Without an S
by Ian Randal Strock
It started with The Rejection Letter (which, I suppose, seems backward, but then… well, keep reading).
Anyway, The Letter read, in fulclass="underline" “Dear Ian, I liked this story, but I’m afraid I have to reject it because of a matter of timelines. I bought one fairly similar to it the week before yours arrived. It isn’t close enough that you should worry about sending it elsewhere, but it is too close for me to publish both in Analog.”
But I wanted it to be in Analog! I reread the rejection letter a little more closely.
Now that I look back on the whole thing—in a retrospect which can be mine alone—the last word in the first sentence probably was a typo, but when I got the letter (which won’t happen, now), I read it as written. Timelines, rather than timeliness with an S.
That’s when I decided to rewrite the story, adding another timeline. It came out, I feel, much better than the original. I have no real way of knowing if Stan thinks it’s better, since after the rewrite he’ll never see my original version.
Anyway, I rewrote it, and put it in the back of a file drawer. My room is always a mess, so I had no fear of anyone else finding the original version, the new version, or the rejection letter. I put it in the drawer, let it languish, and proceeded to make enough money to fund a little research. Yes, you’ve probably figured out what type, after all this is a science fiction magazine.
I stepped into the time machine, traveled back to a time some two weeks before this story started, and handed myself the new version of the as-yet unwritten story.
I’d lived with science fiction so long that my younger self didn’t seem much surprised by my arrival. I/he took the brand new story on now-yellowed paper, retyped, and submitted it. Now you know where the early part of this narrative comes from.
Seeing what I look like in his future must have been kind of strange, but I/he can handle it. How’s that saying go? Reality is for people who can’t handle science fiction?
Anyway, having a good memory, I, as usual, didn’t bother to bring backup material. And that’s the only thing I regret in this little incident—the younger me will never see the original, because I didn’t bring it along. I/ he’ll never know what story will have prompted The Rejection Letter which in turn prompted this story.
If only Stan could handle timelines like his letter suggested, perhaps he could tell me…