the far past. Good thing he couldnât see the city rubble, too. Or realize this was how I made my living.
His mouth twisted in surprise. âYou do? I thought I might be the first to come here. To this time.â
I gave him a raised eyebrow. âNo. There was another last week.â
âReally? The professor said the other experiments failed. They couldnât prove theyâd been into the future at all.â
They always want to talk, though theyâd learn more with their mouths closed.
He rattled on, âI have to take something back, to show I was here. Something ââ
âHow about this?â I pulled out a slim metal cylinder. âApply it to your neck five times a day and it extracts cancer precursors. In your era, that will extend your average lifetime by several years.â
His eyebrows shot up. âWow! Sure ââ He reached for it but I snatched it back.
âWhat do I get in exchange?â I said mildly.
That startled him. âWhat? I donât have anything you could useâ¦â He searched his pockets in the old fashioned wide-label jacket. âHow about money?â A fistful of bills.
âIâm not a collector, and those are worthless now, inflated away in value.â
The time jaunter blinked. âLook, this is one of the first attempts to jump forward and back. I donât have ââ
âI know, weâve seen jaunters from your era already. Enough to set up a barter system. Thatâs why I had this cancer-canceller.â
Confusion swarmed in his face. âLady, Iâm just a guinea pig here. A volunteer. They didnât give me ââ
I pointed. âYour watch is a pleasant anachronism, Iâll take that.â I gave him the usual ceramic smile.
He sighed with relief. âGreat ââ But I kept the cylinder away from him.
âThatâs an opener offer, not the whole deal.â A broader smile.
He glanced around, distracted by my outfit. I always wore it when the chron-senser networks said there was a jaunt about to happen. Their old dress styles were classic, so they werenât prepared for my peekaboo leggings, augmented breasts and perfectly symmetric face. The lipstick was outrageous for our time, but fit right into the twenty-first century kink.
He raised a flat ceramic thing and it whirred. Taking pictures, like the rest. They still hadnât learned, whenever this guy came from.
âYour pictures wonât develop,â I told him with a seemingly sympathetic smile.
âHuh? They gave me this ââ
âYouâve heard of time paradoxes, yes? Space-time resolves those nicely. You canât take back knowledge that alters the past. All that gets erased automatically, a kind of information cleansing. Very convenient physics.â
Startled, he glanced at his compact camera. âSo ⦠itâll be blank?â
âYes,â I said crisply. My left eye told me the chron-senser network was picking up an approaching closure. I leaned over and kissed him on the mouth. âThanks! Itâs such a thrill to meet someone from the ancient times.â
That shook him even more. Best to keep them off balance.
âSo how do I get that cancer thing?â he said, eyes squinting with a canny cast.
âLet me have your clothes,â I shot back.
âWhat? You want me ⦠naked?â
âI can use them as antiques. That cancer stick is pretty expensive, so Iâm giving you a good deal.â
He nodded and started shucking off his coat, pants, shoes, wallet, coins, cash, set of keys. Reached for his shorts â
âNever mind the underwear.â
âOh.â He handed me the bundle and I gave him the cancer stick. âHey, thanks. Iâll be back. We just wanted to see if ââ
Pop . He vanished. The cancer stick rattled on the ground. It was just a prop, of course. Cancer was even worse now.
They never caught
Rebecca Hamilton, Conner Kressley