The-Man-Who-Folded-Himself-David-Gerrold
The-Man-Who-Folded-Himself-David-Gerrold
The-Man-Who-Folded-Himself-David-Gerrold
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* * *<br />
I felt like a kid with a ten-dollar bill in a candy store—no, like an adolescent with a hundred-dollar bill<br />
in a brothel.<br />
I was ready—but what should I do first? Possibilities cascaded across my mind like a stack of<br />
unopened presents. I was both eager and scared. My hand was nervous as I fumbled open the buckle. I<br />
eyed the readout plate warily. All the numbers had been cleared and were at zero; they gazed right back<br />
at me.<br />
Well, lets try something simple first. I touched the third button in the third row, setting the second row<br />
of controls for minutes, seconds and tenths of seconds. I tapped the first button in the second row twice:<br />
twenty minutes. I set the top right-hand button for Forward, the top left-hand button for Jump.<br />
I double-checked the numbers on the panel and closed the belt.<br />
Now. All I had to do was tap the upper right-hand corner of the buckle twice.<br />
<strong>The</strong> future waited.<br />
I swallowed once and tapped.<br />
• POP!—<br />
I staggered and straightened. I had forgotten about that. <strong>The</strong> instructions had warned that there would<br />
be a slight shock every time I jumped. It had something to do with forcing the air out of the space you<br />
were materializing in. It wasn’t bad though—I just hadn’t been expecting it. It was like scuffing your<br />
shoes on a rug and then touching metal, that kind of shock, but all over your whole body at once.<br />
Aside from that, I had no way of proving I was in the future.<br />
Oh, wait. Yes, I did. I was still wearing my wristwatch. It said 1:43. I strode into the kitchen and<br />
looked at the kitchen clock.<br />
It said 2:03.<br />
If the kitchen clock was to be believed, then the belt was real, and I had just traveled through time.<br />
Twenty minutes forward. Assuming the kitchen clock hadn’t suddenly—<br />
No! This had to be real. It was real. I had actually done it!<br />
I’d been sort of treating the whole thing as a game; not even the jump-shock had convinced me. That<br />
could have been faked by a battery in the belt. But this—I I knew my watch and I knew that kitchen<br />
clock; they couldn’t have been faked.<br />
I actually had a time machine. A real live, honestto-God working time machine.<br />
I took a deep breath and forced myself to be calm. I tried to force myself to be calm.<br />
I had a time machine. A real time machine. I had jumped twenty minutes forward. <strong>The</strong> room looked<br />
just the same, not even the quality of the afternoon sunlight had changed, but I knew I had jumped<br />
forward in time. <strong>The</strong> big question was what was I going to do next? I had to think about this—no<br />
problem, I had all the time in the world. I giggled when I realized that. Hmm. I knew. Suddenly I<br />
realized what I could do. I opened the belt and reset the control for twentyfour hours. Forward. I would<br />
pick up a copy of tomorrow’s paper, then bounce back and go to the race track today. I would make a<br />
fortune. I would—<br />
MIGOD! Why hadn’t I realized this—?<br />
I could be as rich as I wanted to be.