by Unknown
“Ray?”
She had changed her hair style since their separation, cut it short in the front and brushed it away from her face, bringing out the soft, slender contours of her cheeks, the bright innocent hazel of her eyes. She had changed other things as well. Started wearing bigger, bolder earrings like the pair with the black onyx stones. And she had used her own credit card to pay for their lunch at Demercurio’s. But the thing that hurt the most was this: she had changed from an unhappy woman to a happy woman. He had watched it happen.
“We’re never getting back together again, are we?” he asked hoarsely.
“You need help, Ray. You can’t keep locking out the world.”
“Are we?”
There was a pause—he had to give her that—a moment of consideration before she actually answered him. Then she said it: “No.”
He closed his eyes …
(CUT TO)
… and began to cry.
“Don’t cry, Daddy.”
I have to cry. It’s started now and I don’t think it’s ever going to stop.
He took his hands away from his face, and she was there, standing in front of him … his little girl.
“Robin?”
“I didn’t mean to make you sad,” she said. Sherrie was standing directly behind her, with her hands on Robin’s shoulders as if she were trying to make certain his daughter didn’t get too close. For her own protection, no doubt. Daddy hadn’t been himself lately.
He became aware of the tall ceiling overhead, of the three rows of tables, of another small group of people huddled together at the other end of the room. This was a place he had never been before.
“Where are we?”
“It’s called Oak Ridge,” Sherrie said. “It’s a treatment facility.”
“Oak Ridge.” He liked the sound it made. “Ohhkkk—rrr—idge.”
On the table in front of him, he noticed the cafeteria trays. Sherrie and Robin apparently hadn’t been hungry. They had hardly touched their food: a little milk from an open carton, half a serving of applesauce gone, and a few bites out of a hamburger that must have been Robin’s. His own tray was empty, though he couldn’t remember what he had had to eat. Then he started to cry again.
“We’ve got to leave now, Ray.”
“You just got here.”
“We’ve been here all afternoon,” Sherrie said. She had a look in her eye, as if her heart were breaking, and he thought she might join him in his tears, but she didn’t. “We’ll come back again next Sunday. I Promise. “
“Promise?”
“Yes.”
“I love …”
(CUT TO)
“… you,” he said. Though he was somewhere else by the time he had finished the words. It was a small room. Two beds. A stale, unventilated smell in the air. He glanced around …
(CUT TO)
… him.
A different place.
Robin was there now, holding his hand.
“You haven’t been shaving, Daddy.”
He stared at her. God, she was beautiful.
“You should shave.”
“I’m …”
(CUT TO)
… sorry,” he said.
Somewhere new—no, the cafeteria this time—and Bev was there. She was wearing the saddest face he had ever seen her wear. “Timescape opened with a weekend take of nearly seven million,” she was saying. “They’re happy folks at the production company.”
“Time …”
(CUT TO)
“… scape?” he asked, and found himself sitting in a wheelchair outside on a flagstone patio, overlooking a grassy knoll. Sherrie was with him, holding his hand the same way Robin had held it, as if she were afraid she might lose him completely if she let go.
“It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?” she said.
“Please don’t go away …”
(CUT TO)
7.
“I’ve got to talk fast because I don’t know how long I might be here. A few seconds? A minute? Maybe an hour? Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between here and that other place. They can fool you if you don’t watch them. One’s right. One’s wrong. It’s confusing. Every once in a while I have to remind myself what day it is and where I live. And there’s always the danger, I suppose, that if I’m not careful, I might drift a little too far from the reality loop. It’s happened, I’ve heard, to some of the best of them.”
—Raymond Hewitt
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION - Thomas F. Monteleone
FOET - F. Paul Wilson
THE CHRYSALIS - Lois Tilton
BREEDING GROUND - Francis J. Matozzo
LOVE DOLL: A FABLE - Joe R. Lansdale
APATHETIC FLESH - Darren O. Godfrey
THE POTATO - Bentley Little
SATURN - Ian McDowell
ANDROGYNY - Brian Hodge
SARAH, UNBOUND - Kim Antieau
FOR THEIR WIVES ARE MUTE - Wayne Allen Sallee
DEAD ISSUE - Rex Miller
DOWN THE VALLEY WILD - Paul F. Olson
TAKING CARE OF MICHAEL - J. L. Comeau
THE ATONEMENT - Richard Rains
PEACEMAKER - Charles L. Grant
STRESS TEST HR51, CASE #041068 - Stanley Wiater
CHURCHES OF DESIRE - Philip Nutman
SWEETIE - G. Wayne Miller
ROMANCE UNLIMITED - James S. Don
SLIPPING - David B. Silva