Friday, April 21, 2006
The Century War
The stranger smiled … almost sadly I thought. “You asked me to prove that I’m a Time Traveler,” he said softly. “Do you remember how Grimwood’s character in Replay went hunting for others in the 1960’s who had traveled back in time from the late 1980’s?”
I did remember now. I’d thought it clever at the time. The guy in Replay, once he suspected others were also replaying into the past, had taken out personal ads in major city newspapers around the country. The ads were concise. “Do you remember Three Mile Island, Challenger, Watergate, Reaganomics?
If so, contact me at . . .”
Before I could say anything else on this New Year’s Eve of 2004, a few hours before 2005 began, the stranger said, “Terri Schiavo, Katrina, New Orleans under water, Ninth Ward, Ray Nagin, Superdome, Judge John Roberts, White Sox sweep the Astros in four to win the World Series, Pope Benedict XVI, Scooter Libby.”
“Wait, wait!” I said, scrambling for a pen and then scrambling even faster to write. “Ray who? Pope who? Scooter who?”
“You’ll recognize it all when you hear it all again,” said the stranger. “I’ll see you in a year and we’ll have our conversation.”
“Wait!” I repeated. “What was that middle apart . . . Ray Nugin? Judge who? John Roberts? Who is . . .” But when I looked up he was gone.
“White Sox win the Series?” I muttered into the silence. “Fat chance.”
I was waiting for him on New Year’s Eve 2005. I didn’t see him enter. I looked up from the book I was fitfully reading and he was standing in the shadows again. I didn’t dial 911 this time, nor demand any more proof. I waved him to the leather wingchair and said, “Would you like something to drink?”
“Scotch,” he said. “Single malt if you have it.”
Read the whole thing.
8 Comments:
By 
al fin, at
Fri Apr 21, 07:57:00 PM:
A very nice story indeed. Simmons has his eyes wide open and isn't afraid to express the obvious.
By Lanky_Bastard, at
Fri Apr 21, 09:43:00 PM:
Best thing since L. Ron Hubbard.
By 
, at
Sat Apr 22, 07:13:00 AM:
Best thing since Heinlein, Herbert, Asimov, Wells, and Kornbluth.
By Steve Burri, at
Sat Apr 22, 09:26:00 AM:
I am especially fond of this line:
"Great, I was thinking. Of all the time travelers in all the gin joints in all the world, I get this racist, xenophobic, right-wing asshole."
By , at
Sat Apr 22, 03:37:00 PM:
Just don't read the thing right before bedtime. I linked to it at the Iconoclast, New English Review's blog: http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm?blog_id=316
By Tom Grey, at
Sat Apr 22, 08:28:00 PM:
Nations unwilling to grant the basic Human Rights of free religion and free speech to the people living in their geographic territory should not get "national sovereignty" respect from democracies which do give such freedom.
And regime change should be the goal of the democracy against those regimes. Sometimes even using military force.
Sudan should go thru regime change to stop the slo-mo genocide in Darfur. Bush should be looking to create an international Human Rights enforcement group from democracy based countries only.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sun Apr 23, 12:06:00 AM:
What about an alternative United Nations made up of democracies only? (pet theory that one day I'll actually sit down and develop...)
By , at
Wed Apr 26, 12:34:00 PM:
Whoa! Dan Simmons packs quite the punch! I never realized how powerful short-short fiction could be.
I am thinking that Turtle Bay would make a nice location for some condominiums I would like to build. It would require some minor demolition of the slums currently at that location, but no matter.
