I dreamt I was floating in sea of colored lights. Images appeared everywhere. I tried to move,but there was nothing to push against.
"Quinn!" I shouted. "Rembrandt! Maggie!" No answer. I just floated
there is the nothingness.
Suddenly,I was awakened by a scream. I loked up and saw Wade
Wells,dressed in a maid's uniform.
"Wade," I said. "Good morning."
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked.
"Am I in the wrong room?"
"Yes you are in the wrong room. This is supposed to be vacant."
"Did Mister Calhoun forget to mark this room as occupied."
"Who are you?"
"You know me. Colin Mallory. I work here. I started just a few weeks ago."
"Well,I do not know any Colin Mallory," she said. "Get out before I
call the police."
"Your English is better."
"Of course it is. This is America,pal."
I immediately ran outside the room,down the hallway to the elevator. I pressed the button fgor the lobby and seconds later,I was at the lobby. I rushed out,bearly running into a guest. I looked out on the scene of Van
Ness Avenue,with the cars driving down thre streets and a streetcar
running down the track.
that is when I noticed. The store signs were in English. The sign above the hotel read "DOMINION HOTEL" The advertising billboards on the cable cars are also in English. So were the street signs. No trace of Arabic
writing was anywhere in the area.
There is no way anyone can change all the signs into English overnight.
The only explanation was I slid while I slept.
But then,where are Quinn,Rembrandt,and Maggie? If they found just in time for the slide,they would have taken me to the lobby and woken me up.
I looked into the lobby. I can see Gomez Calhoun speaking to Wade. In English. This was a deep mystery for me.
After standing in front of the Dominion,I pout myself together and did
the usual. First,I went to the phonbe to look for any alternates in the
phone book.
The names of my parents,Michael and Elizabeth Mallory,were listed. there is no spearate listing for Quinn. No listing for Rembrandt Brown. I already knew that Wade existed in this world,from my encoubnter in the
hotel. I boarded a cable car on Van Ness Avenue and went to my next destination. The San Francisco Public Library.
I went inside the public library. It was huge,with hundreds of shelves and thousands of books. I went to a computer terminal to access the directory. I searched for the subject "American History" and found 1456 entries. I went upstairs and I searched through the shelves looking for the call number of the book. I took out a book published in 1997. It was a book written in the format of a college textbook.
Early American history was uninteresting. There was an American Revolution just like on Earth Prime. there was a list of U.S. Presidents
and a listing of historical events like the expansion westward,but nothing standing out.
It was the Recent American History that stood out. IN 1941,the United States of America declared war on Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The National Socialist Republic of Germany delcared war on the United States. Quinn told me about that,and in Earth Prime's history,Japan and Germany was defeated.
But this was different. The Germans repelled the 1944 invasion of Normandy during thre Second World War. Adolf Hitler,the Fuhrer of
Germany,focused his land forces on Russia,and Russia fell to the Nazis. The war continued for one year. Then on August 6,1945,the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima,Japan. Germany,in response,loaded two V-2 rockets with atomic bombs and destroyed New York City and Boston. With Japan and Great Britain withdrawing from the war,it was between the United States and Nazi Germany. There were a few sea battles,but the U.S. failed to liberate France. In 1947,the U.S. and Germany signed a truce which
ended the war. Both countries concentrated on building up their military forces for the day when the war would erupt between the two superpowers. Both superpowers were involved in conflicts in the Middle East and South
America. They both established space programs,with Germany clearly in the
lead. On April 20,1966-Adolf Hitler's seventy-seventh birthday-a German astronaut landed on the moon and planted the swastika flag on the ground. Hitler used this event as an example of Aryan superiority.
Now that I have had a rough overview of the world, I set out to find my brother's duplicate on this world. Since he is not listed in San Francisco, maybe I could find him on the Internet.
There were several computers in the library for Internet access. A sign read that access is allowed for thirty minutes per user. I went to whitepages.com, which exists on this world. After that I got a phone listing for Quinn Mallory. He lived in Long Beach, and his number was (562) 433-6985.
So now I have to get to Long Beach. I went to another room in the library, which had a bunch of maps. I looked at a map of California.
It looked like I was in for a four hundred mile journey south. Walking was not an option, and the money I earned from cleaning the hotel was not useful on this world.
Minutes later, I was standing on the onramp of U.S. 101, sticking my thumb out for a ride. A Peterbilt truck stopped and the driver called out.
"I'm heading south," I said.
"Take you as far down as Salinas," said the driver. "Remember this. I have a gun, so no funny business."
I hopped into the cab and we headed south on the 101.
"Quinn!" I shouted. "Rembrandt! Maggie!" No answer. I just floated
there is the nothingness.
Suddenly,I was awakened by a scream. I loked up and saw Wade
Wells,dressed in a maid's uniform.
"Wade," I said. "Good morning."
"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked.
"Am I in the wrong room?"
"Yes you are in the wrong room. This is supposed to be vacant."
"Did Mister Calhoun forget to mark this room as occupied."
"Who are you?"
"You know me. Colin Mallory. I work here. I started just a few weeks ago."
"Well,I do not know any Colin Mallory," she said. "Get out before I
call the police."
"Your English is better."
"Of course it is. This is America,pal."
I immediately ran outside the room,down the hallway to the elevator. I pressed the button fgor the lobby and seconds later,I was at the lobby. I rushed out,bearly running into a guest. I looked out on the scene of Van
Ness Avenue,with the cars driving down thre streets and a streetcar
running down the track.
that is when I noticed. The store signs were in English. The sign above the hotel read "DOMINION HOTEL" The advertising billboards on the cable cars are also in English. So were the street signs. No trace of Arabic
writing was anywhere in the area.
There is no way anyone can change all the signs into English overnight.
The only explanation was I slid while I slept.
But then,where are Quinn,Rembrandt,and Maggie? If they found just in time for the slide,they would have taken me to the lobby and woken me up.
I looked into the lobby. I can see Gomez Calhoun speaking to Wade. In English. This was a deep mystery for me.
After standing in front of the Dominion,I pout myself together and did
the usual. First,I went to the phonbe to look for any alternates in the
phone book.
The names of my parents,Michael and Elizabeth Mallory,were listed. there is no spearate listing for Quinn. No listing for Rembrandt Brown. I already knew that Wade existed in this world,from my encoubnter in the
hotel. I boarded a cable car on Van Ness Avenue and went to my next destination. The San Francisco Public Library.
I went inside the public library. It was huge,with hundreds of shelves and thousands of books. I went to a computer terminal to access the directory. I searched for the subject "American History" and found 1456 entries. I went upstairs and I searched through the shelves looking for the call number of the book. I took out a book published in 1997. It was a book written in the format of a college textbook.
Early American history was uninteresting. There was an American Revolution just like on Earth Prime. there was a list of U.S. Presidents
and a listing of historical events like the expansion westward,but nothing standing out.
It was the Recent American History that stood out. IN 1941,the United States of America declared war on Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The National Socialist Republic of Germany delcared war on the United States. Quinn told me about that,and in Earth Prime's history,Japan and Germany was defeated.
But this was different. The Germans repelled the 1944 invasion of Normandy during thre Second World War. Adolf Hitler,the Fuhrer of
Germany,focused his land forces on Russia,and Russia fell to the Nazis. The war continued for one year. Then on August 6,1945,the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima,Japan. Germany,in response,loaded two V-2 rockets with atomic bombs and destroyed New York City and Boston. With Japan and Great Britain withdrawing from the war,it was between the United States and Nazi Germany. There were a few sea battles,but the U.S. failed to liberate France. In 1947,the U.S. and Germany signed a truce which
ended the war. Both countries concentrated on building up their military forces for the day when the war would erupt between the two superpowers. Both superpowers were involved in conflicts in the Middle East and South
America. They both established space programs,with Germany clearly in the
lead. On April 20,1966-Adolf Hitler's seventy-seventh birthday-a German astronaut landed on the moon and planted the swastika flag on the ground. Hitler used this event as an example of Aryan superiority.
Now that I have had a rough overview of the world, I set out to find my brother's duplicate on this world. Since he is not listed in San Francisco, maybe I could find him on the Internet.
There were several computers in the library for Internet access. A sign read that access is allowed for thirty minutes per user. I went to whitepages.com, which exists on this world. After that I got a phone listing for Quinn Mallory. He lived in Long Beach, and his number was (562) 433-6985.
So now I have to get to Long Beach. I went to another room in the library, which had a bunch of maps. I looked at a map of California.
It looked like I was in for a four hundred mile journey south. Walking was not an option, and the money I earned from cleaning the hotel was not useful on this world.
Minutes later, I was standing on the onramp of U.S. 101, sticking my thumb out for a ride. A Peterbilt truck stopped and the driver called out.
"I'm heading south," I said.
"Take you as far down as Salinas," said the driver. "Remember this. I have a gun, so no funny business."
I hopped into the cab and we headed south on the 101.
