Alternities by Michael P. Kube-McDowell
Author:Michael P. Kube-McDowell [Kube-McDowell, Michael P.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00
Hagerstown, Indiana, Alternity Blue
There were no longer any tracks on the long wooden railroad trestle spanning the Whitewater River and the narrow flood plains on either bank. Wallace had once played chicken with slow-moving freights here, walked the railing like a tightrope, used it as a diving platform on sweltering summer afternoons.
Now the rails were gone, the trestle had been redecked as a footbridge linking the two halves of a small town park, and the old railroad right of way was marked as a footpath and bicycling trail. Signs at each end of the trestle sternly warned:
NO MOTORIZED VEHICLES
NO FISHING
NO DIVING
No fun, Wallace thought. He kicked a bottle cap off the edge and watched it arc downward to splash in the chilly water, then walked back past the swing sets and picnic tables to where he had parked the car. The chains holding the swings creaked in the breeze.
There were any number of new homes on the outskirts of town, little clusters of pastel look-alikes lining new roads with names like Prospect Place and Cul de Sac Drive. But the heart of town looked very little changed from what Wallace remembered. He drove slowly, pulling to the curb now and then to indulge his curiosity.
Here a familiar old oak tree was missing, there a rambling, turreted turn-of-the-century “mansion” had become a lawyer’s office or funeral home. His grandmother’s old place on Chestnut had a new garage and an elaborate garden framing the porch. Bobby Prick’s house looked spookily the same, down to the toys littering the stoop and postage-stamp front yard. And when he rounded a corner to find a tangle of white paper streamers dangling from a pair of maple trees flanking a driveway. Wallace laughed until he was wet-eyed.
Feeling braver, he headed downtown. He found mercantile Hagerstown the same two blocks of red, white, and whitewashed brick storefronts, dressed up with new streetlamps and concrete sidewalk planters. Parking the Magic, he set out to explore it on foot.
There was a series of little jolts awaiting him. The bank building had expanded, and its parking lot had gobbled up the little appliance repair shop and postal substation which had stood next door. Dave and Dot’s, the fountain counter of which had been host to his “first date,” was now called Whitewater Gifts, and the old candy case was filled with ceramic cats and dried flowers. He looked for a copy of the weekly newspaper, but there was no dump box bearing its name.
The woman tending the register eyed him surreptitiously, had been since he had entered. Strangers. “Do you know where I can get a Record?” he asked her.
“There’s a music store in the Flatrock Center, over to New Castle.”
“The Hagerstown Record—the newspaper.”
Her brow farrowed “We get the Richmond paper around noon—”
Further conversation was dangerous. “I must have made a mistake,” be said excusing himself.
Continuing along the block, he looked for familiar faces. He found them sitting at the window table of Brooks Restaurant—older faces, deep-lined faces with deep-rooted names.
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