Hugo Awards: The Short Stories (Volume 2)

by Anthology

  Her face went white. "A letter?"

  "A message," I said. "Not a letter."

  She looked relieved. "You know, he used to write me from the Navy. I never answered his letters. Johnny Wascomb. But what could it be about him? Never mind. Don't tell me. I will go with you."

  "I talked to my professor" said Hal, when he met me at the KwikPik after work. "He thinks it's probably some kind of artificial universe created by the wave motion of the lights on the posts. Very rare."

  "I should hope," I said. I couldn't imagine swapping worlds every time you went around a curve.

  "He says the reason everything looks sketchy is that our brains are wired for this universe. Whatever they see, they have to make it a version of this one. No matter how different it is. Do you think Ruth Ann will show?"

  At 9:06 Ruth Ann pulled up in her Volvo. She motioned me over to her window. "What's he doing here?"

  "He's part of the deal," I said.

  "I can't be seen with him. Isn't he some kind of a dope dealer?" Ervin, her husband, was a state senator. (Not the state senator, a state senator.)

  "Was," I lied. "Besides, I thought you were getting a divorce. Anyway, you have to come. I promised."

  "Promised who?"

  "Don't make me say it. It'll sound too crazy. Get in the front seat. I'll get in the back."

  We got into the Cavalier. "Long time no see," Hal said. "Guess we run in different circles."

  "I wouldn't know, I don't run in circles," said Ruth Ann. I had forgotten how obnoxious she could be.

  Hal drove out Old 19, toward Dead Man's Curve. I felt like I should prepare Ruth Ann but I didn't know where to start. She didn't give me time to figure it out. "Camilla, tell me what's going on," she said as we were heading up the bluff. "Right now or I'm getting out of the car." I had forgotten how bossy she could be.

  Hal turned into the old logging road at the top of the bluff. "Last night we talked to Wascomb," I said. "I know it sounds weird."

  "Is this some kind of Stephen King thing?" Ruth Ann said. "If it is, I'm getting out of the car right now!"

  Hal leaned over and opened her door. "Be my guest! Camilla, I'm warning you, she's going to mess up everything."

  "No!" I leaned up over the seat and shut her door. "It's not a Stephen King thing," I said. "It's--more like a love story."

  That shut her up. Hal backed out and turned around.

  "True love," I said. "The kind where love conquereth death."

  "Conquereth?" Hal was staring at me in the rear view mirror. I realized I had gone a little too far. "Put your seat belt on," I said.

  Hal drove down the hill at thirty, thirty-five. Ruth Ann started up again. "Dead Man's Curve? Are you two trying to scare me?"

  "Ruth Ann--"

  "If this is your idea of a thrill, it's totally pathetic," Ruth Ann said. "Johnny Wascomb took this curve at seventy-five, lots of times."

  "Ruth Ann, shut up," I said. "Just watch the hood ornament. The little cavalier."

  "It was fifty-nine," said Hal. Muttered Hal.

  Forty two. There was the wave, the undulating stream of white posts, and the world turned inside out like a sock, and there we were, in the white room. I would have breathed a sigh of relief except I wasn't breathing. If this wouldn't shut her up, nothing would.

  "Where are we?" Ruth Ann asked.

  "It's another world," Hal said.

  "Is this some weird Navy thing? Were they lying about the accident?" To shut her up, I stood and pulled her and Hal with me. I knew they would stand when I did. Through the wall we saw the endless ranges of hills.

  "Who owns all this?" Ruth Ann asked.

  I turned and, again, they turned with me. We faced the other wall and the endless rooms. Wascomb was standing there as if he had been waiting for us.

  "Omigod," said Ruth Ann. "Johnny. Is it really you?"

  "Not exactly. I'm dead. Who are you?"

  "It's me!"

  "You told us to bring her," I said.

  "Who told who what?"

  "You told us to bring her," Hal said. "Don't you remember?"

  "I told you, I'm dead," Wascomb said. "It's hard for me to remember things. It's not hard exactly. I just don't do it."

  "Do you want us to leave?" Hal asked. I could tell he was hoping. "We can take her back with us."

  "Back where?"

  "Johnny, stop it!" screamed Ruth Ann. Her scream shook the whole universe.

  "Ruth Ann?" said Wascomb. "I wanted to bring you here but I sold my GTO. You got mad because I showed the guys your bra in the glove compartment. I can't believe I sold that car."

  "Johnny, are you really dead? The casket was closed at the funeral. I'm sorry I didn't answer your letters."

  "What letters?"

  "You sent me one a day for weeks. Or was it one a week for months? Don't you remember?"

  "I can remember how to unhook your bra with one hand. But I can't remember you. All I remember is being dead. Once you're here, you've been here forever. Once you're dead you're always dead, forward and back. I think."

  "Let's get out of here," Hal said. I had to agree. He and I both turned back toward the other wall. Ruth Ann turned with us. The sky was dark and yet bright, like a negative. The hills were white, but dark.

  "What happened to Johnny?" Ruth Ann asked.

  "I don't know," I lied. I looked at Hal beside me and he leaned back toward the bench, but it was a wall, and we slipped through it into a darkness that turned out to be leaves, and trees, and we were stopped again at the stop sign. Bullet holes and all.

  "Take me home," said Ruth Ann. I couldn't tell if she was mad or what, the way she was blubbering. "Right this minute!"

  FIVE

  The next day was Sunday, the day I work twelve hours straight. When I got to the KwikPik at 7:00 a.m., Hal was there, looking worried.

  "I told you she was crazy," Hal said. "What do you think she'll do?"

  "Ruth Ann? She won't do anything."

  "Are you kidding? She was sobbing all the way home, then like a zombie when she went into the house. You don't think that husband of hers will notice? He could get me kicked out of school."

  "They're getting a divorce anyway," I said. "And how can you get kicked out of school when you're only taking one class?"

  "Two."

  I could see he was irrational, so I changed the subject. "Speaking of school, did you talk to your professor?"

  "Yes, I told you, he says it's probably a pocket universe. They twist off the main universe, like bubbles."

  "The main universe?"

  "He's calling in sick on his other job so he can come with us tonight."

  "Tonight?"

  "He's afraid to wait. He's afraid it might disappear or something. He wants to check it out first-hand. I might get extra credit."

  "What does this guy teach? I thought you were studying business."

  "His course is called Non-Spatial Strategies. It's a marketing course. He just throws in a little physics, because that was his minor. He wants to make a video."

  "Don't turn around," I said.

  Ruth Ann had just driven up, or rather her husband had driven her up, in their new Volvo 740 Turbo with Intercooler. Whatever that is. "Ruth Ann's getting out of the car," I said. "From the way she's dressed, they're on their way to church. She's coming in the door."

  "Camilla," she said. "And you. Are you everywhere? I told Ervin I was just coming in to get some cigarettes." She burst into tears.

  "Good lord, Ruth Ann," I said. "What's the matter?" Ervin waved from the car and I waved back. He's a state senator. They wave at everybody.

  "The matter? Do you realize I spoke to my only true love last night? I found him in the land where love never dies."

  "Ruth Ann, you're talking like a song on the radio," I said. It wasn't intended as a compliment.

  "It's just a pocket universe," Hal said.

  "There just happens to be a guy in it who just happens to be my first love."

&n
bsp; "You dumped him, remember?" I said. "Besides, Ruth Ann, he's dead." Ruth Ann burst into tears again. This time she dropped her money all over the floor. Hal bent down to pick it up. Always the gentleman. "I told you she was crazy," he said. Muttered.

  "Is he talking about me? Camilla, I can't let Ervin see me crying. Act like we're laughing. Let him see you smile. Good."

  All the time she was ordering me around, she was crying. Hal handed her her money and she said, "Now, tell me, when are we going back? Tonight?"

  "We're not going back," Hal said. "It's been declared off-limits. By the Navy."

  "Let me handle this, Hal," I said. He left, not bothering to speak to Ervin. They lived in two different worlds. Ruth Ann lit a cigarette.

  "You can't smoke in the store," I said. She ignored me.

  "Camilla, where is Johnny? How do I get back there?"

  I explained the pocket universe theory, as best I could. "It's some sort of artificial universe," I said. "Apparently if you have ever been there, you are always there; or you go back there after you are dead. Or something. Wascomb's the only one there. It's his universe, I guess."

  "Does that mean we'll go back there after we're dead?"

  "I don't know," I said. I hoped not. "You get there by going around Dead Man's Curve."

  "No, you don't, I tried it," she said. "I tried every different speed in the Volvo last night."

  "After we dropped you off?"

  "Of course. I went back. I wanted to be alone with Johnny. I tried both directions. Up, down."

  "It only works in certain cars," I said. "It has to do with the lights, and maybe the sound. Hal's Cavalier has a bad transmission whine. I don't remember Wascomb's GTO."

  "I do," said Ruth Ann. "I never told anybody this, Camilla, but I lost my virginity in that car."

  I didn't know what to say. It wasn't such a big secret. Those Wascomb hadn't told, had figured it out on their own.

  "Would Hal loan me his Cavalier? I could buy it from him. I have my own money."

  "Ruth Ann, this is crazy."

  "Camilla, did you ever dump somebody and then want them back? Well, answer me. Did you ever think you would give anything to--"

  "Ruth Ann, Wascomb is dead."

  "Camilla, are you trying to make me scream? If you think I won't scream because I'm in a store--"

  "All right, all right," I said. "Hal is picking me up after work at eight. Be here and I'll work it out somehow."

  SIX

  "What's she doing here?" Hal asked. "That's the professor?" I asked him in turn. An enormous fat man in a Geo Metro had just pulled in behind the Cavalier. He looked familiar.

  "Come over here, I'll introduce you. Professor (he said some name), this is my colleague, Camilla Perry."

  "And that's my cousin Ruth Ann Embry in the Volvo," I said.

  "She's not going with us," Hal said to the professor. "There's not room for four."

  "Hal, she's as much a part of this as I am," I said. "It's Wascomb's universe, after all. He asked for her."

  "Wascomb's universe?" That got him mad. "If it's Wascomb's universe, how come I own the only car that goes to it?"

  Ruth Ann got out of the Volvo. She was wearing a denim jacket. I had to admit she looked good, whatever she wore.

  "Not room for four?" the professor said. "Are you talking about the car, or the universe? Theoretically, a pocket universe can hold any number of people. The problem is getting into it."

  His problem was getting into the Cavalier. He looked into the back seat uncertainly. "Ruth Ann and I will get in the back," I said. He got in the front with Hal. We drove out of town on Old 19.

  "Did Hal explain my pocket universe theory?" the professor said.

  "Tell us again," Ruth Ann said.

  "My theory is that they are accidental wave forms, generated by aural and visual interference patterns and pinched off like bubbles from this universe. About the size of a basketball."

  "Now I know where I've seen you," I said. "Didn't you used to manage the driving range out on Oldham Road?"

  "Still do,"

  My last boy friend was a golf nut. I still had his clubs under my bed. But enough about him. "If it's the size of a baseball, how are we all going to fit in it?" Ruth Ann asked.

  "Basketball," the professor said. "And that's just from the outside. On the inside, it can be as big as it needs to be. Our Universe is about the size of a basketball too, from the outside. If we could get outside it to take a look at it. The problem is getting outside one universe without immediately getting into another one. Do you follow me?"

  "No."

  "According to the professor, everything's about the size of a basketball," Hal said.

  That makes him the biggest thing in creation, I thought.

  We were heading up the bluff. "Why are you putting on lipstick?" I whispered to Ruth Ann. "And why are you filming her?" I asked the professor.

  "Videotaping," the professor said. "This is a scientific experiment. I have to document everything," He was turned around in his seat with his camcorder on his shoulder. Ruth Ann was combing her hair. Hal pulled into the logging road to turn around. It was dark back in the trees.

  "Why are we stopping?" the professor asked. "Is this some kind of Stephen King thing?"

  "I'm beginning to think so," Hal said. Muttered. I could tell he was angry that Ruth Ann was along.

  "Here we go," Hal said. The professor turned around and started videotaping through the windshield. We started down the bluff, around Dead Man's Curve at forty-two. The posts started flickering past. Ruth Ann started to fool with the buttons on her denim jacket. The wave started flickering, and the world turned inside out like a sock, and there we were. In the white room.

  "Where's the professor?" I wondered. I stood. Hal and Ruth Ann stood with me. There were only the three of us.

  "Maybe he couldn't fit through," Ruth Ann said.

  I wanted to look out the window at the hills but I was turning instead, toward the other room. Ruth Ann was turning us with her. Wascomb waited exactly as we had left him.

  "Mother?" he asked.

  "Ruth Ann," Ruth Ann said. "Don't you remember me? Never mind. I came to take you back."

  "Back where?"

  "There is another world," Hal said. "The real world."

  "Hal," I said. "He's dead. Why rub it in?"

  "You both stay out of this!" Ruth Ann said.

  "What's so real about it?" Wascomb asked. "Are you guys in the Navy."

  "Johnny, I brought you something," Ruth Ann said. "Two friends of yours."

  I thought she meant Hal and I. Then I realized she had finished unbuttoning her jacket. I tried to see her body but there was nothing there. When I stared long enough it sketched itself in, but it was too vague.

  "Remember them?" she said again. "You used to call them Ben and Jerry."

  "Ruth Ann!" I said.

  "Ruth Ann, I've been dead for a long time," Wascomb said.

  "I'll make you remember me," Ruth Ann said. She stepped forward, toward the other room--and as one person Hal and I both pulled back, alarmed. We fell through into darkness.

  "Hooonnnnk! Hoooooinnnk!"

  A car sped by, barely missing the front of the Cavalier, which was sticking out past the stop sign onto River Road. "What happened?" Ruth Ann asked. She was buttoning her denim jacket. The professor was leaning over the back of the seat, videotaping her every move.

  "What happened was, you almost got us killed!" Hal said. Yelled. Screamed.

  We took Ruth Ann back to the KwikPik to get her Volvo. She got out of the car without a word. I offered to drive her home but she just shook her head and drove off.

  "What happened to you?" Hal asked the professor.

  "I didn't go through," he said. "But I got what I wanted. I have it documented."

  We went to Hal's and played the tape on his VCR. It showed Ruth Ann putting on her lipstick. It showed Hal driving and looking annoyed. Then there were the posts in the headlights, flic
kering past. There was another shot of Hal driving. Then of me and Ruth Ann in the back seat. Ruth Ann was unbuttoning her denim jacket. She wasn't wearing anything underneath it, not even a bra. The camera zoomed in on her breasts. The screen flickered, then showed the stop sign.

  "Pretty average tits for a Homecoming Queen," Hal said.

  "Knock it off," I said. "She may be a lunatic but she's my cousin. Anyway, I thought this was a scientific experiment."

  "It was," the professor said. "And it worked." He rewound to where Ruth Ann unbuttoned her jacket. "Watch the numbers this time, at the bottom corner of the screen." The camera zoomed in on Ruth Ann's breasts again. The whole sequence lasted eight seconds. Three of them were blank.

  8:04:26 (breasts)

  8:04:27 (breasts)

  8:04:28 (blank)

  8:04:29 (blank)

  8:04:30 (blank)

  8:04:31 (breasts)

  8:04:32 (breasts)

  "She disappeared for three seconds," the professor said.

  "That means we disappeared too," I said.

  "I wasn't documenting that. The point is, she was gone and the video proves it, at least to me. It implies the existence of the pocket universe, at least indirectly. I'll need more documentation, though. The next problem is, how do I get through personally?"

  "Just follow the bouncing boobs," Hal said.

  "Knock it off, I said," I said. "You have to be watching the white wave. The posts. The little cavalier on the hood. That's what you should have been filming."

  "Videotaping."

  "Whatever. Anyway, how could it have only lasted three seconds? It sure felt like a lot longer than that."

  "Haven't you ever heard of relativity?" Hal asked.

  "Time in a pocket universe doesn't really connect with time here," the professor said. "The pocket universe could have just squeezed off a microsecond here, then divided it up into a million parts there, which would seem like twenty minutes to you. It's all subjective. That's why it seems like eternity to your friend in there, whereas it's probably only been only two or three minutes altogether. See what I mean?"

  "No. You mean there's life after death but it only lasts a couple of minutes?"

  "Tops. But it seems like eternity. Meanwhile, can we try again tomorrow night?"

  I was game. So was Hal, as long as Ruth Ann didn't come along. I left Hal and the professor watching reruns of Ruth Ann's tits and walked home to watch Unsolved Mysteries. After, I sat outside and smoked a cigarette. I wondered if my last boyfriend was ever coming back. I wondered what Wascomb was doing. Probably the same thing I was. I decided one more trip would be enough for me.