Chapter 92 — The Man at The Door
The Curve of Time, Chapter 92 —— The Man at The Door, in which trouble of the outside world becomes unavoidable.
Followed by some reflections on guns.
Listen to full episode :
— 92 —
The Man at The Door
The banging on Mica’s front door did not feel benign, and Sienna followed Mica to her entryway.
Mica opened the door to a slender man, who, despite his build radiated the threatening menace of a catatonic crazy person.
The man placed a shaking hand on the door. “Where is Saskia Pollack?” he demanded.
Even from behind Mica, Sienna balked.
The man noticed Sienna’s flinch. “You!” He barged forward.
“Hey,” Mica shouted.
“No,” Sienna protested. “I’m not her.”
“You killed my wife!”
Mica stepped between Sienna and the man. “Sir, you——”
But with venom in his eyes, the man shoved Mica aside and he pointed savagely at Sienna. “You’re the one who started everything.”
Sienna took a step back, as Mica, recovering her balance, grabbed the man’s arm. “Hey!”
The man swung around on Mica, “And you! It’s all just a good story for you!”
“Whoa!” But even as she pushed back on the man, Sienna’s attention swung to Mica. “What’s he——?”
“My wife,” the man shouted. “She was”——and again his eyes swung back on Sienna——“You killed her.” He was jabbing his finger at Sienna. “‘Just one lottery win’, she said. And now she’s gone!”
“How?” Sienna stumbled for words. “She’s dead?”
“Dead?!” the man exploded. “I didn’t say ‘dead’. If she was dead, I’d have her body.”
“I,” Sienna struggled to piece his meaning together. “I don’t know your wife.”
Behind her, a glass hit the floor in the kitchen.
Sienna turned to see Wassily, and then back to the man——
Who also saw Wassily. The man reached into his jacket pocket. His hand emerging with a gun.
“Oh shit!” Mica exclaimed as the man swung the gun on Sienna.
“No!” Wassily screamed.
“Wait!” Sienna screeched, her feet paralyzed. “Stop!”
She had never liked guns. Not on the news. Not on the hips of the security guards at the offices of her first job, back when AI was the hot new thing.
She never imagined she’d encounter one in the hands of a man in the midst of a psychotic meltdown. But they were easy to access.
The black hole of the muzzle mesmerized her, as the world had turned into cold molasses. Time was warping. And, still, there was no time to react.
Wait! She could control time.
She could stop this!
But it was too late.
The gunshot rung out, and everything went black.
That was chapter 92, Friends, I hope you enjoyed it!
I have to admit that it’s one I feel troubled by, on many levels.
Guns in general trouble me deeply. They make catastrophic actions far too easy to take, and in literature, they are an “easy” way to eliminate a character through malice.
Part of me feels a little cheap for having resorted to one here, but they are (mostly for the worse) a part of the world we live in. And, in story, they move the action forward dramatically, if in a somewhat sanitized way. And I really do mean sanitized; they’re a quick shorthand to remove a character, and though one can dwell on the gruesome details, that is not this story.
Unfortunately, they open the door to dramatic escalations, with very real-world impacts and it irks me to use them here without acknowledging those devastating consequences. What can I say? There’s a reason Hollywood——where life and death happen far more frequently than in the real world——loves them.
In any case, the world is complex, and sometimes you find yourself in bed with partners that don’t make sense.
My queasy feelings aside, from a story perspective, I actually love what this chapter has done. It’s brought the consequences of time travel to one of our heroine’s front doors. It’s a dramatic upping of the ante. And it means Saskia has no choice but to face the problems.
To see how it all pans out you’ll just have to wait for the next chapter.
Until next week, be kind to someone and keep an eye out for the ripples of joy you’ve seeded.
Cheerio
Rufus
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