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"Sir, may I pleh uoy?"
Norton looked dully at the speaker. It was an attractive young woman who leaned toward him and away
from him as time wavered. "No, I-" he began, then felt a surge of dizziness.
She caught his arm, steadying him. "?era you ill" she asked solicitously. "Here, tis nwod. m'I a nurse."
Her speech was phasing backward and forward, too, as time changed. He had to get it back on track! He
put forth a special effort, and the normal backflow resumed.
"?ytilaer degnahc siht ti sI" she inquired, ".sselmrah s'ti tub ,ot tsujda ot drah s'ti wonk I"
Norton was getting better at comprehending backward speech, though this was far from perfect. The
woman had caught on to the fact of the backward flow of time and was trying to reassure him. She
assumed that it was the shock of reversal that was making him ill. Well, in a way it was.
"Thank you," he said.
She glanced at him, startled. "?aisahpA" she inquired.
Oops-he had dazzled her with his own backward speech. She thought it was aphasia. Well, again it was
close enough. "Yes," he said.
"!suoires si sihT !nam roop uoY" she exclaimed.
Norton scraped a section clear in the dirt beside the bench and leaned down to scratch a message with
his forefinger. IT'S ONLY VERBAL, he wrote.
She rummaged in her purse for some paper and a pen. CAN YOU READ THIS? she wrote.
He nodded yes.
",thgir lla er'uoy sseug I nehT" she said. She stood, ready to depart.
Then Norton spied another demon. The creature was walking rapidly backward; no chance to avoid it.
Norton put his face in his hands, hoping he would not be recognized.
"!kcis er'uoy, hO" the girl exclaimed, bending to assist him. She had a nice figure, and her body helped
conceal him from the gaze of the demon. But time wavered again as he lost concentration. He corrected
that, and the demon retreated on past.
",uoy evael dluohs I kniht t'nod I" the woman said.
The truth was that he appreciated her help, misguided as it was. He borrowed her pencil and paper.
WHAT'S YOUR NAME?
".agleH ?eman yM"
"Agleh," he repeated carefully, and she smiled. He was conquering his verbal aphasia!
Agleh took him to her apartment at the edge of the park and made him comfortable on her couch, from
where he could see her wall clock. She was perplexed by his being so intent on the clock when he had a
watch of his own, but she humored him. She was, it developed, a single girl, working at a local hospital,
and this was her day off. She had a tender heart and could not refrain from helping people who were in
trouble. He told her his name, Norton, and explained that he wasn't really sick, but was pursued by
demons. She looked at him with increased sympathy and didn't argue. He wasn't sure that was a good
sign, but let it go.
She offered him breakfast at quarter to seven. Norton tried to demur, but She insisted, certain that food
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would be good for him. But she had for the moment forgotten the new reality of eating.
She brought dirty dishes from the sink and set them on the table, then sat down and delicately disgorged
a poached egg and a glass of milk.
Norton did not eat. He could not, for she had given him nothing. Why should she? She had adjusted
nicely to living backward and was replaying in reverse her morning meal; she expected him to do
likewise.
Norton sighed. He had not intended to deceive her about this matter or his nature. Words were unlikely
to persuade her, so action would have to do.
He took her pristine egg and milk before she could prepare them and return them to her refrigerator, and
he consumed them both. They were very good, for he was indeed hungry.
Agleh stared. Then she laughed. "!drawkcab er'uoY" she exclaimed.
"I'm backward," he agreed.
"?-woH"
He wrote it on her pad. I AM CHRONOS, THE INCARNATION OF TIME. MY LIFE PROCEEDS
BACKWARD.
She looked again at the empty dishes, and again at him. She shrugged. "-siht tub ,yad ym ni cigam nees
d'l thguoht I" she exclaimed. "!esle gnihtemos er'uoY"
"Sey," he agreed, again speaking carefully to get it right. He brought out the Hourglass, with its white
sand flowing upward, and showed her how the instrument followed him when he set it down in mid-air.
"?taht ees I yaM" she asked.
He handed her the Hourglass-but when she tried to take it, she could not. Her hand passed right through
it. To her, it was a ghost-object.
That surprised him as much as it did her. He remembered how the Bem had grabbed it in the globular
cluster. Had it been in a different state then?
Agleh looked at the empty dishes. He knew what she was thinking: where had that food come from? She
had uneaten it and he had eaten it; when time went forward again, it would be the other way around.
When and how was that meal ever prepared?
She glanced again at the shining Hourglass. "...xodaraP" I AM IMMUNE FROM PARADOX, he
reassured her in writing. Then, in the course of the next half hour, he clarified his nature for her,
including the manner in which his presence changed reality. She was not reversing her life precisely
now, for he had not been with her on her forward living through the morning. Now she was living
backward, but interacting with him. She could remember her recent future-since meeting him.
"!thgir s'tahT" she exclaimed. "!rebmemer od I"
He explained how he was trying to balk Satan's ploy, but had run low on willpower to keep the reversal
going. Now, thanks to her support, he was doing better; time wasn't wavering.
I'M IN YOUR REALITY, she wrote, getting it straight. Actually, she put a new sheet of paper on the
pad, with the words already there, then went over them from right to left with her pencil, and they
disappeared as she did so. When the sheet was blank, she brought another to set over it, with new words.
At first she had been startled, watching herself do this, but now she accepted it as a matter of course.
Norton realized that his way of writing must appear similarly strange to her.
However, the novelty of this situation carried Norton only so far. The power of the Hourglass was still
fading, and it required horrendous mental effort for him to keep time flowing backward. At six-fifteen
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r r
time wavered again.
Fortunately, Agleh now understood. " !nataS thgif tsum uoY" she said. ".uoy pleh lliw I" Her backward
expressions were organized only by phrase or sentence; beyond that, his time frame took over. Probably,
he realized, the rest of the world was speaking completely backward; near him, the effect was distorted
by his own counterlife. That could also account for the way people seemed to become aware of their
situation in his presence; elsewhere they might not know that there had been any change at all. He was [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]