Science fiction; Short stories; Space travelers -- Fiction; Spouses -- Fiction; Time dilatation -- Fiction
He strolled about the city, unimpressed by the changes since his last
visit. An interstellar man with as much service as Pete was beyond
showing surprise at superficial differences. He was a little annoyed
to find that the moving sidewalks were old-fashioned and had been torn
out. People now wore little repulsor units on their belts.
Walking was tiresome. He stopped at a corner and watched the
pedestrians as they whizzed by a few inches off the ground. At least
they were clothed; the nudity of the previous century had been somewhat
unnerving even to the blasé eyes of a time man. And he was glad to see
that the women were back to wearing long, well groomed hair. That
period when fashion had called for smoothly shaven heads hadn't suited
his taste at all.
In fact, none of it seemed to appeal to him very much any more. That
was sophistication, the price that must be paid by a man in the
interstellar service, watching the centuries go by without belonging to
any one of them. He watched a group of young people flit laughing by,
felt an unreasoning irritation. They'd be gone and forgotten when he'd
made a few more trips.
One of the young girls noticed him. She broke from the group and
approached.
"You're an interstellar, aren't you? I hope you'll join me. I'm
Nancy...."
Pete straightened up and looked her over. A little young, maybe
nineteen, but that meant a lower premium. Nice blond hair, big waves of
it that stayed in place even when she was moving fast, and even when
she was standing still she seemed to be moving. She was really alive,
smiling and laughing and talking easily, and in a pleasant low voice.
Really healthy--that slender but nicely rounded body was good for a
hundred years.
But then, money isn't everything.
"A lovely name," he told her. "I like girls with old-fashioned
names...."
Nancy, it seemed, wanted to interview a time man in connection with a
thesis, and in this particular age there was no taboo against a young
girl introducing herself to a strange man. Pete didn't mind at all
being interviewed and having dinner with her and seeing the town with
her. And even when he had given her enough material for a dozen theses,
she didn't seem in any hurry to break off their friendship.
* * * * *
Pete was spending half his waking hours with Nancy and the other
half in the men's beauty parlor. Not that he was old--a little
prematurely gray and somewhat wrinkled from the hard sun of space
and the unkind atmospheres of alien planets. And he had his contact
lenses changed--paper was scarce in this era and they were using finer
print to stretch the supply. But he was still young. He studied the
full length mirror and decided he'd pass for thirty-five. His actual
age--that would be hard to guess. Someday he'd look into the company
records and figure it out. But mentally, he told himself, I'm a young
man, even though I walked through this city five hundred years ago.
A young man in love.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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