The rays of the morning sun woke me up. I did not see anyone elese in

the park except for some bums and a jogger. I got up,and decided to walk

back to the Dominion Hotel.

I went inside the lobby,and I saw a different guy than the one I saw

last night. the recongized him as Gomez Calhoun,the manager of the hotel.

He is a fat man with light brown hair.

"Excuse me,I am looking for a few friends of mine," I said to him.

He utterred something,but it is clear he did not understand English. It

was then that I noticed something.

A No-Smoking sign,with the familiar icon of a cigarette inside a circle

with a slahs bar. I saw it was written in several different languages.

Including Spanish. "NO FUMAR" it was written. Then it struck me. San

Francisco is a major port city. Many immigrants live in San Francisco. I

know that Chinese and Spanish are also spoken here. Maybe English is as

well.

A woman in a pink waitress's uniform walks up to me. She says,in

English,"Hello. How may I help you?"

"You speak English," I said to her. I looked at her. She is a bit

shorter than me,with reddish-brown hair.

"Only a little," she replied. "I'm not good."

"The name is Mallory," I said. "Colin Mallory. I want to see if Quinn

Mallory,Rembrandt Brown,or Maggie Beckett checked in here." I spoke

slowly,so she would understand.

The waitress speaks with Calhoun,who checks the computer. She comes

back to me and says,"No,they are not here."

"Well,I am leaving them a message. Do you have a notepad?"

"Notepad?"

"A paper."

The waitress goes to the desk and gets a piece of paper. I write down

this message.

"I was here at the Dominion. I don't have any currency for this world.

I will be here at the lobby during the day hours-Colin."

"Give this to Quinn Mallory,Rembrandt Brown,or Maggie Beckett," I said

to her. "Give this message to them if they ask for me."

"Okay," she replied. "I tell you my name. Wells. Wade Wells."

"Wade?" I asked. "Do you know Quinn?"

"I do not know Quinn," Wade replied.

"Is there a bookstore where they sell books written in English?" I asked.

"Books? English?" asks Wade. "Little England."

"Where is it?" I asked. "Point it to me on a map."

Wade takes me to the hotel gift sop. There are various items for

sale,from mugs and T-shirts. Wade takes a map of San Francisco,unfolds

it,and points to an area. I can see she is pointing to Lombard Street,just

a few blocks west of Van Ness Avenue.

"Thank you," I said.

"You're welcome," she replied. With that,I left the hotel to look for

an English bookstore.

As it turned out,Little England was an English neighborhood in San

Francisco. The store signs were written in English. I found a small

bookstore called Westminster Books.

I went in,and an employee said hi to me in English. I went to a shelf

marked "HISTORY",and I read about the history of this world. Every time we

slid,we checked out the history of the world we were in.

On this world,the Arabs colonized North America in 1367 (all datyes are

in the English calendar,the Arabs use a different calendar.). They quickly

spread west towards the Rockies. In 1689,they fought a war with Spain and

gained California and the territories west of the Rockies.

Soon afterward,there was a war for independence. The viceroys

governing the American colonies declared independence in 1692,and drove

out the armed forces of the Ottoman Empire,which were weakened by the war

with Spain. By 1700,the United Emirates of America established itself as

an independent country.

History went on in a similar fashion to the American history of Earth

Prime. Africans were imported as slaves. There were waves of immigration

from Europe and Asia. There was even a civil war becuase of the division

over slavery. In the end,the antislave southern emirates won and the emirs

who led the northeastern emirates to secede were publicly beheaded. (On

Earth Prime,the South supported slavery and lost the war.)

Currently,the United Emirates of America has a federal system. Each of

the fifty emirates are ruled by an emir who heads the emirate government.

The federal government was headed by a sultan,who,rules from a palace in

the Federal District of Saladin,which was named after the first Sultan.

The United Emirates cover a wide area,encompassing all of North America

north of the Mexican border.

I had always loved reading. I began reading even more since I started

sliding. My favorite part of sliding is reading the alternate histories of

parallel worlds. In most cases,I would go to the public library,but this

time I had to go to the bookstore on account that I can't read Arabic. All

I know is that somehow,I had to make money.

As it turned out,there was a job available. At the Dominion Hotel. I

had asked Wade if there were positions available for me,and she told me

Calhoun was hiring. It was,afdter all,the summer,and the hotel would be

busy.

"Calhoun only needs temporary workers," she said. "Business comes and

goes by the year. And temporary help can be paid below the table."

"You mean under the table," I said. "I just want room and baord and

some money."

As it turned out,Gomez Calhoun was very happy to hear about it. He said

some Arabic phrases. Wade told me that he is happy to have a worker for

the upcoming season,. As for the room,he did not mind. Wade told me I can

stay in the room at least until all reservations are filled.

"Wade," I said. "Did anyone come looking for me?"

"No," she replied. She left and went back to work. I looked at Wade. I

wondered how syurpirsed she would be to know the truth about me,and about

the part where one of her duplicates was sent to a breeder camp.

So I went to work. My job was cleaning the rooms and stuff with vacuum

cleaners and ammonia and other stuff. Calhoun would just write the room

number down and I would go clean it. I was assigned one of the cheap,lower

level rooms,which I kept tidy myself. Every morning,the hotel served a

free continental breakfast,with pastries and cereal. At lunch and dinner,I

was entitled to a small serving of food. I had never tasted Arabic food

before,and it was delicious. I would also greet the hotel guests. Most of

them did not understand English,but they understood I was greeting them.

At night,I would go to bed. sometimesd I would watch TV and tune it to the

Spanish channel,since I understand Spanish. At the end of each week,I was

paid in cash. Wade told me the currency was dinars. I still held on to my

three hundred dollars;I might need it someday.

One day,Wade told me that the hotel was totally booked and I had to

vacate my room while it was reserved. It appeared not a single room will

be available for me for at least four days.

"You can stay with me," she said. So that's what I did.

Her apartment was small. It had a living room,a bathroom,and two

bedrooms. She introduced me to her roommate,Stephanie Bowman,a

blond-haired lady who appeared to be about Wade's age.

"You can sleep on this," she said,pointing to the couch. I lied down.

As I closed my eyes,I can hear Wade and Stephanie talking in Arabic. I

could tell they were talking about me.

The next day,I went back to the Dominion to work again. I had some

spending money,and I decided to ask Wade something.

"Would you like to go out tonight?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied.

So that's what we did.

We went to a fish and chips place in the Little England neighborhood of

San Francisco. I did not make enoguh money to take her to a fancier

restaurant,so I took her here and ordered fish and chips. We sat down on a

table. There were stains on it. The place was not crowded,there was only

one other man sitting at the far side of the place.

"Mallory," said Wade. "Stephanie knew a Mallory."

"Quinn?" I asked.

"Yes," she replied. "They went to the university. Both of them."

"That was him," I said. "He's my brother. Dud you know him well?"

"No," she replied. "I was not close. Ask Stephanie."

"Does Stephanie speak English?"

"No,she doesn't. She chose Chinese."

"Oh. Tell me about yourself Wade. About what you want to do."

"I was born in San Francisco. Attended Northshore College. Major

Poetry. I studied English for three years. I am not good at it. I want to

write."

"an author?"

"Yes. I want to write English and Arabic."

"Maybe you will learn to speak English better."

"Maybe you learn Arabic," she said,smiling.

"I might have to. I need to see someone at the university where Quinn

and Stephanie attended."

"A girl?"

"No,a professor. I am not sure if he is still there. His name is

Maximilian Arturo."

"We will do that on the day off."