Free The Edge of Tomorrow by Howard Fast

actual physical being. What happened to me as I was two minutes ago? I was. I cease to exist. I reappear.”
    â€œNonsense,” Alice snorted. “You’re here all the time.”
    â€œBecause I am connected with myself in terms of time. Suppose Time is an aspect of motion. No motion, no time. If you will, think of a path in terms of motion. You move along it—everything we are conscious of moves in parallel terms. But nothing disappears—it is all there always, yesterday, tomorrow, a million years from now—a reality that we are conscious of only in the flickering transition of now—this moment, this instant.”
    â€œI don’t understand that at all, and I don’t believe it either,” Alice said. “Is this some new kismet—fate, a future ordained for us?”
    â€œNo, no,” I said impatiently. “It’s not that. The path isn’t fixed. It’s fluid, it changes all the time. But we can’t sit and argue about it, because we’re moving along it. And I have to tell you before we go too far. Those other myselfs—”
    â€œJust call them gray herringbone,” Alice said weakly.
    â€œVery well, gray herringbone. They told me what happened today.”
    â€œBefore it happened?”
    â€œBefore it happened and after it happened. That makes no difference. It’s a paradox. That’s why this sort of thing can’t be handled by the mental equipment we have. There’s no room for paradox. The most illogical man is still logical in terms of paradox. Today happened to me. I corrected the papers. You came home. Professor Dunbar telephoned and told me about the cat. I rushed over to his place. I took a panel of transistors with me, found where his circuit burned out, rewired it. You see, I had wired it originally. I was trembling with excitement then—”
    â€œ You were trembling with excitement?” Alice said.
    â€œYes. Well, I react to different things. You can’t imagine how exciting this was—actually to warp space, even if a tiny bit of it. I wasn’t thinking about time then. You see, I had picked up the professor’s cat outside his door, and I brought it in with me. There were three cats there, but I didn’t think twice about that. I picked up the one on the doorstep and brought it in. The professor was delighted. We decided that a space-warp had placed the cat outside the house. So when I hooked in the transistors and threw the power, I stepped between the electrodes myself. What could be more natural?”
    â€œNothing,” Alice said. “Oh—nothing at all. Very natural, only they give the younger generations to you to be taught.”
    â€œAnd that was five PM, today.”
    â€œAnd now it’s four-thirty PM ,” Alice shrugged. “Today was, but it isn’t yet. For God’s sake, Bob, I am a woman. Talk sense to me!”
    â€œI am trying to. You must accept it—don’t think about it, accept it. The warp was in time, maybe in space too, maybe the two are inseparable. We only had three hundred amps—a very slight effect, a tiny loop or twist in time, and then it snapped back. But the damage was done. My own particular time belt now had a five hour loop in it. In other words, it was repeating itself, endlessly, eternally, and each time it repeated, I was stranded here—no, I don’t make sense, do I?”
    â€œI’m afraid not,” Alice agreed sadly. “You said it happened.”
    â€œIt did. But I was pushed back to before it happened. I went straight to the apartment. I rang the bell. I opened the door and let myself in. I told myself—”
    â€œStop that!” Alice cried. “Stop talking about yourself. Say gray herringbone, if you must.”
    â€œAll right. Gray herringbone, and he told me what had happened. Heaven knows how many times the loop had repeated already—”
    â€œWouldn’t you know