Bantam was kicked onto his back. The Clanker took aim at him and fired …
It had all happened so fast —!
At that split second, the Timewave detonated, collapsed. As Bantam watched in horror, the capsule imploded, screeching metal bending inward … and then it was vaporized.
Rachelle!
But a new rebound wave of some sort expanded outward from the central point of the implosion, a ripple in the fabric of space-time. The MacLaren Army Base that Bantam had come to know — that beautiful, magical place! — transmuted by degrees into the MacLaren Army Base of his own world. Growlers morphed into cars. Clankers became tanks. And dirigibles became airplanes. Power lines hung from telephone poles. Electric lights lit up the night.
Rachelle!
Bantam looked down. He was still holding the package
And he was back in his own timeline … but marooned in 1944.
=================
Eleven: Mobius
«AND SO I have lived, from that day to this," Bantam concluded.
Sabine sat stunned and silent. «But didn't you ever try to change anything?»
«No," Bantam said quietly and seriously. «If you'd been responsible for billions of unpeople, if you'd erased living souls from history, even accidentally … you would be very cautious about anything you did after that. No. Until today, that is. Only after today am I free to intervene in the history of the world once again.»
«But you were stuck in 1944 … what did you do?»
«Well the years yawned on ahead of me — years without Rachelle, which sent me into a tailspin of depression for which there was really only one cure: I joined the Army. For the second time, of course.
«When I suddenly appeared at MacLaren in our own 1944, everything was familiar to me. I knew all the buildings. I knew where the new recruit barracks were. So I slipped in with them and pretended I'd only just arrived on the latest bus. During the chaos of the war, there were always new faces on base, and no one really questioned missing paperwork or the like — men were needed, soldiers, and that was what mattered.»
«So you fought in World War II?»
Bantam nodded. «I saw a year of action in the Pacific theater. Then I came home to MacLaren and served out the rest of my time. After that, I drifted around the country, doing odd jobs. But then, starting in the 70's, I used my knowledge of the future to play the stock market. I became wealthy and didn't have to work after that. I spent
«You never got married?» Sabine asked.
«No," Bantam smiled.
«Why?»
«I met a man in Rome once. His name was Mimmo. A charming man, a sweet man. He ran a restaurant called Taverna Flavia — it was all the rage in the 60's and 70's. Anyway, he was in love with Elizabeth Taylor. He had whole rooms — shrines, really — filled floor to ceiling with pictures and things she had once owned. He never stood a chance with her, of course, and he knew it. But he didn't care. He loved her. And he never married or looked at another woman again. As he explained this to me, I knew exactly how he felt. We toasted to this. Your grandmother was that for me.»
«What happened to all the girls, girls and more girls?» Sabine said with a sly smile.
«Ah," Bantam said. «They all paled after Rachelle Archenstone. I couldn't go back to that again.»
«So, did you ever … you know, like … run into yourself? Or see yourself as a kid or something?»
«I confess, only once," Bantam said. «I have no memory of seeing myself as an old man or speaking to myself, so never when I was older. But I did sit in the parking lot of the hospital on the day of my birth. I saw my mother — pregnant with me! — and my father as they pulled up and walked inside. And then I left: anything more was too risky in my view.»
«That had to have been weird.»
«It was. And kind of cool at the same time.»
«You really are my age," Sabine said, looking at him as if for the first time. «It's like you're just wearing old-man makeup. What's it feel like? To be old?»
«Put on a heavy jacket and oversized shoes. It feels like that all the time. Except for today. Today, I feel reborn.»
Sabine seemed lost in thought for a moment. Then she asked, «One thing doesn't make sense though. If my great-grandmother was like, erased or whatever … then how come I'm here? Wouldn't my mother and me be erased as well?»
Bantam smiled. «Ah. I was coming to that.
«While I was doing a carpentry gig in a Colorado mountain town, I spotted a familiar face on the Main Street boardwalk. I could scarcely believe my eyes: it was Cliff Cleveland! I approached carefully. It was clearly him — but a different version of him, a much more subdued and somewhat broken down version. This Cleveland was a working man, a painter. He looked up at me. No recognition in his eyes. We made smalltalk for five minutes … he was waiting for his wife and little girl he said and pulled out a smoke. And then … then I got the shock of my life.
«Out from the corner store came Rachelle Archenstone. A little girl dangled from one hand. At once, I knew that it was Cliff and Rachelle's child: the resemblance was unmistakable.»
«And that little girl was my grandmother," Sabine breathed. «Wasn't she?»
Bantam nodded. «While I stood there in pure shock, Cliff introduced me to 'his wife, Rachelle and girl, Lily.' When Rachelle's lightning-blue eyes rose to meet mine, I thought I would die of a heart attack. Again, no recognition, none whatsoever. Why would there be? Still, it iced the heart.
«Somehow, her parents had still met — despite there being no Day of the Red Sun in our world. How, I have no idea. The story her mother told her in that other world could have been a lie. Maybe her mother became pregnant out of wedlock and a fiction was concocted for public consumption — that sort of whitewashing was common in those days.
«Yet here was Rachelle, right in front me! But I saw at once that she was not well. Her skin was sallow and waxy … and I saw, to my horror, the early stages of The Shadow on her arms and legs.
«She must have seen the expression on my face because she said, 'Oh it's not catching. Don't worry. It's a rare disease, but it's not catching.' And then she smiled a smile that broke my heart right there.
«Over the next few weeks, the Clevelands had me over for dinner several times. Lily and her puppy took me right away. And Cleveland even perked up a little bit in my presence, glimmers of the Cleveland I knew in that other world sometimes appeared. For example, he was enamored with flight and anything related to astronomy. Sure, this Cleveland was no astronaut, but the makings were still there.»
«How did you feel about that?» Sabine asked. «I mean … Rachelle being with Cliff?»
Bantam shrugged. «I guess I was okay with it. If she had to be with someone other than me, I was just glad it was him.
«Anyway, during those weeks, Rachelle took a turn for the worse. The Shadow began to consume her visibly: I knew all the signs. Cleveland told me confidentially that she had been a scientist during the war … and that she'd worked on a biological weapon and was accidentally exposed. There was a cure, and she'd taken that cure in time to arrest the contagious stage of the disease … but not in time to save her own life.
«It wasn't long, of course, until she died. This was around 1955 — far too young. I was at her funeral — Cliff and I, both weeping … and Cliff not fully understanding why her death would affect me to such a degree.
«Over the years, I visited a gravestone marked Rachelle Cleveland. There was buried the love of my love, who had both loved me in return and had never known me. I gently cleared the moss away from the grooves of the engravings left her flowers. And when Cliff Cleveland's headstone appeared next to hers in the early 1960's, I did the same for him.
«And I looked after young Lily from a distance, always careful not to interfere too much. Mostly, I observed from afar and made sure she was all right in general.