A Stitch In Time

A woman must avoid the truth... For the sake of everyone

"It is not in the way of propriety for a lady not to arrive home until dawn! Now, with all courtesy due. Tell me: where were you last night?"

"Must I tell you, husband? Can't we leave it unspoken between us?"

Thomas thought briefly, then came to a decision. "Very well. I will trust your discretion." He paused. "Do not sully our name, Missus Simms."

@-----@-----@

That evening, Thomas surreptitously followed his wife as she made her way toward the docks. He lurked in shadows as she entered a ramshackle hut with an eeire greenish glow emanating from inside.

Thomas crept to the side of the hut and peered in a window. He was looking in at Marjorie and another man—and the other man was himself!

She was saying something to him, but he caught only the last part of what she was saying "…forget, and you must not follow me tomorrow night! London's future depends upon it!"

The "real" Thomas watched the other turn toward the wall and begin to walk. Just before he would have collided with the door, some sort of hole appeared, edged in that green light; inside the hole was his street and his home. The other-Thomas walked through the hole and disappeared. Thomas looked at Marjorie as she watched the hole disappear, and

@-----@-----@

Thomas awoke from a strange dream in which Marjorie had spent the night away and had come home at the appalling time of 5:00 AM.

If such a thing had happened, I would have followed her, by George! He thought. Then another thought, disturbing in its foreignness entered his mind, and the sunlight in the room momentarily assumed a sick greenish tinge.

No…I must not follow her tonight. The future...

(Word Count: 289)