In the Cards
By ALAN COGAN
Illustrated by EMSH
[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science FictionJune 1956. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The first thing I did when I bought my Grundy Projector was take a tripto about two years ahead and see what was going to happen to me.Everyone was doing it around that time; students were taking short tripsinto the future to learn whether or not they would pass their exams,married couples were looking ahead to see how many kids they were goingto have, businessmen were going into the future to size up theirprospects.
I took the trip because I was getting married and I couldn't resist thetemptation of finding out how things would work out with my fianceeMarge and myself. Not that I had any doubts about Marge, but the GrundyProjectors were guaranteed harmless and there's no point in takingchances with a serious step like marriage.
Everybody was looking ahead then. Within a week after the GrundyProjectors were introduced, you could walk past homes every evening andsee people with those shimmering bird-cages around them. Their bodieswere there, but heaven knows when their minds were—months and ofteneven years ahead of time.
I knew exactly when to go on my first time trip. I even knew where: I'dalready put a down payment on a home in the new dome housing area whereMarge and I would be living after the wedding. Knowing where to go on atime trip is important. On this one, for instance, I hadn't beenassigned an address yet and there were all sorts of changes in theplace—buildings and streets where there had only been empty lots andsections marked off by string—and I just had to hunt until I came toour home.
You can imagine how much more difficult finding my future self would beif I hadn't known the exact location. That's about the only majordrawback 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 themtogether if your crews can't ask questions or touch filing cards or evenopen future visiphone books?
Eventually, after setting the dial around the two-year mark, which isabout the maximum limit on most models, I found myself in my future homein the dome housing area. I was watching myself as I would be and Margeas she would be. Only I didn't like what I saw.
We were fighting and screaming at each other. You could tell at a glancethat we hated each other. And after only two years!
I was completely stunned as I watched that scene. Future Marge lookedfurious; she had the kind of look I never even suspected she could geton her face. But I think I was more enraged at my future self than ather. At the time, I was seriously in love with Marge—although it seemedevident it wasn't going to last—and I loathed myself for acting thatway 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 selvesbattling it out.
I became conscious of not being alone as I watched. It didn't take longto discover that it was Marge who had come to join me. I should haveexpected her—she must have been just as curious about he