In Slam, the future illuminates the novel’s theme of How a Few Seconds Can Change Everything and aids Sam in growing up. Sam is propelled into the future several times, and although he is never certain exactly how or why, he concludes that it must have something to do with Tony Hawk. The first time that Sam awakes in the future, he is jolted into the reality of teenage parenthood when Alicia asks him to help his son calm down in the middle of the night. Sam feels utterly clueless and lost in the moment—all he knows is that he is experiencing what his life might soon be like. The experience is so jarring that Sam runs away for a night, telling no one where he has gone. Sam then sees another future where he is relatively free, succeeding at skating and college, and not hampered by a relationship with someone he doesn’t love. After these experiences, Sam’s perspective on teenage parenthood begins to change, and he starts to accept that he cannot predict what the future holds: “I worked out that there were two futures. There’s the one I got whizzed to.