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diff --git a/32853.txt b/32853.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e76627 --- /dev/null +++ b/32853.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1244 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Cards, by Alan Cogan + +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 + + +Title: In the Cards + +Author: Alan Cogan + +Illustrator: EMSH + +Release Date: June 17, 2010 [EBook #32853] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE CARDS *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + In the Cards + + By ALAN COGAN + + Illustrated by EMSH + +[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction +June 1956. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. +copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +[Illustration] + + +[Sidenote: It is one thing to safeguard the future ... and something +else entirely to see someone you love cry in terror two years from now!] + + +The first thing I did when I bought my Grundy Projector was take a trip +to about two years ahead and see what was going to happen to me. +Everyone was doing it around that time; students were taking short trips +into the future to learn whether or not they would pass their exams, +married couples were looking ahead to see how many kids they were going +to have, businessmen were going into the future to size up their +prospects. + +I took the trip because I was getting married and I couldn't resist the +temptation of finding out how things would work out with my fiancee +Marge and myself. Not that I had any doubts about Marge, but the Grundy +Projectors were guaranteed harmless and there's no point in taking +chances with a serious step like marriage. + +Everybody was looking ahead then. Within a week after the Grundy +Projectors were introduced, you could walk past homes every evening and +see people with those shimmering bird-cages around them. Their bodies +were there, but heaven knows when their minds were--months and often +even years ahead of time. + +I knew exactly when to go on my first time trip. I even knew where: I'd +already put a down payment on a home in the new dome housing area where +Marge and I would be living after the wedding. Knowing where to go on a +time trip is important. On this one, for instance, I hadn't been +assigned an address yet and there were all sorts of changes in the +place--buildings and streets where there had only been empty lots and +sections marked off by string--and I just had to hunt until I came to +our home. + +You can imagine how much more difficult finding my future self would be +if I hadn't known the exact location. That's about the only major +drawback to making time trips and I don't see how it can be overcome. +Directories would be one answer, but how would you go about putting them +together if your crews can't ask questions or touch filing cards or even +open future visiphone books? + + * * * * * + +Eventually, after setting the dial around the two-year mark, which is +about the maximum limit on most models, I found myself in my future home +in the dome housing area. I was watching myself as I would be and Marge +as she would be. Only I didn't like what I saw. + +We were fighting and screaming at each other. You could tell at a glance +that we hated each other. And after only two years! + +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. + + * * * * * + +I climbed out of my Grundy Projector, glad to be back in the relative +calm of my body, although it still took me a long time to get settled +down. I felt like smashing the Projector there and then, and I guess I +should have done it. + +The problem that had me all tied in knots was whether or not I should go +ahead and marry Marge after what I had seen. I know it looked as though +I was going to marry her anyway, but in my innocence I figured I could +beat that. + +I soon realized I was going to get nowhere sitting all by myself in my +room, so I went over to Marge's place. She was waiting for me, swinging +quietly to and fro on the hammock on the dark patio. Normally I would +have sat right down beside her, but this time I just stood back +sheepishly and waited. + +Neither of us said anything for a while and I just watched as the +hammock floated in the faint bluish light from some nearby lamps. Marge +seemed to shine almost angelically as the glow caught her dark eyes and +her softly tanned arms and legs. + + * * * * * + +I could have whipped myself for treating her the way I had seen myself +treating her in the future. It must have been a mistake. There had to be +a mistake somewhere. I couldn't have made myself do anything to hurt +her. + +Her voice was husky and scared when she spoke. "Do you think it'll +happen the way we saw it, Gerry?" she asked. + +"I don't know," I said. "They say that whatever you see always turns out +to be the thing that happens." + +"Do you think we'll fight like that when--if we're married?" + +It was on the end of my tongue to talk common sense and logic to her, +but then I realized that neither of us wanted to hear anything like +that. We were in love and we didn't want to hear anything that +conflicted with our emotions. + +Marge sat up in the hammock and made room for me to sit down beside her. + +"I just don't see how it could happen to us," I said. "I don't see how +we could fight like that. There must have been some mistake. Maybe we +looked in on the wrong people." + +Neither of us added anything to that. We both knew we weren't going to +change so much that we couldn't recognize ourselves two years later. + +"Maybe it was some sort of alternative world we saw," I suggested, +eagerly clutching at any straw, "showing us what _could_ happen if we +didn't work hard at our marriage. It could have been a sort of warning +of what could happen to some people. But not us, of course!" + +Marge's lonely little hand crept into mine for comfort and I began to +warm up to the subject. + +"Don't you worry about it," I assured her. "What would we ever find to +quarrel about?" + +The idea seemed so preposterous, we both began to laugh. + +"I couldn't fight with you, Gerry," Marge said, snuggling closer. + +"Me, neither," I said. "Don't worry about what we saw. The scientific +boys will probably have a rational explanation worked out for the whole +thing. I'll bet it's happened to lots of people." + +Somehow, while we were talking, we had managed to get very close +together in the hammock. Marge and I could never talk far apart for +long. + +"I couldn't wait for you to come over," Marge said in a small voice. + +"I couldn't wait to get here," I lied. "I just don't believe that what +we saw could possibly happen to us. What on Earth would we ever find to +fight over?" + +That was the one basic mistake that we, and everyone else, made when we +discussed the Bilbo Grundy Projector. When the Projector showed you +something was going to happen, it happened. + +That night, Marge and I made plans to get married even sooner and the +ceremony took place four weeks later. + + * * * * * + +Grundy's Projector had been a well-kept secret until it suddenly burst +upon us with a carefully planned publicity campaign. There hadn't even +been a hint of experiments in the time-travel field until the discovery +had suddenly been made public in the newspapers and on the TV screens of +the whole world. + +Grundy had discovered a way of projecting a person's view into the +future and the equipment required turned out to be amazingly compact, +simple and inexpensive. The average cost of a Projector was fifty-five +dollars--well within practically anyone's price range. + +Grundy and his backers had lined up a large number of famous people +beforehand, all of whom had tried the Projector and were only too +willing to tell us how great it was. Terrific fun--the newest thrill +since the first radio, or the first airplane, or the first space rocket. +And absolutely harmless, too! + +All you had to do was set a dial and get into the cage and you could +watch yourself an hour or a day or up to two years ahead of time. If you +wanted to see if it was going to rain that weekend, all you did was +climb in and take a look. If you wanted to see where you would be going +for your annual vacation, just press a button and you would see yourself +making the final plans. All for fifty-five dollars. What with all the +advertising coming at us via every possible medium, Grundy sold a +million in the first five days. + +Because he knew exactly how many he was going to sell--just by making +use of his own invention--Grundy was fully prepared for the onslaught of +customers. + +Everyone talked of nothing but the new sensation. You couldn't go +anywhere without hearing about it. It seemed as if the rest of the world +had stopped. + +Before long, there wasn't a thing about the next two years that we +didn't know. We all jumped ahead in great leaps and found out all kinds +of things that were due to happen to us and to the world. If the things +were good, we waited happily for them to happen. If things didn't look +too good, we shrugged it off, like Marge and me, and said it couldn't +happen to us. + + * * * * * + +But that was the catch. Whatever we saw happening did take place exactly +as we saw it--it was inescapable. The first instance I saw of this was +in the accounting office where I operated an accounts analyzer. We +advertised for a new operator to assist in my department and lined up +interviews with thirty-two applicants. When the day of the interviews +arrived, only one applicant turned up. He was found suitable and got the +job. + +The president, Mr. Atkins, was pretty het up about the whole affair. +"Why would thirty-one men not present themselves for interviews as they +had arranged?" he kept asking me. "It's a good job, isn't it, Gerald?" + +I tried to explain to him that the Time Projector was probably involved +in the affair, although I couldn't see _how_ exactly. Mr. Atkins was an +old man who didn't believe in new gadgets of any kind and he wasn't +convinced. Finally, however, I managed to get him to call some of the +applicants and ask them why they had not appeared for their interviews. + +He almost went apoplectic when he heard the reasons. Each of the +thirty-one answered that he had flipped ahead to see what was going to +happen on that particular day and each one had seen that he _wasn't_ +going to visit Mr. Atkins in search of a job, so he didn't go. Some of +them even told him that they knew they were going to get jobs elsewhere +on a certain date and that they were just taking a vacation until that +day came. + +I had a hard time soothing Mr. Atkins that afternoon. He wouldn't stop +talking about it. Finally, just to satisfy himself, he re-interviewed +the sole successful applicant. As we should have expected, the new man +answered that he had looked ahead to see that he was going to get the +job and had dutifully made his appearance. + +Mr. Atkins was flabbergasted and he spluttered and fumed for minutes on +end. Then he looked crafty. "What am I going to do now?" he asked the +new man. + +"You're going out to get drunk, sir," the new man answered. + +And that's exactly what Mr. Atkins did. + + * * * * * + +Crazy situations like that became commonplace in no time. The newspapers +were filled with them every day, though it still took us quite a while +to understand that there was nothing we could do to avoid the +inevitable. It was all pretty staggering and naturally we protested like +madmen. Naturally it didn't do a bit of good. It was in the cards that +we would protest without results. + +Even when we did get quieted down, we were still in a daze because of +the weird things that were happening. For instance, there was this +fellow on our street who suddenly became famous for writing a +best-selling novel. + +For ten years, he had been writing without selling a word and then +suddenly he broke into the big time with a best-seller. Everyone asked +him how he had done it and he calmly explained that he looked into the +future and saw himself with a popular novel to his credit. He found out +what the novel was about and then came back to his own time and wrote it +and his success worked out exactly as he had seen it on his time trip. +No one could say that he hadn't written the book himself. + +My kid brother Willy was in first year medicine when he looked ahead and +saw that he wasn't going to be present at the term-end exams, so he just +didn't bother to attend. He stayed in bed that day. He didn't want to be +a doctor, anyway--I think he only started it for my mother's sake. A lot +of people argued with him and said if he had only gotten out of bed that +morning and gone to school, the prediction would have been proven false. + +The only answer to that, of course, is that Willy just _didn't_ get out +of bed that morning, thus proving the prediction _true_. + +We argued for weeks over that one. It doesn't matter now--Willy is a +'copter mechanic and crazy about the work. After all, he didn't have the +slightest difficulty getting a job. He simply looked ahead to see where +he would be working and then applied. + +Inevitably, some people found out when they were going to die. Even when +they took steps to forestall the grim event, they often discovered that +their plans actually helped them arrive at their demise right on the +button. But most people died of old age anyway, what with all the latest +developments in safety engineering and medicine. + +Nevertheless, it meant that fate was having its own way as usual, with +the difference that we knew everything beforehand and remained just as +helpless! + + * * * * * + +Once we all realized for sure that the predictions were one hundred per +cent accurate, all kinds of changes affected our lives. + +For a start, a lot of people automatically found their jobs had +disappeared overnight--weather forecasters, news analysts, pollsters, +stock-market speculators, and all the people connected with any form of +racing, betting, lotteries or raffles, to name only a few. Gambling, +respectable or otherwise, requires someone to win and someone to +lose--and who'd be willing to lose on a result he already knew? + +A few new jobs were created by others who looked ahead and foresaw such +things as earthquakes, fires, floods, volcanic eruptions and violent +storms. They set up special teams for handling these disasters, +evacuating people and removing valuable property beforehand. + +This explained why, as we looked ahead, we saw fewer and fewer deaths +occurring from these tragedies. The growing efficiency of the rescue +services worked wonders--which were part of the future, as you'd expect, +not successful attempts to change it--although there were always a small +number of deaths, mainly the kind of people who never used to pay any +attention to the news, didn't look at road signs, and the like. + +Some of them belonged to the crowd who opposed Bilbo Grundy's fabulous +invention. They were strictly a minority but, as is usually the case, +they were a pretty noisy and outspoken bunch. They were a mixed lot, +too, made up of people who had foreseen their deaths or personal +disaster, those who had lost their jobs through the invention, a number +of cranks who habitually were against everything, plus a few, like +myself, who just didn't feel easy about the Projector. + +I couldn't see that time travel was evil or sinful the way some of them +described it and I never attended any of their protest meetings, but I +did sympathize with them to a certain extent. Everyone called them the +'Diehards' and the stock remark was that they should look into the +future to see if their movement was going to be a success before they +got too involved in it. + +That drove them wild. + + * * * * * + +Marge spent a lot of time with her Projector. The device was very +popular with women, mainly, I guess, because it was the absolutely +perfect fortune-telling device and it was much more fun than either +video or visiphone conversations. + +I put my own Grundy Projector away in the basement shortly after I got +married and I never used it any more. To my way of thinking, it made +life pretty dull. I had just been married and I was also starting to get +ahead at my job--Mr. Atkins had put me in charge of a whole department +full of accounts analyzers. I went around with all sorts of wild plans +and dreams of a rosy future for us. I hoped someday to form my own +company and I was also interested in finding a better place to live. The +dome housing development was only temporary as far as I was concerned +and I wanted something bigger for when we could afford a family. + +I suppose we all have those dreams of success when we're young, and +though most of us have fairly predictable futures, I still can't help +thinking that it's those wild dreams and schemes that keep us slugging +away and add a little zest to life. Anyway, I soon found that Marge was +knocking all the zest out of my life because she _knew_ the future for +both of us and she kept telling me about it. + +It took me a few weeks to finally persuade her that I'd rather not know +what was going to happen. But it was too late then, because she'd told +me everything that was important. + +For instance, I knew I was going to be living in the dome house for +another two years and probably more. I knew I was still going to be +working for Mr. Atkins and I knew just how much money I was going to +have in the bank at the end of two years. I even knew that my paunch +would get bigger and my hair would start falling out. + +Life got to be just a matter of sitting around waiting for the expected +to happen. + + * * * * * + +I tried hard to break Marge of the time projection habit, but it was +useless. She was as addicted as everyone else and the Grundy Projector +looked as though it was going to be here for good and no one was going +to stop it. + +After all, who could prevent an expectant mother from jumping ahead a +year or so to find out whether she is going to have a boy or girl? I +know the doctors can tell with one hundred per cent accuracy in the +second month, but the parents-to-be still want to find out if Junior +will look like Mom or Dad. + +Or who could prevent a young boy and girl from finding out whom they +were going to marry? New methods of courting appeared--if you could call +it courting. A boy would merely look ahead and find out who the lucky +girl was going to be and then call on her. She was usually sitting at +the front door waiting for him, too. I kind of liked the old-fashioned +way, when Marge and I met by chance one day and then spent months +getting to know each other. + +Of course it was impossible to avoid knowing future news whether you +wanted to hear it or not. The newspapers, in trying to beat each other +to scoops, could only find good headline material among the Diehards; +the rest of us all knew what would happen to us. Most of the papers +carried two separate sections--one for future events and the other for +present "news." + +We still had crime with us. The crooks who knew they were going to jail +always went there at the appointed time, regardless of their elaborate +precautions and so-called foolproof systems. Others who knew they were +going to stay free for a couple of years at least led fabulously +successful lives of crimes, made more daring by the fact that they knew +they were temporarily safe from the law. The police, on the other hand, +never bothered to chase these characters, knowing in advance that they +weren't going to catch them anyway. + +This naturally set the Diehards to hollering. For a time, they talked of +forming vigilante groups to do their own policing, but nobody worried +about this. It was in the cards, you see, that they weren't going to do +it. + +The final blow to the Diehards came during the Federal Elections of +2017, when the Neo-Republicans just got up and walked out of office and +the United North-South Democrats walked in without a single election +speech being made. I know a few votes were cast, but everyone knew what +the results would be long before it happened. + +The part that annoyed the Diehards so much was that it was _their_ +handful of votes that decided the results. + + * * * * * + +Toward the end of the first two years, Marge and I began to have our +first samples of that bitter quarrel we had both witnessed on our first +time trip. I had almost forgotten about what I had seen, but soon I saw +how I was going to be taking part in such quarrels quite frequently. + +Marge just wouldn't stop making those time trips and it seemed to me she +spent hours every day in her Projector. There was something in the +future that worried her and, naturally that worried me, too. I was +almost tempted to get my own Projector out of the basement and find out +for myself. Marge was beginning to look sick and pale all the time. She +got much thinner and weaker and I knew she cried a lot when I wasn't +around. + +I tried my best to find the cause of the trouble, but I got nowhere. +Trying to cheer her up with little surprises was a waste of time. It's +no fun trying to surprise anyone who knows better than yourself what the +surprise is going to be. + +Finally, when out of desperation I had almost decided to take my first +time trip in nearly two years, I came home from the office to find Marge +sobbing hysterically beside the Projector. + +"We're going to die, Gerry!" she said, when I managed to get her fairly +coherent. "I've been looking ahead for months now and I just don't see +us _anywhere_ in the future!" + +So there it was. I didn't know what to do or say. I was scared and mad +and sorry for Marge for keeping such a secret bottled up inside herself +for so long. + +The first thing I said was, "There must be a mistake--" until I +remembered that there were _never_ any mistakes with Grundy Projectors. + + * * * * * + +Nevertheless, I still tried to find a way out of the situation. "Maybe +you couldn't find us because we moved," I said quickly. "Maybe I got +another job and left town or was transferred to the Boston office. Mr. +Atkins has mentioned it a couple of times." + +"I looked," Marge said miserably. "I looked everywhere and I just +couldn't see us anywhere." + +"But how do you know we're going to die?" I argued. "Did you see it +happen?" + +She shook her head. "I didn't dare look that close. I got it pinned down +to somewhere in the next month and I didn't dare look any closer, afraid +I might have to see something horrible. All I know is we just won't be +around sometime after the next four or five weeks." + +"Has anyone mentioned anything to you about our death?" I asked. It was +considered improper to even hint at another person's death just in case +that person hadn't found out. Still, you know how tactless some people +can be. + +Marge just shook her head and went right on sobbing. + +"Listen," I said, "I'll bet you're getting all worked up for nothing. +Anything--absolutely anything--could happen in the next few weeks. +There's probably a perfectly simple explanation for the whole thing." + +I guess I wasn't very convincing because Marge just stared dumbly at me, +tears spilling out of her eyes. "Gerry, would--would you go and look? If +it's something harmless, you can come right back and tell me. If it's +something awful, I won't ask about it." + +"No," I said. "That would be just the same as telling you what's going +to happen. Besides, I don't want to know." + +[Illustration] + +We just sat around the house for the rest of that evening. After Marge +had gone to bed, I went down to the basement and smashed both our Bilbo +Grundy Time Projectors into little pieces. I'd seen the hopelessness and +despair in people who had learned just how and when they would die. +Smashing the things wouldn't change the future--I realized that--but I +didn't want Marge obeying the impulse to find out. Or myself, for that +matter. + + * * * * * + +Shortly after that, the quarreling started in earnest. Marge wouldn't +let up on the business of dying, and as well as being scared, I was also +sick of hearing about our short and questionable future. Marge was +furious with me for destroying her Projector and blamed me constantly +for making her suffer by preventing her from looking into the future. + +"Now we won't know what's going to happen until it's too late!" she +shrieked at me. + +"That's right!" I yelled back. "And that's just the way I want it! +What's the use of knowing and worrying in advance if there's no way of +doing anything about it?" + +Then, one night, we had the identical fight that we had watched two +years earlier, on our first time trip. Marge, as usual, was crying +hysterically about not having long to live and I was shouting at her +about wishing herself into the grave. She seemed to have forgotten that +I was going to go, too, and had taken all the suffering on her own +shoulders. + +When I was hollering and stamping about the room, I had a funny, eerie +feeling as I suddenly remembered that my younger unmarried self had +watched--or was watching--the same scene. + +I just stopped doing anything for a moment and stared around the room. +Naturally I saw nothing, because there was nothing to see, and I +remembered how quickly my younger self had fled when I had looked up +like that. Ashamed, I tried to soothe Marge, but she was too far gone to +be comforted. + +I was glad to get out of the house every day and spend a few hours at +the office. I must admit that I was scared to be with Marge because it +looked as though we were going to go together and I felt safer away from +her. I know it's nothing to be proud of, but it helped ease the tension, +for Marge as well as myself. + +One day, Mr. Atkins stopped in at my office and sat down to talk. There +was nothing unusual about this; he often visited me for a chat, even +though he wasn't so friendly with the other employees. + +We talked for a while about the usual things, department business and +some of the staff members. + +Then Mr. Atkins turned the conversation away from business matters. "Do +you have one of those newfangled Time Projector things, Gerald?" he +asked. Mr. Atkins was getting on in years and called everything +introduced in the last thirty years "newfangled." + +"No," I said. "I did have one, but I stopped using it soon after I got +it." + +"Didn't you like it?" + +I shrugged. "It wasn't that. I just preferred to find out for myself +what would happen to me." I didn't want to tell him the true story or my +other troubles. + +Mr. Atkins sat back in his chair and sighed. "Ah, yes. I don't suppose +you remember too much about the old days, not after the last two years +we've been through. People had problems in those days and they used to +have to solve them for themselves. People don't have to make decisions +any more, you know. Do you think you could still make a decision, +Gerald?" + + * * * * * + +I got a little excited and found it difficult to stop fidgeting and stay +quietly seated. I began to suspect that he was leading up to something +important. It could have been the transfer to another branch or an +out-of-town assignment which would explain our disappearance in the +future. + +"I still try to make plans and direct my own future whenever I can," I +stalled. + +"It's difficult, I know," Mr. Atkins went on, "especially when all the +news is about something that's going to happen a day or a week or a year +from now. It's not so bad for an old man like me, but it must be tough +on you young fellows. Too bad this Bilbo--uh--" + +"Grundy," I said. "Bilbo Grundy." Mr. Atkins knew the name as well as I +did, but it was one of his little tricks to pretend he was getting old +and forgetful, although he really wasn't. It used to be a good business +tactic before the Grundy Projector came out. It wasn't any more--not +with people being able to see outcomes of dealings--but he couldn't get +rid of the habit. + +"It's too bad he had to invent that fool time gadget," he went on. "I +suppose your wife uses it all the time. They seem to be very popular +with women." + +"Marge gave it up a short time ago," I lied. "She got bored with it." + +Mr. Atkins nodded thoughtfully. "Wouldn't it be nice to live in an age +again when none of us knew what was going to happen? When life had lots +of surprises--both good and bad? When you could get up in the morning +and not be sure what was going to happen before night? Would you like +that, Gerald?" + +I didn't know what to say. He was off on that wandering-mind routine and +I didn't know for sure whether he was really rambling or not. + +"I think I'd like it, Mr. Atkins," I said. "As long as everyone else was +in the same boat." + +"_Would_ you like it?" He was suddenly looking at me with the shrewd, +out-of-the-corner-of-the-eye expression he had when he was handling some +wealthy client's intricate income tax problems. + +"I mean it," I told him. "I'm tired of living among people who know my +business two years ahead of time." + +"I can get you to a world like that," he said quietly. + +I didn't say anything in reply. Who could? + +"I have some friends," he went on, "who make a practice of helping +people like yourself to better things." + +"What do you mean by 'better things'?" I asked warily. + +"I'm talking about time travel, Gerald. The real thing--not the Bilbo +Grundy toy, but real physical time travel. These friends have gone a lot +further than Grundy did with his invention and they perform the service +of transporting people to a better age." + +"You mean the future?" + +"The past!" said Mr. Atkins. "The chances are the future will be even +worse. I'm talking about the middle of the last century, around the +nineteen-fifties or thereabouts." + +I began to laugh. "The nineteen-fifties! What would I do to earn a +living in those days?" + + * * * * * + +He gave me a thin smile. "I guess that would be your first unsolved +problem. After all, you said you wanted problems and the chance to make +plans and try to make them come true." + +"But why pick me?" I wanted to know. + +"I like you, Gerald," he said. "I would like to see you have a decent +chance. And don't flatter yourself--you wouldn't be the first one to go. +You'd be in good company." + +I just sat staring vacantly at him. + +"I guess you could say this is your first big decision in two years," he +added. "There's no hurry. You can think it over for a while." + +I asked questions--lots of them--but I didn't get too many answers. Mr. +Atkins explained that naturally the affair was hush-hush. After the way +the Grundy Projector had been thrust so irresponsibly upon us, no one +wanted any further complications. But there were some answers I could +piece together both from what I already knew and the hints he dropped. + +I'd been in on conferences and listened to Mr. Atkins try to figure out +ways of expanding, building up our business. Each time, he'd been +stymied by the Grundy Projector. If he'd bull some idea through, his +competitors would see exactly how it worked out. If he didn't, they'd +know that, too. And I had heard him rant when the accountants--using the +Grundy Projectors, of course--would make up their inventory, sales, +profit-and-loss and tax statements two years or more in advance. + +That was actually what galled him. Mr. Atkins was used to making plans, +calculating risks and gains, taking his chances. With the Grundy +Projectors in existence, nobody could do that any more. I gathered from +what he told me that there was a syndicate of men like himself backing +the inventor of a genuine time machine. They didn't condemn the Grundy +invention on any moral or religious or even selfish grounds. They just +resented very bitterly the same thing that annoyed me--the sense of +repetition. + +As Mr. Atkins put it, "It's no different than reading a story and then +having to relive the whole thing, anticipating each action and bit of +dialogue. And that's precisely what this is. Only it's our lives, not +fiction. We didn't like it, Gerald. We didn't like it at all! But we did +something about the problem instead of merely complaining." + +Let me say right now that I thought the solution they came up with was +nonsensical and I kept searching, all the time we talked, for ways of +politely turning down the offer. Escaping to to the past was a +ridiculous answer. But it was just the kind of notion that would appeal +to an old-fashioned character like Mr. Atkins. + +I didn't tell him so, of course. I thanked him for his consideration and +shook hands and felt relieved when he finally left. + + * * * * * + +My mind was made up by then. I'd back out, quit if I had to, rather than +take refuge in the past to evade the future. + +It wasn't until I got out of the office that I realized there was no big +decision to make; it was already made for me. Either I was going to die +or I was going into the past--and I wasn't going to die if I could help +it. But neither did I intend going into the past if I could really help +_that_! + +When Marge realized that I wasn't merely trying to take her mind off the +fatal day, she pounced on me and hugged me as though I myself had +invented the time machine just to save her life! + +"It's wonderful, darling!" she cried. "You were right all along! Oh, how +can you forgive me for making things so unbearable for you?" + +"About this idea of going into the past--" I said. + +"What's the difference when we go to," she cut in, "as long as we don't +have to die?" + +"But I figured on telling Mr. Atkins at the last minute that all I want +is a transfer--" + +"What's the sense of guessing?" she asked excitedly. "All we have to do +is borrow a couple of Projectors and see!" + +I began to feel myself being squeezed into a one-way trap. I put my foot +down--but where it landed was in a Grundy Projector from the people next +door--and where it figuratively emerged was eleven days later, when I +couldn't shut my non-physical eyes to the way the whole situation would +turn out. + +Marge and I, with half a dozen others, were getting into a helicar. I +followed them out to a house in the country. We handed in all the money +we had saved and in return were given old-style clothes, ancient-looking +money and a small amount of luggage. Then we all stepped into what +looked like an oversized version of a Grundy Projector and vanished. + +[Illustration] + +Fight? Argue? Scheme? + +I didn't have a chance. + + * * * * * + +It was 1956 when we arrived in old New York. We were met by others who +had pioneered the way before us and they looked after our group until we +learned the ropes. + +There was nothing easy about getting used to the era. I wished often +that I could get back to my own time, Grundy Projector or no Grundy +Projector. Still, Marge didn't complain; she was prepared to endure +anything just because she thought her life had been saved. Occasionally, +bothered by my blunders in adjusting to this past century, I'd start to +reason with her, explain that her life hadn't been in danger at all. But +then, luckily, I would realize that convincing her would leave an angry, +dissatisfied wife on my hands and I always managed to stop in time. + +I got a job working as a night janitor in a bank and studied accounting +in the daytime until I was able to get a steady job. We've been here a +few years now and I guess you could say we're pretty well assimilated. +We have a house and two small sons and I'm doing well at my job. We +still see some of our friends from the 21st century and they've also +managed to make the change successfully. + +We get together now and then, and talk over old times, and laugh at some +things and get nostalgic over other things. Now that there aren't any +Grundy Projectors around, we've started feeling once more that our fates +are in our own hands. + +Rog Owens has an interesting viewpoint. He said one night, "It wasn't +the future that was fixed; it was the Grundy Projectors that fixed the +future! Whatever people saw would happen, they just let happen ... or +even worked to make it happen. No matter what it was, including their +own deaths. Hell, how's that any different than voodoo?" + +That was pretty much how each of us had felt, only we hadn't figured it +out so clearly. But Rog Owens has a special reason for thinking +particularly hard about the problem. Mr. Atkins and his syndicate hadn't +send us back for purely altruistic reasons; they learned that Rog's +daughter Ann would marry a fellow (not one of us) named Jack Grundy and +that they'd have a son named Bilbo, who would invent the Grundy +Projector. Our assignment was to keep that from happening. + +Well, we couldn't prevent the marriage, but we could--and did--make sure +their son would have a good, plain American name. It's William Grundy. + +But today my younger boy told me their kindergarten teacher calls +William "Billy Boy." + +And one little girl can't pronounce it. She calls him Bilbo. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of In the Cards, by Alan Cogan + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IN THE CARDS *** + +***** This file should be named 32853.txt or 32853.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/5/32853/ + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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