Part Three

Part Four

Passages

So, it seems I'll be going back in time with this incredible, beautiful, stunning woman who claims to be my lover. Even though I've never met her before. In this time line. Or something like that.

The real problem seems to be this: How do we actually go back in time? I mean, how do you do that? The only answer I've been able to come up with was to go see my friend 3D.EXE. I'm not sure he can do anything but he might know someone who can.

Which is why, right now, Amber and I are driving north on 35W, going to Haltom City to see 3D.

After getting dressed (made more difficult than usual because of the nearby presence of Amber, if you know what I mean), we piled into my old Toyota Tercel, push started it out of the parking lot, and began our journey. I live on the southwest side of Fort Worth, and Haltom City is on the northeast side, so I know we'll be here for a good half hour or more, depending on traffic.

"Is it okay if I smoke in your car?" Amber asked, looking at me with those incredibly deep, dark
eyes -- what color are they again?

"Sure," I answer. Then, to myself, 'You can do anything you want in my car.'

She withdrew a long, blue cigarette from her blue purse, flicked her fingers and lit the tip. I was positive this time...no lighter. As she inhaled I was struck again with the rise and fall of her breasts.

"So tell me about this 3D guy," she said. "What's he like?"

"Well, I've known him for about two years, but he's not the kind of guy you really get to know well. He keeps to himself. Always playing with his computers and shit. Why, didn't I know him in your reality?"

She blew a cloud of smoke out the car window. "No," she said, "but then there are quite a few differences between the John I fell in love with and you."

"How so?" I asked, as I saw my hopes of exploring this lover possibility slip farther away.

"Little things, like the fact that you had a nose ring and smoked cigars, those little ones like Clint Eastwood in "High Plains Drifter." Big things like you lost your left hand in a Paradox Backlash a couple years ago. That, and the fact that you could be a complete asshole in tense situations...like this one."

"So what you're saying..."

"Calm down, John. There's plenty of time to get to know each other. Assuming we both live through this. And assuming you're ticklish in the same spots, I've already got a leg up on you." She looked at me with no expression at all on her face, took a long drag on her cigarette.

And so, like I said, here we are, driving to 3D's place. I like to think of myself as his friend, when I can think of anything but Amber, but the truth is I don't think he has that many friends. He never has any company, except for some student of his named Pascal. I've never even seen him with a woman. Maybe he and Pascal have a scene working.

I turn off of 35W onto NE 28th Street going east. Neither Amber nor myself has spoken a word for almost five minutes.

"We'll be there in a few minutes," I say.

Amber nods her head, crushing out her cigarette in the ashtray. I never liked women who smoked, and it occurs to me now that I might not have given her a chance but for the mystery surrounding her every move.

There is something more going on here than meets the eye. Maybe she's come here to make sure I die so that she will live, kind of a convoluted time-line fix. Or maybe she's a Technocrat undercover. Or just maybe she really is in love with me and she's scared to take me back to the scene of my death, afraid it'll happen again. Or perhaps she's here because of the shock troops in my bedroom two weeks ago...

Hold on! Where did all that come from? There were no soldiers in my bedroom.

I shake my head as I pass the old Marriott on Belknap St. I can't even remember two days ago, much less two weeks.

"When did they build that?" asks Amber, pointing to the Marriott.

"Oh, um..." I slam on the brakes in the middle of the street. Two cars zoom by on either side, their drivers standing on their horns.

"What is it?" Amber screams.

"That's not supposed to be there! That was never there before! That was a cemetery!"

Suddenly red flashing lights appear behind.

Paradox by Jay Neale III

The cop walked up to my car window as we sat in the Phillips 66 parking lot at NE 28th Street and Sylvania. As I watched him approach through my rearview mirror I could see the lights from the 18 story Marriot Hotel behind.

The cop, a very attractive black woman in her early thirties, stepped up directly beside me. "Could I see your license and registration please?"

I am about to give them to her when I am about to realize that I am now totally cognizant of everything that is about to happen a full five seconds before it actually occurs. I think how handy that could be when, just as suddenly as it began, it goes away.

"Do you know why I have stopped you this morning, Mr. Smith?"

"No. Actually, I don't."

"Sir, your tags have not been renewed, and you ran through a Hotel Crossing Zone without flashing your brights."

"What? A Hotel Crossing Z... Um... I'm really sorry officer. I... I don't drive around here much and I guess I just didn't realize..."

"That's fine sir. I'm just going to give you a warning about the vehicle tags and a blow job for the Cross Walk. I will nee..."

I choked. "Excuse me???"

I choked. "Excuse me???" "?"

"A warning for the vehicle tags and I want you to slow down for those Hotel Crossings in the future. I will need a blood sample to confirm your I.D."

At this point Amber reaches in her purse, retrieves another long, blue cigarette and lights it, inhaling deeply. The cop, Officer Sanchez, her name tag says, immediately draws her weapon and carefully aims it at Ambers head.

"Ma'am, I'm going to have ask you to step out of the car!!!"

"What?" asks Amber with a startled look on her face. It's the first time I've ever seen her flustered. She opens the door, steps onto the pavement, turns toward the officer, sighs and drops her hands.

I turned around to see what caused that reaction and the cop was gone. No cop! No cop car!

As I looked in my rearview mirror I could see the familiar building known as the Mount Olivet Funeral Home where moments before I had seen the very alien Marriot Hotel.

"Things are getting... odd," I said as Amber climbed back into my '85 Jeep Wrangler.

"Whoa!" I shouted. "Now the car is changing!"

Amber took a long drag on her cigarette. "I think we'd better find this friend of yours. Fast. Things are getting really fucked-up."

So there we were... are... I can't even keep track of time while I'm telling this damn story.

So there we were! Sitting in my Nissan Sentra in front of what used to be 3D's house. Now it was mostly just, well, plumbing. The actual house was gone. Burned to the foundation, leaving just the... I seem to be to be... arrrrrgh.

Okay! The house is gone! 3D's gone! We're up Shit Creek! Got the situation situation situation?????????

It's some time later, now... I think. And time seems to have calmed down a bit. At least for the time being. So Amber and I have been thinking that, even though we don't know any Ecstasy Mages personally, we should probably try to find one soon. A master of the Time sphere would be perfect, and we're more likely to find one of those in a Pleasure Dome than any place else.

Next question: Where does one find a Pleasure Dome in Fort Worth, Texas?

Though we don't really have an answer for that question yet, we figure the best place to find out about one is either in Sundance Square or over in Dallas, say, the West End or Deep Ellum. After a bit more discussion, Deep Ellum gets the most votes (that would be 2).

So, now we are heading east on I-30. I glance off to my right and shake my

head

as we pass Universal Studios South where Six Flags Over Texas ought to be.

If we don't do something... Soon?... The whole world might be altered beyond









recodmission.




?



I'll try to get back to you ASAP. Keep the faith. Somebody has to.

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