I'm Scared (Details)
citation: Collier's, September 15, 1951, 128(11):24-25, 78-81
alias: None
teaser: … because a struggle against the barrier of time is already taking place; time is breaking down. I think it's important that you should know about it
summary: An old man gives examples of events, usually dismissed, that unless recognized, may plunge the world into nightmare.
He first began noticing these things one evening while at home reading a murder mystery, and listening to what seemed to be a talent contest on the radio. As he began recognizing the host's voice as that of Major Bowes, the radio went dead, the program being replaced by a modern song. Later, he recalled Major Bowes had been dead for many years.
When he relates this event at a lodge meeting, another man tells him a similar story, about Louis Trachnor. The old man decides to investigate this story, interviewing Trachnor himself.
Trachnor relates that one day he noticed an eight inch streak of still wet gray paint down the front of his white-painted house. Assuming it was a prank of some kind, Trachnor cleared off the gray paint.
Later that year, Trachnor painted his house gray. The next morning after painting it, he noticed an eight inch streak of old white paint down the front of his house.
Although Trachnor could not understand what happened, the narrator reasoned
that, like hearing a radio program from the past, there had been a fantastic
mix-up in time.
He then recalls other incidents where the normal time-ordered
sequence of events seem violated; the case of Julia Eisenberg's dog, for
example.
One evening, a large black-and-white dog became so attracted to Miss Eisenberg, she took it home with her, but the dog soon disappeared. Years later, she was given a puppy, that soon grew into a big dog who later disappeared. It was then she realized the dog she'd taken home years before, was the same as the one her puppy had become.
The next case offered is that of Paul V. Kerch, an accountant who took his wife and son to Central Park for photographs. Using a timer, he included himself in the pictures, and developed the film in his home darkroom.
The last negative, when developed, showed everyone in different clothing, his son taller, and where his wife should be, a different woman entirely. Kerch's wife interpreted the picture as showing their son and her husband with his new wife in a few years; after she's dead or divorced.
In the case of Lieutenant Alfred Eichler, a man is killed by his own gun — a gun that was in police possession at the time of the murder.
The last case is that of Captain Hubert V. Rihm, retired from the New York Police department. While visiting the City Mortuary, Rihm noticed an oddly dressed corpse, with old money in his pockets; old — none dated after 1876 — but in mint condition. In addition, the corpse's pockets contained a bill from a livery stable, and a letter postmarked Philadelphia, June 1976.
From other materials, Rohm identified the dead man as Rudolph Fentz, who had been killed in an automobile accident when he was wandering disoriented in the middle of Times Square.
Rihm eventually traced down a relative of Fentz', who recalled her husband's
father had disappeared sometime in the 1870's. Rihm verifies this from a
missing persons report for 1876. You think this guy walked
off into thin air in 1876, and showed up again in 1950!
Rihm asks.
The narrator closes with more anecdotes, asking if the reader has noted
a growing rebellion against the present? And
an increasing longing for the past?
He concludes it is man's desperate
struggle with the barriers of time, that is disturbing the clock of time
itself.
words: 5,323
genre: Time (Distortion)
similar: None
people: Unnamed Narrator, Miss Ruth Greeley, Major Bowes, Louis Trachnor, Julia Eisenberg, Paul V. Kerch, Mrs. Kerch, Lieutenant Alfred Eichler, Captain Hubert V. Rihm, Rudolph Fentz, Rudolph Fentz, Jr.
places: New York, NY: Fifth Avenue, Long Island, Forty-fifth Street, East Sixty-eighth Street, Greenwich Village, the Bronx, Central Park, New York Police Department, Stuyvesant Park, Bellevue, Fifty-second Street; Danbury, CT; Green River, WY
comments: Forthcoming