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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ddeb3b --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #51112 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/51112) diff --git a/old/51112-h.zip b/old/51112-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 4d6b607..0000000 --- a/old/51112-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/51112-h/51112-h.htm b/old/51112-h/51112-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index d178490..0000000 --- a/old/51112-h/51112-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1093 +0,0 @@ -<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" - "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> -<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> - <head> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Other Now, by Murray Leinster. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -.caption {font-weight: bold;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1, .ph2, .ph3, .ph4 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; } -.ph1 { font-size: xx-large; margin: .67em auto; } -.ph2 { font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; } -.ph3 { font-size: large; margin: .83em auto; } -.ph4 { font-size: medium; margin: 1.12em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Other Now, by Murray Leinster - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Other Now - -Author: Murray Leinster - -Release Date: February 2, 2016 [EBook #51112] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER NOW *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" width="379" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="titlepage"> -<h1>THE OTHER NOW</h1> - -<p>By MURRAY LEINSTER</p> - -<p>Illustrated by PHIL BARD</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Galaxy Science Fiction March 1951.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph3">He knew his wife was dead, because he'd seen her buried.<br /> -But it was only one possibility out of infinitely many!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>It was self-evident nonsense. If Jimmy Patterson had told anybody -but Haynes, calm men in white jackets would have taken him away for -psychiatric treatment which undoubtedly would have been effective. He'd -have been restored to sanity and common sense, and he'd probably have -died of it. So to anyone who liked Jimmy and Jane, it is good that -things worked out as they did. The facts are patently impossible, but -they are satisfying.</p> - -<p>Haynes, though, would like very much to know exactly why it happened -in the case of Jimmy and Jane and nobody else. There must have been -some specific reason, but there's absolutely no clue to it.</p> - -<p>It began about three months after Jane was killed in that freak -accident. Jimmy had taken her death hard. This night seemed no -different from any other. He came home just as usual and his throat -tightened a little, just as usual, as he went up to the door. It was -still intolerable to know that Jane wouldn't be waiting for him.</p> - -<p>The hurt in his throat was a familiar sensation which he was doggedly -hoping would go away. But it was extra strong tonight and he wondered -rather desperately if he'd sleep, or, if he did, whether he would -dream. Sometimes he had dreams of Jane and was happy until he woke -up, and then he wanted to cut his throat. But he wasn't at that point -tonight. Not yet.</p> - -<p>As he explained it to Haynes later, he simply put his key in the door -and opened it and started to walk in. But he kicked the door instead, -so he absently put his key in the door and opened it and started to -walk in—</p> - -<p>Yes, that is what happened. He was half-way through before he realized. -He stared blankly. The door looked perfectly normal. He closed it -behind him, feeling queer. He tried to reason out what had happened.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" width="364" height="500" alt=""/> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Then he felt a slight draught. The door wasn't shut. It was wide open. -He had to close it again.</p> - -<p>That was all that happened to mark this night off from any other, and -there is no explanation why it happened—began, rather—this night -instead of another. Jimmy went to bed with a taut feeling. He'd had the -conviction that he opened the door twice. The same door. Then he'd had -the conviction that he had had to close it twice. He'd heard of that -feeling. Queer, but no doubt commonplace.</p> - -<p>He slept, blessedly without dreams. He woke next morning and found his -muscles tense. That was an acquired habit. Before he opened his eyes, -every morning, he reminded himself that Jane wasn't beside him. It was -necessary. If he forgot and turned contentedly—to emptiness—the ache -of being alive, when Jane wasn't, was unbearable.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>This morning he lay with his eyes closed to remind himself, and instead -found himself thinking about that business of the door. He'd kicked -the door between the two openings, so it wasn't only an illusion of -repetition. He was puzzling over that repetition after closing the -door, when he found he had to close it again. That proved to him it -wasn't a standard mental vagary. It looked like a delusion. But his -memory insisted that it had happened that way, whether it was possible -or not.</p> - -<p>Frowning, he went out and got his breakfast at a restaurant and rode -to work. Work was blessed, because he had to think about it. The main -trouble was that sometimes something turned up which Jane would have -been amused to hear, and he had to remind himself that there was no use -making a mental note to tell her. Jane was dead.</p> - -<p>Today he thought a good deal about the door, but when he went home he -knew that he was going to have a black night. He wouldn't sleep, and -oblivion would seem infinitely tempting, because the ache of being -alive, when Jane wasn't, was horribly tedious and he could not imagine -an end to it. Tonight would be a very bad one, indeed.</p> - -<p>He opened the door and started in. He went crashing into the door. He -stood still for an instant, and then fumbled for the lock. But the -door was open. He'd opened it. There hadn't been anything for him to -run into. Yet his forehead hurt where he'd bumped into the door which -wasn't closed at all.</p> - -<p>There was nothing he could do about it, though. He went in. He hung -up his coat. He sat down wearily. He filled his pipe and grimly faced -a night that was going to be one of the worst. He struck a match and -lighted his pipe, and put the match in an ashtray. And he glanced in -the tray. There were the stubs of cigarets in it. Jane's brand. Freshly -smoked.</p> - -<p>He touched them with his fingers. They were real. Then a furious anger -filled him. Maybe the cleaning woman had had the intolerable insolence -to smoke Jane's cigarets. He got up and stormed through the house, -raging as he searched for signs of further impertinence. He found -none. He came back, seething, to his chair. The ashtray was empty. And -there'd been nobody around to empty it.</p> - -<p>It was logical to question his own sanity, and the question gave him a -sort of grim cheer. The matter of the recurrent oddities could be used -to fight the abysmal depression ahead. He tried to reason them out, -and always they added up to delusions only.</p> - -<p>But he kept his mind resolutely on the problem. Work, during the -day, was a godsend. Sometimes he was able to thrust aside for whole -half-hours the fact that Jane was dead. Now he grappled relievedly with -the question of his sanity or lunacy. He went to the desk where Jane -had kept her household accounts. He'd set the whole thing down on paper -and examine it methodically, checking this item against that.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jane's diary lay on the desk-blotter, with a pencil between two of its -pages. He picked it up with a tug of dread. Some day he might read -it—an absurd chronicle Jane had never offered him—but not now. Not -now!</p> - -<p>That was when he realized that it shouldn't be here. His hands jumped, -and it fell open. He saw Jane's angular writing and it hurt. He closed -it quickly, aching all over. But the printed date at the top of the -page registered on his brain even as he snapped the cover shut.</p> - -<p>He sat still for minutes, every muscle taut.</p> - -<p>It was a long time before he opened the book again, and by that time -he had a perfectly reasonable explanation. It must be that Jane hadn't -restricted herself to assigned spaces. When she had something extra to -write, she wrote it on past the page allotted for a given date.</p> - -<p>Of course!</p> - -<p>Jimmy fumbled back to the last written page, where the pencil had been, -with a tense matter-of-factness. It was, as he'd noticed, today's date. -The page was filled. The writing was fresh. It was Jane's handwriting.</p> - -<p>"<i>Went to the cemetery</i>," said the sprawling letters. "<i>It was very -bad. Three months since the accident and it doesn't get any easier. -I'm developing a personal enmity to chance. It doesn't seem like an -abstraction any more. It was chance that killed Jimmy. It could have -been me instead, or neither of us. I wish—</i>"</p> - -<p>Jimmy went quietly mad for a moment or two. When he came to himself he -was staring at an empty desk-blotter. There wasn't any book before him. -There wasn't any pencil between his fingers. He remembered picking up -the pencil and writing desperately under Jane's entry. "<i>Jane!</i>" he'd -written—and he could remember the look of his scrawled script under -Jane's—"<i>where are you? I'm not dead! I thought you were! In God's -name, where are you?</i>"</p> - -<p>But certainly nothing of the sort could have happened. It was delusion.</p> - -<p>That night was particularly bad, but curiously not as bad as some -other nights had been. Jimmy had a normal man's horror of insanity, -yet this wasn't, so to speak, normal insanity. A lunatic has always an -explanation for his delusions. Jimmy had none. He noted the fact.</p> - -<p>Next morning he bought a small camera with a flash-bulb attachment and -carefully memorized the directions for its use. This was the thing that -would tell the story. And that night, when he got home, as usual after -dark, he had the camera ready. He unlocked the door and opened it. He -put his hand out tentatively. The door was still closed.</p> - -<p>He stepped back and quickly snapped the camera. There was a sharp flash -of the bulb. The glare blinded him. But when he put out his hand again, -the door was open. He stepped into the living-room without having to -unlock and open it a second time.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He looked at the desk as he turned the film and put in a new -flash-bulb. It was as empty as he'd left it in the morning. He hung up -his coat and settled down tensely with his pipe. Presently he knocked -out the ashes. There were cigaret butts in the tray.</p> - -<p>He quivered a little. He smoked again, carefully not looking at the -desk. It was not until he knocked out the second pipeful of ashes that -he let himself look where Jane's diary had been.</p> - -<p>It was there again. The book was open. There was a ruler laid across it -to keep it open.</p> - -<p>Jimmy wasn't frightened, and he wasn't hopeful. There was absolutely no -reason why this should happen to him. He was simply desperate and grim -when he went across the room. He saw yesterday's entry, and his own -hysterical message. And there was more writing beyond that.</p> - -<p>In Jane's hand.</p> - -<p>"<i>Darling, maybe I'm going crazy. But I think you wrote me as if you -were alive. Maybe I'm crazy to answer you. But please, darling, if you -are alive somewhere and somehow—</i>"</p> - -<p>There was a tear-blot here. The rest was frightened, and tender, and as -desperate as Jimmy's own sensations.</p> - -<p>He wrote, with trembling fingers, before he put the camera into -position and pressed the shutter-control for the second time.</p> - -<p>When his eyes recovered from the flash, there was nothing on the desk.</p> - -<p>He did not sleep at all that night, nor did he work the next day. He -went to a photographer with the film and paid an extravagant fee to -have the film developed and enlarged at once. He got back two prints, -quite distinct. Even very clear, considering everything. One looked -like a trick shot, showing a door twice, once open and once closed, in -the same photograph. The other was a picture of an open book and he -could read every word on its pages. It was inconceivable that such a -picture should have come out.</p> - -<p>He walked around practically at random for a couple of hours, looking -at the pictures from time to time. Pictures or no pictures, the thing -was nonsense. The facts were preposterous. It must be that he only -imagined seeing these prints. But there was a quick way to find out.</p> - -<p>He went to Haynes. Haynes was his friend and reluctantly a -lawyer—reluctantly because law practice interfered with a large number -of unlikely hobbies.</p> - -<p>"Haynes," said Jimmy quietly, "I want you to look at a couple of -pictures and see if you see what I do. I may have gone out of my head."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>He passed over the picture of the door. It looked to Jimmy like two -doors, nearly at right angles, in the same door-frame and hung from the -same hinges.</p> - -<p>Haynes looked at it and said tolerantly, "Didn't know you went in for -trick photography." He picked up a reading glass and examined it in -detail. "A futile but highly competent job. You covered half the film -and exposed with the door closed, and then exposed for the other half -of the film with the door open. A neat job of matching, though. You've -a good tripod."</p> - -<p>"I held the camera in my hand," said Jimmy, with restraint.</p> - -<p>"You couldn't do it that way, Jimmy," objected Haynes. "Don't try to -kid me."</p> - -<p>"I'm trying not to fool myself," said Jimmy. He was very pale. He -handed over the other enlargement. "What do you see in this?"</p> - -<p>Haynes looked. Then he jumped. He read through what was so plainly -photographed on the pages of a diary that hadn't been before the -camera. Then he looked at Jimmy in palpable uneasiness.</p> - -<p>"Got any explanation?" asked Jimmy. He swallowed. "I—haven't any."</p> - -<p>He told what had happened to date, baldly and without any attempt to -make it reasonable. Haynes gaped at him. But before long the lawyer's -eyes grew shrewd and compassionate. As noted hitherto, he had a number -of unlikely hobbies, among which was a loud insistence on a belief in a -fourth dimension and other esoteric ideas, because it was good fun to -talk authoritatively about them. But he had common sense, had Haynes, -and a good and varied law practice.</p> - -<p>Presently he said gently, "If you want it straight, Jimmy ... I had -a client once. She accused a chap of beating her up. It was very -pathetic. She was absolutely sincere. She really believed it. But her -own family admitted that she'd made the marks on herself—and the -doctors agreed that she'd unconsciously blotted it out of her mind -afterward."</p> - -<p>"You suggest," said Jimmy composedly, "that I might have forged all -that to comfort myself with, as soon as I could forget the forging. -I don't think that's the case, Haynes. What possibilities does that -leave?"</p> - -<p>Haynes hesitated a long time. He looked at the pictures again, -scrutinizing especially the one that looked like a trick shot.</p> - -<p>"This is an amazingly good job of matching," he said wrily. "I can't -pick the place where the two exposures join. Some people might manage -to swallow this, and the theoretic explanation is a lot better. The -only trouble is that it couldn't happen."</p> - -<p>Jimmy waited.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Haynes went on awkwardly, "The accident in which Jane was killed. You -were in your car. You came up behind a truck carrying structural steel. -There was a long slim girder sticking way out behind, with a red rag on -it. The truck had airbrakes. The driver jammed them on just after he'd -passed over a bit of wet pavement. The truck stopped. Your car slid, -even with the brakes locked.—It's nonsense, Jimmy!"</p> - -<p>"I'd rather you continued," said Jimmy, white.</p> - -<p>"You—ran into the truck, your car swinging a little as it slid. The -girder came through the windshield. It could have hit you. It could -have missed both of you. By pure chance, it happened to hit Jane."</p> - -<p>"And killed her," said Jimmy very quietly. "Yes. But it might have been -me. That diary entry is written as if it had been me. Did you notice?"</p> - -<p>There was a long pause in Haynes' office. The world outside the windows -was highly prosaic and commonplace and normal. Haynes wriggled in his -chair.</p> - -<p>"I think," he said unhappily, "you did the same as my girl -client—forged that writing and then forgot it. Have you seen a doctor -yet?"</p> - -<p>"I will," said Jimmy. "Systematize my lunacy for me first, Haynes. If -it can be done."</p> - -<p>"It's not accepted science," said Haynes. "In fact, it's considered -eyewash. But there have been speculations...." He grimaced. "First -point is that it was pure chance that Jane was hit. It was just as -likely to be you instead, or neither of you. If it had been you—"</p> - -<p>"Jane," said Jimmy, "would be living in our house alone, and she might -very well have written that entry in the diary."</p> - -<p>"Yes," agreed Haynes uncomfortably. "I shouldn't suggest this, -but—there are a lot of possible futures. We don't know which one -will come about for us. Nobody except fatalists can argue with that -statement. When today was in the future, there were a lot of possible -todays. The present moment—now—is only one of any number of nows -that might have been. So it's been suggested—mind you, this isn't -accepted science, but pure charlatanry—it's been suggested that there -may be more than one actual now. Before the girder actually hit, there -were three nows in the possible future. One in which neither of you was -hit, one in which you were hit, and one—"</p> - -<p>He paused, embarrassed. "So some people would say, how do we know that -the one in which Jane was hit is the only now? They'd say that the -others could have happened and that maybe they did."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Jimmy nodded.</p> - -<p>"If that were true," he said detachedly, "Jane would be in a present -moment, a now, where it was me who was killed. As I'm in a now where -she was killed. Is that it?"</p> - -<p>Haynes shrugged.</p> - -<p>Jimmy thought, and said gravely, "Thanks. Queer, isn't it?"</p> - -<p>He picked up the two pictures and went out.</p> - -<p>Haynes was the only one who knew about the affair, and he worried. But -it is not easy to denounce someone as insane, when there is no evidence -that he is apt to be dangerous. He did go to the trouble to find out -that Jimmy acted in a reasonably normal manner, working industriously -and talking quite sanely in the daytime. Only Haynes suspected that of -nights he went home and experienced the impossible. Sometimes, Haynes -suspected that the impossible might be the fact—that had been an -amazingly good bit of trick photography—but it was too preposterous! -Also, there was no reason for such a thing to happen to Jimmy.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>For a week after Haynes' pseudo-scientific explanation, however, Jimmy -was almost light-hearted. He no longer had to remind himself that -Jane was dead. He had evidence that she wasn't. She wrote to him in -the diary which he found on her desk, and he read her messages and -wrote in return. For a full week the sheer joy of simply being able to -communicate with each other was enough.</p> - -<p>The second week was not so good. To know that Jane was alive was good, -but to be separated from her without hope was not. There was no meaning -in a cosmos in which one could only write love-letters to one's wife or -husband in another now which only might have been. But for a while both -Jimmy and Jane tried to hide this new hopelessness from each other.</p> - -<p>Jimmy explained this carefully to Haynes before it was all over. Their -letters were tender and very natural, and presently there was even time -for gossip and actual bits of choice scandal....</p> - -<p>Haynes met Jimmy on the street one day, after about two weeks. Jimmy -looked better, but he was drawn very fine. Though he greeted Haynes -without constraint, Haynes felt awkward. After a little he said, -"Er—Jimmy. That matter we were talking about the other day—Those -photographs—"</p> - -<p>"Yes. You were right," said Jimmy casually. "Jane agrees. There is more -than one now. In the now I'm in, Jane was killed. In the now she's in, -I was killed."</p> - -<p>Haynes fidgeted. "Would you let me see that picture of the door again?" -he asked. "A trick film like that simply can't be perfect! I'd like to -enlarge that picture a little more. May I?"</p> - -<p>"You can have the film," said Jimmy. "I don't need it any more."</p> - -<p>Haynes hesitated. Jimmy, quite matter-of-factly, told him most of what -had happened to date. But he had no idea what had started it. Haynes -almost wrung his hands.</p> - -<p>"The thing can't be!" he said desperately. "You <i>have</i> to be crazy, -Jimmy!"</p> - -<p>But he would not have said that to a man whose sanity he really -suspected.</p> - -<p>Jimmy nodded. "Jane told me something, by the way. Did you have a -near-accident night before last? Somebody almost ran into you out on -the Saw Mill Road?"</p> - -<p>Haynes started and went pale. "I went around a curve and a car plunged -out of nowhere on the wrong side of the road. We both swung hard. He -smashed my fender and almost went off the road himself. But he went -racing off without stopping to see if I'd gone in the ditch and killed -myself. If I'd been five feet nearer the curve when he came out of it—"</p> - -<p>"Where Jane is," said Jimmy, "you were. Just about five feet nearer the -curve. It was a bad smash. Tony Shields was in the other car. It killed -him—where Jane is."</p> - -<p>Haynes licked his lips. It was absurd, but he said, "How about me?"</p> - -<p>"Where Jane is," Jimmy told him, "you're in the hospital."</p> - -<p>Haynes swore in unreasonable irritation. There wasn't any way for Jimmy -to know about that near-accident. He hadn't mentioned it, because he'd -no idea who'd been in the other car.</p> - -<p>"I don't believe it!" But he said pleadingly, "Jimmy, it isn't so, is -it? How in hell could you account for it?"</p> - -<p>Jimmy shrugged. "Jane and I—we're rather fond of each other." The -understatement was so patent that he smiled faintly. "Chance separated -us. The feeling we have for each other draws us together. There's a -saying about two people becoming one flesh. If such a thing could -happen, it would be Jane and me. After all, maybe only a tiny pebble -or a single extra drop of water made my car swerve enough to get her -killed—where I am, that is. That's a very little thing. So with such a -trifle separating us, and so much pulling us together—why, sometimes -the barrier wears thin. She leaves a door closed in the house where she -is. I open that same door where I am. Sometimes I have to open the door -she left closed, too. That's all."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Haynes didn't say a word, but the question he wouldn't ask was so -self-evident that Jimmy answered it.</p> - -<p>"We're hoping," he said. "It's pretty bad being separated, but -the—phenomena keep up. So we hope. Her diary is sometimes in the now -where she is, and sometimes in this now of mine. Cigaret butts, too. -Maybe—" That was the only time he showed any sign of emotion. He -spoke as if his mouth were dry. "If ever I'm in her now or she's in -mine, even for an instant, all the devils in hell couldn't separate us -again!—We hope."</p> - -<p>Which was insanity. In fact, it was the third week of insanity. He'd -told Haynes quite calmly that Jane's diary was on her desk every night, -and there was a letter to him in it, and he wrote one to her. He -said quite calmly that the barrier between them seemed to be growing -thinner. That at least once, when he went to bed, he was sure that -there was one more cigaret stub in the ashtray than had been there -earlier in the evening.</p> - -<p>They were very near indeed. They were separated only by the difference -between what was and what might have been. In one sense the difference -was a pebble or a drop of water. In another, the difference was that -between life and death. But they hoped. They convinced themselves -that the barrier grew thinner. Once, it seemed to Jimmy that they -touched hands. But he was not sure. He was still sane enough not to be -sure. And he told all this to Haynes in a matter-of-fact fashion, and -speculated mildly on what had started it all....</p> - -<p>Then, one night, Haynes called Jimmy on the telephone. Jimmy answered.</p> - -<p>He sounded impatient.</p> - -<p>"Jimmy!" said Haynes. He was almost hysterical. "I think I'm insane! -You know you said Tony Shields was in the car that hit me?"</p> - -<p>"Yes," said Jimmy politely. "What's the matter?"</p> - -<p>"It's been driving me crazy," wailed Haynes feverishly. "You said he -was killed—there. But I hadn't told a soul about the incident. So—so -just now I broke down and phoned him. And it <i>was</i> Tony Shields! That -near-crash scared him to death, and I gave him hell and—he's paying -for my fender! I didn't tell him he was killed."</p> - -<p>Jimmy didn't answer. It didn't seem to matter to him.</p> - -<p>"I'm coming over!" said Haynes feverishly. "I've got to talk!"</p> - -<p>"No," said Jimmy. "Jane and I are pretty close to each other. We've -touched each other again. We're hoping. The barrier's wearing through. -We hope it's going to break."</p> - -<p>"But it can't!" protested Haynes, shocked at the idea of -improbabilities in the preposterous. "It—it can't! What'd happen if -you turned up where she is, or—or if she turned up here?"</p> - -<p>"I don't know," said Jimmy, "but we'd be together."</p> - -<p>"You're crazy! You mustn't—"</p> - -<p>"Goodbye," said Jimmy politely. "I'm hoping, Haynes. Something has to -happen. It has to!"</p> - -<p>His voice stopped. There was a noise in the room behind him; Haynes -heard it. Only two words, and those faintly, and over a telephone, but -he swore to himself that it was Jane's voice, throbbing with happiness. -The two words Haynes thought he heard were, "<i>Jimmy! Darling!</i>"</p> - -<p>Then the telephone crashed to the floor and Haynes heard no more. Even -though he called back frantically again, Jimmy didn't answer.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Haynes sat up all that night, practically gibbering, and he tried to -call Jimmy again next morning, and then tried his office, and at last -went to the police. He explained to them that Jimmy had been in a -highly nervous state since the death of his wife.</p> - -<p>So finally the police broke into the house. They had to break in -because every door and window was carefully fastened from the inside, -as if Jimmy had been very careful to make sure nobody could interrupt -what he and Jane hoped would occur. But Jimmy wasn't in the house. -There was no trace of him. It was exactly as if he had vanished into -the air.</p> - -<p>Ultimately the police dragged ponds and such things for his body, -but they never found any clues. Nobody ever saw Jimmy again. It was -recorded that Jimmy simply left town, and everybody accepted that -obvious explanation.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The thing that really bothered Haynes was the fact that Jimmy had -told him who'd almost crashed into him on the Saw Mill Road, and it -was true. That was, to understate, hard to take. And there was the -double-exposure picture of Jimmy's front door, which was much more -convincing than any other trick picture Haynes had ever seen. But on -the other hand, if it did happen, why did it happen only to Jimmy and -Jane? What set it off? What started it? Why, in effect, did those -oddities start at that particular time, to those particular people, in -that particular fashion? In fact, did anything happen at all?</p> - -<p>Now, after Jimmy's disappearance, Haynes wished he could talk with him -once more—talk sensibly, quietly, without fear and hysteria and this -naggingly demanding wonderment.</p> - -<p>For he had sketched to Jimmy, and Jimmy had accepted (hadn't he?) the -possibility of the <i>other now</i>—but with that acceptance came still -others. In one, Jane was dead. In one, Jimmy was dead. It was between -these two that the barrier had grown so thin....</p> - -<p>If he could talk to Jimmy about it!</p> - -<p>There was also a now in which <i>both</i> had died, and another in which -<i>neither</i> had died! And if it was togetherness that each wanted so -desperately ... <i>which was it</i>?</p> - -<p>These were things that Haynes would have liked very much to know, but -he kept his mouth shut, or calm men in white coats would have come and -taken him away for treatment. As they would have taken Jimmy.</p> - -<p>The only thing really sure was that it was all impossible. But to -someone who liked Jimmy and Jane—and doubtless to Jimmy and to Jane -themselves—no matter which barrier had been broken, it was a rather -satisfying impossibility.</p> - -<p>Haynes' car had been repaired. He could easily have driven out to the -cemetery. For some reason, he never did.</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Other Now, by Murray Leinster - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER NOW *** - -***** This file should be named 51112-h.htm or 51112-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/1/1/51112/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: The Other Now - -Author: Murray Leinster - -Release Date: February 2, 2016 [EBook #51112] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER NOW *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - THE OTHER NOW - - By MURRAY LEINSTER - - Illustrated by PHIL BARD - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Galaxy Science Fiction March 1951. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - He knew his wife was dead, because he'd seen her buried. - But it was only one possibility out of infinitely many! - - -It was self-evident nonsense. If Jimmy Patterson had told anybody -but Haynes, calm men in white jackets would have taken him away for -psychiatric treatment which undoubtedly would have been effective. He'd -have been restored to sanity and common sense, and he'd probably have -died of it. So to anyone who liked Jimmy and Jane, it is good that -things worked out as they did. The facts are patently impossible, but -they are satisfying. - -Haynes, though, would like very much to know exactly why it happened -in the case of Jimmy and Jane and nobody else. There must have been -some specific reason, but there's absolutely no clue to it. - -It began about three months after Jane was killed in that freak -accident. Jimmy had taken her death hard. This night seemed no -different from any other. He came home just as usual and his throat -tightened a little, just as usual, as he went up to the door. It was -still intolerable to know that Jane wouldn't be waiting for him. - -The hurt in his throat was a familiar sensation which he was doggedly -hoping would go away. But it was extra strong tonight and he wondered -rather desperately if he'd sleep, or, if he did, whether he would -dream. Sometimes he had dreams of Jane and was happy until he woke -up, and then he wanted to cut his throat. But he wasn't at that point -tonight. Not yet. - -As he explained it to Haynes later, he simply put his key in the door -and opened it and started to walk in. But he kicked the door instead, -so he absently put his key in the door and opened it and started to -walk in-- - -Yes, that is what happened. He was half-way through before he realized. -He stared blankly. The door looked perfectly normal. He closed it -behind him, feeling queer. He tried to reason out what had happened. - -Then he felt a slight draught. The door wasn't shut. It was wide open. -He had to close it again. - -That was all that happened to mark this night off from any other, and -there is no explanation why it happened--began, rather--this night -instead of another. Jimmy went to bed with a taut feeling. He'd had the -conviction that he opened the door twice. The same door. Then he'd had -the conviction that he had had to close it twice. He'd heard of that -feeling. Queer, but no doubt commonplace. - -He slept, blessedly without dreams. He woke next morning and found his -muscles tense. That was an acquired habit. Before he opened his eyes, -every morning, he reminded himself that Jane wasn't beside him. It was -necessary. If he forgot and turned contentedly--to emptiness--the ache -of being alive, when Jane wasn't, was unbearable. - - * * * * * - -This morning he lay with his eyes closed to remind himself, and instead -found himself thinking about that business of the door. He'd kicked -the door between the two openings, so it wasn't only an illusion of -repetition. He was puzzling over that repetition after closing the -door, when he found he had to close it again. That proved to him it -wasn't a standard mental vagary. It looked like a delusion. But his -memory insisted that it had happened that way, whether it was possible -or not. - -Frowning, he went out and got his breakfast at a restaurant and rode -to work. Work was blessed, because he had to think about it. The main -trouble was that sometimes something turned up which Jane would have -been amused to hear, and he had to remind himself that there was no use -making a mental note to tell her. Jane was dead. - -Today he thought a good deal about the door, but when he went home he -knew that he was going to have a black night. He wouldn't sleep, and -oblivion would seem infinitely tempting, because the ache of being -alive, when Jane wasn't, was horribly tedious and he could not imagine -an end to it. Tonight would be a very bad one, indeed. - -He opened the door and started in. He went crashing into the door. He -stood still for an instant, and then fumbled for the lock. But the -door was open. He'd opened it. There hadn't been anything for him to -run into. Yet his forehead hurt where he'd bumped into the door which -wasn't closed at all. - -There was nothing he could do about it, though. He went in. He hung -up his coat. He sat down wearily. He filled his pipe and grimly faced -a night that was going to be one of the worst. He struck a match and -lighted his pipe, and put the match in an ashtray. And he glanced in -the tray. There were the stubs of cigarets in it. Jane's brand. Freshly -smoked. - -He touched them with his fingers. They were real. Then a furious anger -filled him. Maybe the cleaning woman had had the intolerable insolence -to smoke Jane's cigarets. He got up and stormed through the house, -raging as he searched for signs of further impertinence. He found -none. He came back, seething, to his chair. The ashtray was empty. And -there'd been nobody around to empty it. - -It was logical to question his own sanity, and the question gave him a -sort of grim cheer. The matter of the recurrent oddities could be used -to fight the abysmal depression ahead. He tried to reason them out, -and always they added up to delusions only. - -But he kept his mind resolutely on the problem. Work, during the -day, was a godsend. Sometimes he was able to thrust aside for whole -half-hours the fact that Jane was dead. Now he grappled relievedly with -the question of his sanity or lunacy. He went to the desk where Jane -had kept her household accounts. He'd set the whole thing down on paper -and examine it methodically, checking this item against that. - - * * * * * - -Jane's diary lay on the desk-blotter, with a pencil between two of its -pages. He picked it up with a tug of dread. Some day he might read -it--an absurd chronicle Jane had never offered him--but not now. Not -now! - -That was when he realized that it shouldn't be here. His hands jumped, -and it fell open. He saw Jane's angular writing and it hurt. He closed -it quickly, aching all over. But the printed date at the top of the -page registered on his brain even as he snapped the cover shut. - -He sat still for minutes, every muscle taut. - -It was a long time before he opened the book again, and by that time -he had a perfectly reasonable explanation. It must be that Jane hadn't -restricted herself to assigned spaces. When she had something extra to -write, she wrote it on past the page allotted for a given date. - -Of course! - -Jimmy fumbled back to the last written page, where the pencil had been, -with a tense matter-of-factness. It was, as he'd noticed, today's date. -The page was filled. The writing was fresh. It was Jane's handwriting. - -"_Went to the cemetery_," said the sprawling letters. "_It was very -bad. Three months since the accident and it doesn't get any easier. -I'm developing a personal enmity to chance. It doesn't seem like an -abstraction any more. It was chance that killed Jimmy. It could have -been me instead, or neither of us. I wish--_" - -Jimmy went quietly mad for a moment or two. When he came to himself he -was staring at an empty desk-blotter. There wasn't any book before him. -There wasn't any pencil between his fingers. He remembered picking up -the pencil and writing desperately under Jane's entry. "_Jane!_" he'd -written--and he could remember the look of his scrawled script under -Jane's--"_where are you? I'm not dead! I thought you were! In God's -name, where are you?_" - -But certainly nothing of the sort could have happened. It was delusion. - -That night was particularly bad, but curiously not as bad as some -other nights had been. Jimmy had a normal man's horror of insanity, -yet this wasn't, so to speak, normal insanity. A lunatic has always an -explanation for his delusions. Jimmy had none. He noted the fact. - -Next morning he bought a small camera with a flash-bulb attachment and -carefully memorized the directions for its use. This was the thing that -would tell the story. And that night, when he got home, as usual after -dark, he had the camera ready. He unlocked the door and opened it. He -put his hand out tentatively. The door was still closed. - -He stepped back and quickly snapped the camera. There was a sharp flash -of the bulb. The glare blinded him. But when he put out his hand again, -the door was open. He stepped into the living-room without having to -unlock and open it a second time. - - * * * * * - -He looked at the desk as he turned the film and put in a new -flash-bulb. It was as empty as he'd left it in the morning. He hung up -his coat and settled down tensely with his pipe. Presently he knocked -out the ashes. There were cigaret butts in the tray. - -He quivered a little. He smoked again, carefully not looking at the -desk. It was not until he knocked out the second pipeful of ashes that -he let himself look where Jane's diary had been. - -It was there again. The book was open. There was a ruler laid across it -to keep it open. - -Jimmy wasn't frightened, and he wasn't hopeful. There was absolutely no -reason why this should happen to him. He was simply desperate and grim -when he went across the room. He saw yesterday's entry, and his own -hysterical message. And there was more writing beyond that. - -In Jane's hand. - -"_Darling, maybe I'm going crazy. But I think you wrote me as if you -were alive. Maybe I'm crazy to answer you. But please, darling, if you -are alive somewhere and somehow--_" - -There was a tear-blot here. The rest was frightened, and tender, and as -desperate as Jimmy's own sensations. - -He wrote, with trembling fingers, before he put the camera into -position and pressed the shutter-control for the second time. - -When his eyes recovered from the flash, there was nothing on the desk. - -He did not sleep at all that night, nor did he work the next day. He -went to a photographer with the film and paid an extravagant fee to -have the film developed and enlarged at once. He got back two prints, -quite distinct. Even very clear, considering everything. One looked -like a trick shot, showing a door twice, once open and once closed, in -the same photograph. The other was a picture of an open book and he -could read every word on its pages. It was inconceivable that such a -picture should have come out. - -He walked around practically at random for a couple of hours, looking -at the pictures from time to time. Pictures or no pictures, the thing -was nonsense. The facts were preposterous. It must be that he only -imagined seeing these prints. But there was a quick way to find out. - -He went to Haynes. Haynes was his friend and reluctantly a -lawyer--reluctantly because law practice interfered with a large number -of unlikely hobbies. - -"Haynes," said Jimmy quietly, "I want you to look at a couple of -pictures and see if you see what I do. I may have gone out of my head." - - * * * * * - -He passed over the picture of the door. It looked to Jimmy like two -doors, nearly at right angles, in the same door-frame and hung from the -same hinges. - -Haynes looked at it and said tolerantly, "Didn't know you went in for -trick photography." He picked up a reading glass and examined it in -detail. "A futile but highly competent job. You covered half the film -and exposed with the door closed, and then exposed for the other half -of the film with the door open. A neat job of matching, though. You've -a good tripod." - -"I held the camera in my hand," said Jimmy, with restraint. - -"You couldn't do it that way, Jimmy," objected Haynes. "Don't try to -kid me." - -"I'm trying not to fool myself," said Jimmy. He was very pale. He -handed over the other enlargement. "What do you see in this?" - -Haynes looked. Then he jumped. He read through what was so plainly -photographed on the pages of a diary that hadn't been before the -camera. Then he looked at Jimmy in palpable uneasiness. - -"Got any explanation?" asked Jimmy. He swallowed. "I--haven't any." - -He told what had happened to date, baldly and without any attempt to -make it reasonable. Haynes gaped at him. But before long the lawyer's -eyes grew shrewd and compassionate. As noted hitherto, he had a number -of unlikely hobbies, among which was a loud insistence on a belief in a -fourth dimension and other esoteric ideas, because it was good fun to -talk authoritatively about them. But he had common sense, had Haynes, -and a good and varied law practice. - -Presently he said gently, "If you want it straight, Jimmy ... I had -a client once. She accused a chap of beating her up. It was very -pathetic. She was absolutely sincere. She really believed it. But her -own family admitted that she'd made the marks on herself--and the -doctors agreed that she'd unconsciously blotted it out of her mind -afterward." - -"You suggest," said Jimmy composedly, "that I might have forged all -that to comfort myself with, as soon as I could forget the forging. -I don't think that's the case, Haynes. What possibilities does that -leave?" - -Haynes hesitated a long time. He looked at the pictures again, -scrutinizing especially the one that looked like a trick shot. - -"This is an amazingly good job of matching," he said wrily. "I can't -pick the place where the two exposures join. Some people might manage -to swallow this, and the theoretic explanation is a lot better. The -only trouble is that it couldn't happen." - -Jimmy waited. - - * * * * * - -Haynes went on awkwardly, "The accident in which Jane was killed. You -were in your car. You came up behind a truck carrying structural steel. -There was a long slim girder sticking way out behind, with a red rag on -it. The truck had airbrakes. The driver jammed them on just after he'd -passed over a bit of wet pavement. The truck stopped. Your car slid, -even with the brakes locked.--It's nonsense, Jimmy!" - -"I'd rather you continued," said Jimmy, white. - -"You--ran into the truck, your car swinging a little as it slid. The -girder came through the windshield. It could have hit you. It could -have missed both of you. By pure chance, it happened to hit Jane." - -"And killed her," said Jimmy very quietly. "Yes. But it might have been -me. That diary entry is written as if it had been me. Did you notice?" - -There was a long pause in Haynes' office. The world outside the windows -was highly prosaic and commonplace and normal. Haynes wriggled in his -chair. - -"I think," he said unhappily, "you did the same as my girl -client--forged that writing and then forgot it. Have you seen a doctor -yet?" - -"I will," said Jimmy. "Systematize my lunacy for me first, Haynes. If -it can be done." - -"It's not accepted science," said Haynes. "In fact, it's considered -eyewash. But there have been speculations...." He grimaced. "First -point is that it was pure chance that Jane was hit. It was just as -likely to be you instead, or neither of you. If it had been you--" - -"Jane," said Jimmy, "would be living in our house alone, and she might -very well have written that entry in the diary." - -"Yes," agreed Haynes uncomfortably. "I shouldn't suggest this, -but--there are a lot of possible futures. We don't know which one -will come about for us. Nobody except fatalists can argue with that -statement. When today was in the future, there were a lot of possible -todays. The present moment--now--is only one of any number of nows -that might have been. So it's been suggested--mind you, this isn't -accepted science, but pure charlatanry--it's been suggested that there -may be more than one actual now. Before the girder actually hit, there -were three nows in the possible future. One in which neither of you was -hit, one in which you were hit, and one--" - -He paused, embarrassed. "So some people would say, how do we know that -the one in which Jane was hit is the only now? They'd say that the -others could have happened and that maybe they did." - - * * * * * - -Jimmy nodded. - -"If that were true," he said detachedly, "Jane would be in a present -moment, a now, where it was me who was killed. As I'm in a now where -she was killed. Is that it?" - -Haynes shrugged. - -Jimmy thought, and said gravely, "Thanks. Queer, isn't it?" - -He picked up the two pictures and went out. - -Haynes was the only one who knew about the affair, and he worried. But -it is not easy to denounce someone as insane, when there is no evidence -that he is apt to be dangerous. He did go to the trouble to find out -that Jimmy acted in a reasonably normal manner, working industriously -and talking quite sanely in the daytime. Only Haynes suspected that of -nights he went home and experienced the impossible. Sometimes, Haynes -suspected that the impossible might be the fact--that had been an -amazingly good bit of trick photography--but it was too preposterous! -Also, there was no reason for such a thing to happen to Jimmy. - - * * * * * - -For a week after Haynes' pseudo-scientific explanation, however, Jimmy -was almost light-hearted. He no longer had to remind himself that -Jane was dead. He had evidence that she wasn't. She wrote to him in -the diary which he found on her desk, and he read her messages and -wrote in return. For a full week the sheer joy of simply being able to -communicate with each other was enough. - -The second week was not so good. To know that Jane was alive was good, -but to be separated from her without hope was not. There was no meaning -in a cosmos in which one could only write love-letters to one's wife or -husband in another now which only might have been. But for a while both -Jimmy and Jane tried to hide this new hopelessness from each other. - -Jimmy explained this carefully to Haynes before it was all over. Their -letters were tender and very natural, and presently there was even time -for gossip and actual bits of choice scandal.... - -Haynes met Jimmy on the street one day, after about two weeks. Jimmy -looked better, but he was drawn very fine. Though he greeted Haynes -without constraint, Haynes felt awkward. After a little he said, -"Er--Jimmy. That matter we were talking about the other day--Those -photographs--" - -"Yes. You were right," said Jimmy casually. "Jane agrees. There is more -than one now. In the now I'm in, Jane was killed. In the now she's in, -I was killed." - -Haynes fidgeted. "Would you let me see that picture of the door again?" -he asked. "A trick film like that simply can't be perfect! I'd like to -enlarge that picture a little more. May I?" - -"You can have the film," said Jimmy. "I don't need it any more." - -Haynes hesitated. Jimmy, quite matter-of-factly, told him most of what -had happened to date. But he had no idea what had started it. Haynes -almost wrung his hands. - -"The thing can't be!" he said desperately. "You _have_ to be crazy, -Jimmy!" - -But he would not have said that to a man whose sanity he really -suspected. - -Jimmy nodded. "Jane told me something, by the way. Did you have a -near-accident night before last? Somebody almost ran into you out on -the Saw Mill Road?" - -Haynes started and went pale. "I went around a curve and a car plunged -out of nowhere on the wrong side of the road. We both swung hard. He -smashed my fender and almost went off the road himself. But he went -racing off without stopping to see if I'd gone in the ditch and killed -myself. If I'd been five feet nearer the curve when he came out of it--" - -"Where Jane is," said Jimmy, "you were. Just about five feet nearer the -curve. It was a bad smash. Tony Shields was in the other car. It killed -him--where Jane is." - -Haynes licked his lips. It was absurd, but he said, "How about me?" - -"Where Jane is," Jimmy told him, "you're in the hospital." - -Haynes swore in unreasonable irritation. There wasn't any way for Jimmy -to know about that near-accident. He hadn't mentioned it, because he'd -no idea who'd been in the other car. - -"I don't believe it!" But he said pleadingly, "Jimmy, it isn't so, is -it? How in hell could you account for it?" - -Jimmy shrugged. "Jane and I--we're rather fond of each other." The -understatement was so patent that he smiled faintly. "Chance separated -us. The feeling we have for each other draws us together. There's a -saying about two people becoming one flesh. If such a thing could -happen, it would be Jane and me. After all, maybe only a tiny pebble -or a single extra drop of water made my car swerve enough to get her -killed--where I am, that is. That's a very little thing. So with such a -trifle separating us, and so much pulling us together--why, sometimes -the barrier wears thin. She leaves a door closed in the house where she -is. I open that same door where I am. Sometimes I have to open the door -she left closed, too. That's all." - - * * * * * - -Haynes didn't say a word, but the question he wouldn't ask was so -self-evident that Jimmy answered it. - -"We're hoping," he said. "It's pretty bad being separated, but -the--phenomena keep up. So we hope. Her diary is sometimes in the now -where she is, and sometimes in this now of mine. Cigaret butts, too. -Maybe--" That was the only time he showed any sign of emotion. He -spoke as if his mouth were dry. "If ever I'm in her now or she's in -mine, even for an instant, all the devils in hell couldn't separate us -again!--We hope." - -Which was insanity. In fact, it was the third week of insanity. He'd -told Haynes quite calmly that Jane's diary was on her desk every night, -and there was a letter to him in it, and he wrote one to her. He -said quite calmly that the barrier between them seemed to be growing -thinner. That at least once, when he went to bed, he was sure that -there was one more cigaret stub in the ashtray than had been there -earlier in the evening. - -They were very near indeed. They were separated only by the difference -between what was and what might have been. In one sense the difference -was a pebble or a drop of water. In another, the difference was that -between life and death. But they hoped. They convinced themselves -that the barrier grew thinner. Once, it seemed to Jimmy that they -touched hands. But he was not sure. He was still sane enough not to be -sure. And he told all this to Haynes in a matter-of-fact fashion, and -speculated mildly on what had started it all.... - -Then, one night, Haynes called Jimmy on the telephone. Jimmy answered. - -He sounded impatient. - -"Jimmy!" said Haynes. He was almost hysterical. "I think I'm insane! -You know you said Tony Shields was in the car that hit me?" - -"Yes," said Jimmy politely. "What's the matter?" - -"It's been driving me crazy," wailed Haynes feverishly. "You said he -was killed--there. But I hadn't told a soul about the incident. So--so -just now I broke down and phoned him. And it _was_ Tony Shields! That -near-crash scared him to death, and I gave him hell and--he's paying -for my fender! I didn't tell him he was killed." - -Jimmy didn't answer. It didn't seem to matter to him. - -"I'm coming over!" said Haynes feverishly. "I've got to talk!" - -"No," said Jimmy. "Jane and I are pretty close to each other. We've -touched each other again. We're hoping. The barrier's wearing through. -We hope it's going to break." - -"But it can't!" protested Haynes, shocked at the idea of -improbabilities in the preposterous. "It--it can't! What'd happen if -you turned up where she is, or--or if she turned up here?" - -"I don't know," said Jimmy, "but we'd be together." - -"You're crazy! You mustn't--" - -"Goodbye," said Jimmy politely. "I'm hoping, Haynes. Something has to -happen. It has to!" - -His voice stopped. There was a noise in the room behind him; Haynes -heard it. Only two words, and those faintly, and over a telephone, but -he swore to himself that it was Jane's voice, throbbing with happiness. -The two words Haynes thought he heard were, "_Jimmy! Darling!_" - -Then the telephone crashed to the floor and Haynes heard no more. Even -though he called back frantically again, Jimmy didn't answer. - - * * * * * - -Haynes sat up all that night, practically gibbering, and he tried to -call Jimmy again next morning, and then tried his office, and at last -went to the police. He explained to them that Jimmy had been in a -highly nervous state since the death of his wife. - -So finally the police broke into the house. They had to break in -because every door and window was carefully fastened from the inside, -as if Jimmy had been very careful to make sure nobody could interrupt -what he and Jane hoped would occur. But Jimmy wasn't in the house. -There was no trace of him. It was exactly as if he had vanished into -the air. - -Ultimately the police dragged ponds and such things for his body, -but they never found any clues. Nobody ever saw Jimmy again. It was -recorded that Jimmy simply left town, and everybody accepted that -obvious explanation. - - * * * * * - -The thing that really bothered Haynes was the fact that Jimmy had -told him who'd almost crashed into him on the Saw Mill Road, and it -was true. That was, to understate, hard to take. And there was the -double-exposure picture of Jimmy's front door, which was much more -convincing than any other trick picture Haynes had ever seen. But on -the other hand, if it did happen, why did it happen only to Jimmy and -Jane? What set it off? What started it? Why, in effect, did those -oddities start at that particular time, to those particular people, in -that particular fashion? In fact, did anything happen at all? - -Now, after Jimmy's disappearance, Haynes wished he could talk with him -once more--talk sensibly, quietly, without fear and hysteria and this -naggingly demanding wonderment. - -For he had sketched to Jimmy, and Jimmy had accepted (hadn't he?) the -possibility of the _other now_--but with that acceptance came still -others. In one, Jane was dead. In one, Jimmy was dead. It was between -these two that the barrier had grown so thin.... - -If he could talk to Jimmy about it! - -There was also a now in which _both_ had died, and another in which -_neither_ had died! And if it was togetherness that each wanted so -desperately ... _which was it_? - -These were things that Haynes would have liked very much to know, but -he kept his mouth shut, or calm men in white coats would have come and -taken him away for treatment. As they would have taken Jimmy. - -The only thing really sure was that it was all impossible. But to -someone who liked Jimmy and Jane--and doubtless to Jimmy and to Jane -themselves--no matter which barrier had been broken, it was a rather -satisfying impossibility. - -Haynes' car had been repaired. He could easily have driven out to the -cemetery. For some reason, he never did. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Other Now, by Murray Leinster - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE OTHER NOW *** - -***** This file should be named 51112.txt or 51112.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/1/1/1/51112/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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