rising. We heard Lori's voice, but she wasn't screaming. She was shouting something at Carl.
Suddenly there was a rustling in the brush above us, and the sound of running feet coming down the hill.
Darla gasped, 'Oh, no-'
Carl One burst into the clearing, running toward the car, which by now had lifted a good two meters into the air. The passenger-side door had opened and Lori had one leg dangling out, holding the door open with both arms. Carl leaped and grabbed onto something-either the door or Lori's leg, or both. I couldn't see. He began to rise with the Chevy, hanging on.
Lori was screaming now, frightened and shocked and confused. Slowly, the three of them, two layers of a core sample of the same human being and the woman they both loved, floated up into the still California night.
'Jake?' came Arthur's voice. 'What's happening down there? I have an extra body in the scoop beam.'
'It's Carl One,' I said. Darla and I hadn't moved; neither of us could think of a thing we would dare do.
'Well,' Arthur said with annoyance, 'I've stopped trying to figure out what's supposed to happen here. Two of them fell out, so I'm going to set them down after I've stowed the automobile in the bay.'
I slumped against the tree and closed my eyes. I could hear the Paradox Machine. It howled and shrieked and it sounded like Lori's screams.
Presently, I was aware of Darla hugging me, her face against my back, and I realized that Lori's screaming had stopped.
I turned around and held Darla for a moment, then took the flashlight from her and thumbed it on. Her face was drawn and pale, her eyes frightened.
'Oh, Jake, it was so awful.'
'Yes.'
'And we did it. We perpetrated it. We're guilty.'
'Of what?'
'I don't know.'
'Of doing what we had to do?'
'Did we have to do it?'
'We thought we did.'
'Jake, I just don't know. I just… don't know any more.'
'I never did, honey. I never knew the tune, but I keep trying to hum along.'
We walked out into the clearing. Two bodies came down from the sky like stage deities on invisible wires. They landed gently on their feet.
Lori and Carl.
Our Carl. He was holding her, her face pressed against his shoulder. She was trembling violently.
'Hi,' Carl said as we approached.
'Hi,' I said. I didn't know what else to say.
'It happened like it was supposed to happen,' Carl said. 'I knew something else went on that night. I finally remembered what Debbie had shouted at me when the car began to lift. She told me not to be scared. I was stunned. Here was this thing coming down out of the sky at us, and here was the girl I loved acting as if she knew what was happening. That's what I blanked out of my mind. It was a fact I couldn't explain. It made me afraid just to remember it. I didn't want to believe that the girl I had met and fallen in love with could have had anything to do with the kidnapping. And I could never understand why she tried to jump out of the car, like she was leaving me. I tried to stop her. But she was being dragged out… by someone else. I couldn't see who.' He stroked Lori's tinted hair. 'It was me. It was the only person it could have been.'
Lori's trembling had subsided. She turned her head up to Carl.
'You did, didn't you?' Carl said. 'You tried to tell him. You saw that he was scared out of his mind and you tried to tell him that he'd be all right.'
She nodded, closed her eyes and rested her head on his chest.
'I felt awful,' she said. 'Like I was doing something evil. I set him up, I went along with it. And then… when you…' She sniffed and wiped her eyes. 'And when you came out of nowhere, Carl, I thought I was going crazy. I didn't know what to do. I was so scared.'
Carl took a deep breath. 'It all happened exactly as it was supposed to. Everything.'
I spoke into the communicator. 'Arthur?'
'Yes?'
'How is he?'
'Out like a light. Fainted dead away. He's fine, though. Just frightened.'
'Did you speak to him in Prime's voice?'
'Yes, but I don't think he heard me.'
'Well, if he comes to, just do your Prime routine and say something comforting.'
'Oh, I will, I will, but he'll still be scared shitless. I'm going to try something on him. It's a mechanism that was formerly used to tranquilize wildlife specimens. It shouldn't hurt him, even if it doesn't work.'
'Okay. Meet you back at Dave's place. How is Dave, by the way?'
There was a delay. 'He says the only thing he regrets is that he can't ever use this in a script. Lacks verisimilitude.'
18
I'm bad at good-byes. But I did my best.
It was about five in the morning. Carl, Lori, and Dave saw us off.
Lori hugged Darla, then me. I shook Carl's hand and then Darla kissed Carl and Lori. Then Lori hugged me again and kissed me. This went on for some time. Dave just stood by and smiled oddly.
'Jeez,' Carl said, 'I'm going to miss you people.'
'Us, too,' I said.
'I can't say I'm going to miss being nine zillion miles from home,' he added. 'I'm glad to be back. You can have the future. It's yours. I don't belong there.'
'Future? No such thing,' I said. 'No future, no past. Time is one big wide-open amusement park. We proved that.'
'Yeah, I guess.'
Lori was sniffling. I stroked her cheek and said, 'You're sure you want to stay, Lori?'
She pulled Carl closer. 'Yes. I'll put up with smog, tooth decay, and this character. There's really nothing for me back where I come from. I kind of like it here. This is a nice place… a nice time to be alive.'
I nodded. 'Yes, it is. It seems peaceful, in a way, compared with what history says about it.'
The eastern sky was growing milky. A few birds were tuning up in a nearby copse of sumac trees. Behind us the ship hovered silently; Arthur was standing by to take us away from Earth in the waning summer of a year long past.
Carl began, 'I wish…' He chewed his lip, thinking.
'What is it, Carl?' I asked.
'I wish there was some way of contacting you,' he said, then shook his head. 'Somehow, but… it's impossible. Right?'
'Send me a letter. Mark it: Jake McGraw; Postal Slot 7836, Administrative Zone Twelve, Vishnu, Colonial Planets. That's my address. Figure out a way to delay delivery for about a hundred and fifty years. Should be easy enough.'
Carl laughed. 'Yeah, sure.' Then he stopped laughing and had me repeat it. I did.
Arthur's voice came through the communicator. 'Are you quite ready?'
I walked over to Dave. 'Thanks,' I said, shaking his hand. 'We couldn't have done it without you.'
'I still think there's an outside chance that I've hallucinated this whole thing,' he said. 'By the way, Arthur doesn't look anything like Gort.' He stared at the ship for a moment, then sighed. 'The future. I've dreamed about it, written about it. And here it is, right in front of me. You know, Jake-you haven't really told me much about it.
