myself into.

Alex Same here. I should have realized something was up when the Jumanji box started playing drum music inside my bedroom.

Those words sent a shiver down Spencer's spine. How many children like them had been tricked into playing the game over the years? If neither Alan nor the person who preceded him had managed to stop it, how could the four of them be sure that they had succeeded?

Spencer Do you suppose the game will somehow manage to return in some form or another?

Alex Oh good God, please, no.

Alan I wouldn't dismiss that possibility. However, I think that from now on we should all keep our eyes peeled for any strange disappearances in town.

All things considered, that was probably the best thing to do, Spencer thought. True, Jumanji had wrecked all their lives, but it had also fixed and even vastly improved them in the end. It was a game of incredible risk, but also one of great reward if you beat it. Spencer hoped that the next person to discover Jumanji would be able to emerge victorious, as they all had.

Spencer Agreed.

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