Science fiction; Short stories; Stores, Retail -- Fiction; Time travel -- Fiction; Triangles (Interpersonal relations) -- Fiction
Jack and Lorene were to leave on their honeymoon the next day. That
afternoon he announced his intention of going to the bargain basement
and lodging a complaint.
"That suit and shirt I had on were clothes I bought there," he said.
"If their stuff's going to disintegrate like that, it's not worth even
what little I paid for it. After that trouble with the television
set.... Say, what happened to the television set? I'll bet Ken took it
with him!"
"And to think I almost married him!" shuddered Lorene.
On the way to the bargain basement, Jack explained to Lorene what Ken
had told him: how the bargain basement existed in the future, and the
door to it was a fault in time.
They passed Wing Fan's laundry and turned into the alley. They went
down the steps to the basement door and opened it.
A blank wall of raw earth met their eyes.
"What in blazes!" exclaimed Jack.
There were footsteps in the alley above them. Old man Caswell came down
the steps with a policeman in tow.
"My basement!" Caswell was complaining bitterly, almost shouting. "I
was going to rent it today, and somebody fills it up with dirt. Why, I
ask you, _why_? Why would anybody want to fill my basement with dirt?"
He caught sight of Jack and Lorene standing to one side.
"You!" he cried. "You have anything to do with this?"
"Absolutely nothing," Jack assured him. "I thought there was a store
here."
"Store!" snorted Caswell. "Dirt!"
Jack and Lorene got away and made their way back to the street.
"Was there really a store there, Jack?" she asked.
"We're really married, aren't we, honey? I mean yes, there was. I don't
know what happened."
He looked at her, smiling, and the smile faded.
"Oh, oh," he said slowly. "I think I know now."
"What?"
"I know now who Edigo Adaman reminded me of. You!"
* * * * *
He didn't tell her the rest. He didn't tell her he was almost sure
that, the way things would have been, Lorene and Ken would have been
married and Edigo would have been their descendant.
But Edigo had changed all that when he sold Jack a drug that Jack
used, to make sure that Ken wouldn't marry Lorene, but that he would
instead. And since Ken and Lorene wouldn't be married now, Edigo would
never be born, and would never have the idea of building a fifty-story
building at that spot, starting it by digging a basement.
So that was what happened to the suit and Ken's car and the television
set. Since the basement wasn't to be built there, they wouldn't be, so
they weren't--they never had been.
The strange thing about it was that Jack remembered it all, and even
stranger, he was still married to Lorene, and he wouldn't have been
except for the drug. But then that had to be, because if he hadn't
married her, she'd have married Ken--and then the basement would have
been, and he'd have gotten the drug, and Ken wouldn't have married
Lorene because Jack would have, and then there wouldn't have been any
basement....
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account