Haldeman, Joe - Old Twentieth by Haldeman Joe

Author:Haldeman, Joe
Language: eng
Format: epub

"Been outside yet?"

He shook his head. "Thought I'd get a drink first, dig the joint." When we were calibrating, he mentioned he'd never done the Stork Club before. I'd been here in '49 and '52.

I tipped my head toward Billingsley's reflection. "That's the big cheese, Sherman Billingsley.

You catch Winchell?"

"Hard to miss." He looked around appreciatively. "Good job. Solid." Rubbing the oak bartop with his thumb.

My drink came. "Here's looking at you, kid." Casablanca was just opening.

"Cheers." We clinked glasses and drank. The gin, onion, vinegar, and cold seemed perfectly authentic. I wondered if I'd ever again taste one in the real world—odd for a thought like that to

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Bruce must have been thinking sideways, too, or maybe his virtual Manhattan was affecting him.

"What if you could stay here forever?" He patted his pocket. "Never push the button."

"Well, you wouldn't get bored. You'd starve to death or dehydrate first. Back in the machine.

Wonder what that would feel like."

He dismissed that with an airy wave. "Just pretend." He selected a cigarette from a silver case and lit it with slow pleasure. "Wave a magic technical wand. Would people actually want to escape to the past and stay?"

"Some would, of course. Some people will do anything. I'd rather just visit every now and then."

I tore open my Camels, picked one out, and used his lighter. "Hell, if you stayed too long, you'd get addicted to smoking."

"Used to was."

"Yeah, I smoked a lot on Earth, too." The guy next to me got up slowly and took his drink away.

"Perth, I mean. Perth," I said sotto voce.

"It killed both my grandparents." He looked at his cigarette and blew on its tip.

I nodded. "The Becker-Cendrek Process was a boon to all sorts of unhealthy practices."

"They wouldn't outlaw it. Even in my parents' time, before immortality. Un-American to deprive addicts of freedom of choice."

I saw where he was headed, and lowered my voice. "There's no comparison with our situation.

One death, not necessarily related."

"I know, I know."

"Smoking was bound to kill you if you didn't die of something else."

"Maybe the time machine does, too." He stared at his reflection in the bar mirror. "It just takes longer."

"You've been talking to Kate. What, did she promise elaborate sexual favors if you could win me over to her side?"

"No. Nothing elaborate." He put his cigarette out in the heavy glass ashtray and smiled. "Shall we go sniff the sidewalk? While we still have a vestige of olfactory sensitivity remaining?"

He knew as well as I did that the virtual smoke wouldn't have any effect on that. "Sure." I knocked back the rest of my Gibson and kept my cigarette while I fished out a five-dollar bill and dropped it on the bar.

We got off the stools to leave, but the bartender drifted over and pushed the five-dollar bill back.

"Sirs, your money isn't any good here." That set off a little anomaly alarm, but then he said, "Good luck. Wish I could be with you.

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