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Stories from the Verse
Multiverser: The Thirteenth Story
Chapter 6: Brown 366
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Takano 158
Derek soon saw Vashti walking toward him along a back road he had been following. Smart girl, he thought; that should save us some time. Neither of them spoke until they were close enough to hear each other in normal voices.
“So,” she said, “I guess next we head in the direction of our equipment?”
“Normally I would say yes,” he responded, “but I’m thinking it’s nearly a thousand miles from us?”
“As far as that?”
“We flew several hours by plane from southern Colorado to Yellowstone--hundreds of miles.”
“I guess that’s why people always wanted to find flying carpets,” she suggested, and he smiled.
“Yes, some modes of transportation are faster than others. Anyway, I think the first thing we have to do is figure out what we brought with us. It’s kind of too bad we didn’t bring the instruments; we could try to raise money busking.”
“I have some money.”
“Probably no good. I mean, even if this is the same country in the same world we just left, which it isn’t because my telepathy doesn’t work here, it’s obviously quite a few years in the past. Maybe money from our time in New Orleans would be good, but the money we earned in Berkeley will all be thought counterfeit, and poor counterfeit at best.”
Vashti nodded. “I might have some of the old money. How would I tell?”
“American money has the year printed on it. Of course, we don’t know whether this is America, and we don’t know what year it is, but one thing at a time. Let’s see--I’ve got my butcher knife, fighting knife, and one of the repulsor knives, plus my chain and a dozen of my drugged darts, plus Morach’s bow and arrows, some drugged and some not. I’m wearing the two gold chains I was awarded by the Caliph, the oversized belt you made for me, and my size-changing suit, although I don’t know that it will change size in this world and am not sure what happens if I try to get bigger. I’m carrying some cash, and probably some of it is small change from New Orleans, but I’ll have to sort through it. Oh, and that radio. You?”
“I have your briefcase, and you left the frying pan in it. I’m wearing my gold chain and a blouse and skirt I had made in the parakeet world, plus the windbreaker you bought me not long ago. Obviously I have my radio, and I also have some cash, but all of mine should be from New Orleans--I never carried any cash in Berkeley. Of course, it’s not a lot, but it might be a couple dollars. I also have my fighting knife and my wooden practice knife.”
“And we left the robot, the laptop, the backpack, the sleeping gear, the food, clothes, tools, pretty much everything else, back at the manse.”
“A thousand miles away.”
Derek shrugged. “At least we know which direction it is.”
“So, onward?”
He puzzled for a moment, looking toward the city. It was not the opposite direction, but it was certainly out of the way.
“I’m thinking first we should see what we can learn about this world by visiting that city. It will have newspapers, at least, and maybe between us we’ll find one in a language we can read.”
So Vashti also shrugged. “It makes sense. Let’s go.”
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with ten other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #538: New Adventures. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
