Science fiction; Short stories; Time travel -- Fiction
I was completely stunned as I watched that scene. Future Marge looked
furious; she had the kind of look I never even suspected she could get
on her face. But I think I was more enraged at my future self than at
her. At the time, I was seriously in love with Marge--although it seemed
evident it wasn't going to last--and I loathed myself for acting that
way toward her. And after all those rash promises I had been making,
too!
I was really a tangled mess of emotions as I watched our future selves
battling it out.
I became conscious of not being alone as I watched. It didn't take long
to discover that it was Marge who had come to join me. I should have
expected her--she must have been just as curious about her marriage as I
was and, like myself, would naturally take her Projector to the two-year
limit. Of course we couldn't hold hands the way we would have if our
bodies had been there, but then we probably wouldn't have held them
long. We were both pretty embarrassed by what we saw.
The cause of the fight was very obscure, and though we saw and heard
everything perfectly, we still didn't really understand. However, the
emotions expressed were plain enough.
"You aren't going to die, Marge," my future self was yelling at her.
"Try and get that through your damned thick stupid skull!"
"I am! I am!" she was screaming back at me. "You know I'm going to die.
You want to get rid of me. Our marriage has been one long fight from the
start."
"Don't talk such damned rot," my future self hollered back at her.
"There's probably a perfectly good explanation for it all and you're too
ignorant to see it!"
"The only explanation is that I'm going to die," future Marge insisted.
She broke down, sobbing into an already saturated handkerchief.
My future self stamped around the room, cursing and furiously kicking
the furniture. "Why don't you find out for sure? Why don't you go in
closer and find out the real reason?"
She sobbed even louder. "I daren't! You do it for me. Go find out for
yourself and then tell me."
That seemed to make my future self even madder. "You know I wouldn't
touch one of those things even to save my life. I mean it, too! Besides,
if you do die, it'll be your own fault. You'll have _believed_ yourself
to death! You think you're going to die and now you won't be happy until
you _are_ dead."
Future Marge began to sob hysterically and _my_ Marge, who had been
right beside me, suddenly seemed to grow a little more remote.
Then a strange thing happened. My future self stopped pacing up and down
the room and turned to look straight at me with the queerest expression
on his face. That was enough for me. I got out of there fast and flipped
back to the peace and security of 2017.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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