Alternative histories (Fiction); Berlin (Germany) -- Fiction; Inventors -- Fiction; Multiverse -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
He had not come into this world blindly. He had not dared bring any
goods from his apartment, of course. Not with Frau Ritter to observe
him. Nor had he expected that his Reichsmarks would be of any use. He
had provided for this by wearing two diamond-set rings. He had expected
to have to walk down to the jewelry district before he could begin to
settle into this world, but he had expected no further difficulty.
He had expected Germany to have lost the war. Germany had lost another
war within his lifetime, and fifteen years later it would have taken
intense study for a man in his present position to detect it.
Professor Kempfer had thought it out, slowly, systematically. He had
not thought that a Soviet checkpoint might lie between him and the
jewelry district.
* * * * *
It was growing cold, as the afternoon settled down. It had not been as
warm a day to begin with, he suspected, as it had been in his Berlin.
He wondered how it might be, that Germany's losing a war could change
the weather, but the important thing was that he was shivering. He was
beginning to attract attention not only for his suit but for his lack
of a coat.
He had now no place to go, no place to stay the night, no way of
getting food. He had no papers, and no knowledge of where to get them
or what sort of maneuver would be required to keep him safe from
arrest. If anything could save him from arrest. By Russians.
Professor Kempfer began to walk with dragging steps, his body sagging
and numb. More and more of the passersby were looking at him sharply.
They might well have an instinct for a hunted man. He did not dare look
at the occasional policeman.
He was an old man. He had run today, and shaken with nervous
anticipation, and finished fifteen years' work, and it had all been a
nightmarish error. He felt his heart begin to beat unnaturally in his
ears, and he felt a leaping flutter begin in his chest. He stopped,
and swayed, and then he forced himself to cross the sidewalk so he
could lean against a building. He braced his back and bent his knees a
little, and let his hands dangle at his sides.
The thought came to him that there was an escape for him into one more
world. His shoulder-blades scraped a few centimeters downward against
the wall.
There were people watching him. They ringed him in at a distance of
about two meters, looking at him with almost childish curiosity. But
there was something about them that made Professor Kempfer wonder at
the conditions that could produce such children. As he looked back at
them, he thought that perhaps they all wanted to help him--that would
account for their not going on about their business. But they did not
know what sort of complications their help might bring to them--except
that there would certainly be complications. So none of them approached
him. They gathered around him, watching, in a crowd that would
momentarily attract a _volkspolizier_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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