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Tales of Tomorrow - "The Other Now" (Old Time Radio, 1953) · Old Time Sci-Fi Radio | Old Time Radio

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: You are listening to Old Time Retro Radio. For full
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: access to our archive, visit patreon dot com slash Old
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Time Retro.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Radio, Tales of Tomorrow, Tales beyond human imagination until they happen.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Tales of Tomorrow Story number four, The Other Now by
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: Murray Leinster.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: This is your host, Omendor, saying hello for ABC.
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: Look at your watch, but don't.
• 1:09
  Speaker 4: Take it too seriously. If it's a few.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: Seconds after nine pm Eastern Standard time in California, it's
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: three hours earlier. In London, it's two o'clock tomorrow morning,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: and in Japan it's almost tomorrow afternoon. What time is
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: it right now on the planet Saturn? Silly questions, I wonder.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: The point is time is a clock with many faces.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Your time is.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Not necessarily anyone else's, and what we think of as
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: the present is only relative. Let's prove that thesis with
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: a remarkable tale from Galaxy, the science fiction magazine, a
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: most timely story titled The Other Now.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: My name is hal Haynes. I was Jimmy Patterson's best friend,
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: which is why he dared tell me the story you
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: are about to hear. I'm speaking into a recording machine.
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: The tape to be played back only after my death,
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: for reasons that will become obvious as you listen. First,
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: you've got to understand that Jimmy and Jane Patterson loved
• 2:32
  Speaker 4: each other like no two other people I ever met.
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: That's important to the story. It all began about a
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: year after their marriage. They'd been to a party at
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: my apartment and started at home about two in the morning.
• 2:49
  Speaker 5: Darling, nothing, but what's so funny?
• 2:58
  Speaker 6: You stick out your jaw when you're behind the wheel.
• 3:03
  Speaker 6: It's kind of cute.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 3:05
  Speaker 7: I resented that a man is attractive, handsome, virile, compelling,
• 3:09
  Speaker 7: but never cute.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: Darling.
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: You were all those things and cute.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: Jimmy, that truck in front of us, what's that long
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: pole sticking out behind?
• 3:21
  Speaker 7: It looks like a steel girder. Yeah, that's what it is.
• 3:25
  Speaker 4: The red flag past that truck cleave which matter?
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: Huh.
• 3:30
  Speaker 6: I don't like driving behind that thing.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: It makes me nervous.
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: Right here we go, Jane, brace yourself. The truck stopping
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: short airbrakes? Why don't just stop?
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: Jimmy followed me from the hospital. When I got there,
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: the doctors told me about jane death had been mercifully
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: sweat Jimmy was sitting on a bench in one of
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: the car doors, his face buried in his hand. Jimmy,
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: jim it's me.
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: Did they tell you?
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah? What can I say?
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: Well, she's gone, She's gone. I know it happens a fast,
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: A freak accident. Doesn't make sense.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: I know, listen, anything I can do.
• 4:24
  Speaker 7: One minute, she was beside me, alive in the next minute. Hell,
• 4:28
  Speaker 7: why did it have to happen this way? Why couldn't
• 4:30
  Speaker 7: it have been me?
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: The next three months were bad. First, I feared Jimmy
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: might do something desperate. As soon the torture of being
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: alive while Jane was dead slacked up until from an
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: intolerable agony became a dull, ever present day. The worst
• 4:50
  Speaker 4: moment was coming home from work to the empty apartment,
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: so Jimmy arranged always to have the cleaning woman there.
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: It was better than nothing. Well, the night the thing
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: really began, Jimmy he came home from work with the
• 5:01
  Speaker 4: usual hopeless ake in his heart. Putting the key in
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: the lock, he thought, for me Jane were there to
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: meet him, if only by some miracle. There were no miracles,
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: he knew that he unlocked the front door, opened it
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: began to walk in and priced against the door. It
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: was closed. He just opened it, but it was closed.
• 5:29
  Speaker 4: Jimmy's first impression was that his brain was playing tricks
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: on and he really opened that door. Seemed to him
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: that he had, but in his confused state of mind,
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: he couldn't be absolutely sure. He unlocked the door again
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: or was it again, opened it and walked into the apartment.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: The cleaning woman, Missus Mooney, was in the living room.
• 5:52
  Speaker 8: Oh, Missus Mooney, Oh Patterson, how do you feel today, sir?
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: You didn't sleep again last night?
• 6:00
  Speaker 9: Sir?
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: Of course I did.
• 6:02
  Speaker 8: When I came in this afternoon, the bed was still
• 6:05
  Speaker 8: made up, just as I'd left it yesterday.
• 6:07
  Speaker 7: I fell asleep in the armchair. Please stop checking on me,
• 6:10
  Speaker 7: Missus Mooney.
• 6:11
  Speaker 8: I don't want you to think of it that way.
• 6:13
  Speaker 8: Mister Patterson, but you haven't been yourself since the Missus Well,
• 6:19
  Speaker 8: what I mean is I'm worried about you.
• 6:21
  Speaker 7: There's nothing to worry about any one phone while you've
• 6:25
  Speaker 7: been here.
• 6:26
  Speaker 8: Mister Haynes called what he won said he hadn't heard
• 6:30
  Speaker 8: from you for a couple of days.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: Want you to call him back.
• 6:33
  Speaker 5: Sir, Thanks, I'll do that. Anything else.
• 6:37
  Speaker 8: Yes, I found this carton of cigarettes in the missus desk.
• 6:42
  Speaker 7: It was a James, Yes, sir, must have overlooked them
• 6:46
  Speaker 7: when I cleaned out the desk.
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: Throw him out? No, no, just second, put them back
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: in the desk, all right, sir.
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: But before you do that.
• 6:55
  Speaker 7: Missus Mooney's there's something I uh when I ask you, did.
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: You hear me come in? Just now? Yes, sir?
• 7:04
  Speaker 7: Well did you notice if I opened the front door
• 7:07
  Speaker 7: once or twice?
• 7:10
  Speaker 8: Why would you open the door twice?
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: Sir?
• 7:12
  Speaker 7: I don't know if I did. That's what I'm trying
• 7:14
  Speaker 7: to find out. Did you hear the door open twice?
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: I really couldn't say, mister Patterson.
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: I try to remember.
• 7:23
  Speaker 8: Well, you did open it twice, sir?
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: Are you sure?
• 7:28
  Speaker 8: I think so? But maybe I just imagined that you
• 7:33
  Speaker 8: don't look so good? Mister Patterson. You ought to take
• 7:35
  Speaker 8: a nap before dinner. I'm all right, No you aren't,
• 7:39
  Speaker 8: I think.
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: Please Missus Mooney, stop fussing over me. Just leave me alone.
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: Jimmy took sleeping pills that night. When he finally drifted off,
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: he dreamed the doors that were open when they should
• 7:56
  Speaker 4: have been shut and shut when it worked the next day.
• 8:00
  Speaker 4: The peculiar incident of the night before back in the morning.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: When he came home that night, he opened the door carefully,
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: wondering if it would be repeated. It wasn't. He hung
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: up his coat and sat down in the armchair. Wearily.
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: He filled his pipe and struck a match to it.
• 8:19
  Speaker 4: He dropped the stub of the match into the ashtray.
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: It says.
• 8:24
  Speaker 7: Cigarette stubs James Brand, freshly smooth. Missus Mooney, Missus mooney,
• 8:32
  Speaker 7: you want me to I certainly do.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: Missus Mooney?
• 8:35
  Speaker 7: Who gave you permission to smoke my White's cigarettes?
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: What's that?
• 8:38
  Speaker 10: Sir?
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: What right did you to smoke my white cigarettes?
• 8:40
  Speaker 8: But I didn't do anything of this sort, mister Patterson, I.
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: Don't know what you're talking about.
• 8:46
  Speaker 7: Well, right here in this ash tree, or half a
• 8:48
  Speaker 7: dozen of pers, they're good gone cigarette. But they were
• 8:55
  Speaker 7: in this ash tree a minute agoing on the disappeared.
• 8:58
  Speaker 8: Couldn't have been nothing in that trace. Sure, I emptied
• 9:01
  Speaker 8: all the ice trems when I came in, But I saw.
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: Them, or did I? What's the matter with me? Or
• 9:13
  Speaker 5: is it me?
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: Was he losing his grip in a grim sort of way?
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: The thought made Jimmy feel almost cheerful. During the day,
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: he worked with a god said sometimes he was able
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: to thrust aside for hours the fact that Jane's gone
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: now in the same way, he grappled with a question
• 9:35
  Speaker 4: of his sanity and Missus Mooney left for the evening.
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: He went to the desk where Jane had kept her
• 9:40
  Speaker 4: household the cows. He'd set the whole thing down on paper,
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: examined it methodically, checking all the facts. He was about
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: to do so when he noticed Jane's diary on top
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: of the desk. For a moment, his mind stopped.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: His brain leaning Jane's diary. What's it doing here?
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: I thought?
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: I locked it in the trunk.
• 10:05
  Speaker 9: I know, I put it in the trunk.
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: He sat there, staring at the diary. It couldn't be
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: on the desk, He'd locked it in the trunk, but
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: there it was. The trembling fingers, he fell through the
• 10:20
  Speaker 4: pages until he reached the last.
• 10:22
  Speaker 7: Injury September twenty sixth. September twenty sixth, today's date.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: That's impossible. How could this have been written today?
• 10:32
  Speaker 7: Jane's dead and yes that's her handwriting.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: Feeling like a sleepwalker in a nightmare, began to read
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: the entry. As he scanned the line, it was as
• 10:46
  Speaker 4: though Jane's voice was in.
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: This morning, I went to the cemetery.
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: Very bad.
• 10:56
  Speaker 10: Three months at the accident doesn't make it any easier
• 11:01
  Speaker 10: to bear. Oh, Jimmy, Jimmy, I missed you so much.
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: Jane.
• 11:10
  Speaker 6: I'm developing a personal hatred for chance, chance, luck, whatever
• 11:16
  Speaker 6: it is, it's not an abstraction anymore. It was chance
• 11:20
  Speaker 6: that killed Jimmy could have been me. Instead of neither
• 11:25
  Speaker 6: of us.
• 11:27
  Speaker 10: Standing over Jimmy's grave today, I.
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: Realized that.
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: It was almost more than I could stand.
• 11:37
  Speaker 5: She's alive, she wrote this. She thinks I'm the one
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: that's dead.
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: Tagging a pen, Jimmy began writing desperately under Jane's entry.
• 11:47
  Speaker 7: The diary, Jane's where are you? I'm not dead. I
• 11:55
  Speaker 7: thought you were in Heaven's name?
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: Where are you? After that, Jimmy's mind went blank. When
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: he came to his senses again, he was sitting in
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: an empty desk, no diary on it, and no pen
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: between his fingers.
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: Where is it?
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: The diary? Where is.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: Oh?
• 12:16
  Speaker 7: I must have dreamed, fallen asleep in the chair and dreamed, No.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: No, it was here. I could swear it was here,
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: I wrote.
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: An entry underneath Jane's.
• 12:31
  Speaker 9: But did I.
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: Am?
• 12:33
  Speaker 7: I imagining things? I've got to find out. There must
• 12:37
  Speaker 7: be some way to get to the bottom of this.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: The next morning, Jimmy bought a small camera with a
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: flash bowl attachment. That night, when he came home from
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: the office, he had the camera ready. He unlocked the
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: door and opened it. Then, before he walked in, he
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: put out his hand struck wood. The door was still closed.
• 13:03
  Speaker 4: He stepped back, quickly, aimed the camera at the door,
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: and snapped the shutter. The glare of the flashball blinded
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: him for a moment. When he was able to see
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: you again, the door was open.
• 13:14
  Speaker 5: That you, mister Patterson.
• 13:16
  Speaker 4: Yes, it's me. I thought I heard something.
• 13:19
  Speaker 7: I uh, I was just taking a picture. Look, missus mooney,
• 13:24
  Speaker 7: are you finished with your work?
• 13:26
  Speaker 8: I thought I'd just get the laundry together and take it.
• 13:29
  Speaker 5: Out with me.
• 13:29
  Speaker 7: Let it go until tomorrow. Good night, missus Mooney.
• 13:36
  Speaker 4: Jimmy waited impatiently until the cleaning woman was gone. Then
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: he moved the film in the camera and put in
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: a new flashboard. Walking to the desk, he hardly dared
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: to hope the diary would be there again. But there
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: it was, open, with a ruler across the pages to
• 13:52
  Speaker 4: keep it. So he saw yesterday's entry and his own message,
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: and beyond that was more writing and Jimmy diy.
• 14:04
  Speaker 6: When I opened the diary today, I found a message
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: from you, and so you were alive.
• 14:10
  Speaker 9: I know that can't be.
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: It's all imaginary wish fulfillment, and I'm crazy to answer you.
• 14:18
  Speaker 10: Please, darling, if.
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: I am sane and you are alive somewhere, tell me
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: where you are.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: With all his being, Jimmy wanted the writer's reply, but
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: he was afraid to spend the additional time. He aimed
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: the camera at the diary and pressed the shutter button
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: for the second time.
• 14:36
  Speaker 7: Theod diary it disappeared again. Where did it go to?
• 14:41
  Speaker 7: Where did it come from in the first place? What's
• 14:43
  Speaker 7: happening here?
• 14:46
  Speaker 11: Looking for your next great listen, Discover the free audiobook
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• 15:13
  Speaker 11: Wherever you listen to.
• 15:14
  Speaker 5: Podcasts, Wherever that diary is, that's where Jane is.
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: I've got to find it. That's the story Jimmy told me. Now,
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: I'm a lawyer trained to take testimony. I mentioned the
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: fact because I wanted understood that I have not colored
• 15:39
  Speaker 4: this story in any way. I've told it exactly as
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: Jimmy told it to me, flatly and baldly, without any
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: attempt to make it sound reasonable. As Jimmy said, well,
• 15:51
  Speaker 4: that's it. Hell, that's exactly how it all happened. But
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: look here, it's impossible.
• 15:55
  Speaker 7: I don't blame you for feeling that way about it.
• 15:57
  Speaker 7: I'd say the same thing if I didn't have evidence
• 16:01
  Speaker 7: to the contrary evidence.
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: You mean those photographs, that's right, Let me have a
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: look at them.
• 16:07
  Speaker 7: Sure, and there's the first one shut at the door.
• 16:11
  Speaker 7: Looks like a double exposure, doesn't it.
• 16:13
  Speaker 4: We got two doors here, nearly at right angles, both
• 16:16
  Speaker 4: hung from the same doorframe.
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: Here's the second shot.
• 16:20
  Speaker 7: If you look close, you may be able to read
• 16:22
  Speaker 7: Jane's handwriting on the page of the diary.
• 16:26
  Speaker 4: Jimmy Darling when I opened the diary today I found
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: a message from you as though you were alive.
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: Well, hell, do you still say it's impossible?
• 16:36
  Speaker 4: Yes, but Jim, I'm your friend. You believe that, don't you? Sure?
• 16:40
  Speaker 9: I do?
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: But you now there's a perfectly logical explanation for these incidents,
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: not a pleasant explanation, but the only one that makes
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: any sense. Now. That door opening and closing Jane's cigarettes
• 16:52
  Speaker 4: in the ashtray. You saw that because you wanted to
• 16:55
  Speaker 4: see it. You made it up, not consciously, but out
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: of your desperation. You had to believe that somehow, somewhere
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: Jane is still alive.
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: I do believe that.
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: Hell, but, man, can't you see your kidding yourself?
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: If so, how do you explain the photograph of that.
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: Door trick photography? You covered half of the film and
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: exposed with a door closed, Then you exposed the other
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: half of the film with the door open.
• 17:19
  Speaker 7: Maybe an expert photographer could do that, but I never
• 17:21
  Speaker 7: even owned a camera until yesterday.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: Look, you followed directions when you took those shots, didn't Yes, Well,
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: then you must have been following directions when you took
• 17:29
  Speaker 4: that trick shout of the door.
• 17:30
  Speaker 7: Okay, okay, But how do you explain the second photograph,
• 17:34
  Speaker 7: the one with Jane's handwriting. Now you were Jane's lawyer,
• 17:37
  Speaker 7: you'd recognize her handwriting, wouldn't you, I suppose?
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: So look at that photograph.
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: Isn't that Jane's handwriting looks like hers? But it could
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: be a forgery?
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Forgery?
• 17:47
  Speaker 5: But who would want to afford?
• 17:49
  Speaker 4: You would? Jim? That's right? Now? I had a client once,
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: a girl. She accused a man of beating her up.
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: She was absolutely sincere, She really believed it. Her own
• 18:00
  Speaker 4: family admitted that she'd make the marks on herself, and
• 18:03
  Speaker 4: the doctors agreed that she'd unconsciously blotted the memory of
• 18:06
  Speaker 4: doing it out of her mind afterwards.
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: You think I forged all this unconscious?
• 18:11
  Speaker 7: But what other possibility is there? Remember the accident? Hell, now,
• 18:15
  Speaker 7: we came up behind that truck when we skidded into it.
• 18:19
  Speaker 7: The girder could have hit me or Jane or neither
• 18:22
  Speaker 7: of us.
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: What does that prove?
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: It was pure chance that Jane was hit.
• 18:25
  Speaker 7: It could have been me, But had been made, Jane
• 18:29
  Speaker 7: would be living in the apartment. She might very well
• 18:31
  Speaker 7: have written that entry in the diary. Isn't that so
• 18:34
  Speaker 7: what's the point. The point is this, there are a
• 18:38
  Speaker 7: lot of possible futures. When today was in the future,
• 18:42
  Speaker 7: there were a lot of possible todays. The present moment
• 18:46
  Speaker 7: is only one of any number of presents that might
• 18:48
  Speaker 7: have been.
• 18:50
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 18:50
  Speaker 7: That night, before the girder came to our windshield, there
• 18:53
  Speaker 7: were three possibilities, one in which I was hit, one
• 18:57
  Speaker 7: in which neither one of us was hit, and one
• 19:00
  Speaker 7: and we well.
• 19:03
  Speaker 5: You do see what I'm getting at hell?
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: Are you really suggesting there's more than one present? And
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: in some other present, Jane is alive and you're the
• 19:11
  Speaker 4: one that's dead.
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: That's a hell, some other dimension and time or space
• 19:15
  Speaker 7: through which Jane and I had managed to communicate. But
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: how it's beyond me. But there must be some scientific.
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: Explanation, jim you aren't serious.
• 19:25
  Speaker 5: Why not?
• 19:26
  Speaker 7: Before the atomic bomb exploded, all reasonable people said atomic
• 19:30
  Speaker 7: energy was preposterous. Every new discovery, every new step forward,
• 19:34
  Speaker 7: is preposterous until it happens.
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: I couldn't shake Jimmy's argument. After he left, I tried
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: to decide on some course of action. Treat him as insane,
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: but he was my friend. Besides, his delusion wasn't dangerous
• 19:57
  Speaker 4: not even to himself. I decided the wait for developments.
• 20:02
  Speaker 4: One evening, about a week later, Jimmy and I had
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: dinner together. He seemed to be in good spirits. He
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: looked over the menu. What are you going to order?
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: How stake me too? Well?
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: What's new? Consulor?
• 20:15
  Speaker 4: Well? I was about to ask.
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: You that.
• 20:18
  Speaker 10: Have you?
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: Have you had any more communication with Jane?
• 20:23
  Speaker 5: Though?
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: Sure?
• 20:24
  Speaker 5: We write each other notes every night.
• 20:26
  Speaker 7: And by the way, I was right, how Jane agrees
• 20:29
  Speaker 7: there is more than one present. Now in the present
• 20:33
  Speaker 7: I existed, Jane was killed. But in her present I'm
• 20:37
  Speaker 7: the one that.
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: Said, oh look, let's not get into that.
• 20:40
  Speaker 7: I don't mind talking about it now that I know
• 20:42
  Speaker 7: Jane's alive.
• 20:43
  Speaker 5: Life is bearable. Matter of fact, there's only one drawback,
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: only one drawback.
• 20:49
  Speaker 4: What's that?
• 20:50
  Speaker 5: Well?
• 20:50
  Speaker 7: No, that Jane and I have found each other. We'd
• 20:53
  Speaker 7: like to get together someday. We hope to be able
• 20:56
  Speaker 7: to bridge that gap.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: Isn't that rather far fast? Sea?
• 20:59
  Speaker 5: No?
• 21:00
  Speaker 7: Now, sometimes when Jane and I are writing notes each other,
• 21:03
  Speaker 7: both of us can can feel the barrier between us
• 21:06
  Speaker 7: wearing thin. Once it seemed to me that we actually
• 21:10
  Speaker 7: touched hands, but I wasn't.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: Sure, Jim, Oh, Jim, but what's the matter. Oh, nothing,
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: Go on with what you were saying. I let him
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: go on describing what he wrote to Jane and what
• 21:30
  Speaker 4: she wrote to him, And now they both yearned for
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: the time when the barrier between them would disappear and
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: they'd be together again. That continued for several weeks. Then
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: one night, as we were sitting in the park.
• 21:43
  Speaker 5: I remember what I told you about the barrier wearing thin?
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: Sure I had?
• 21:46
  Speaker 5: Well, Jane and I were pretty close.
• 21:48
  Speaker 7: Now, I'm almost certain I saw her in the living
• 21:51
  Speaker 7: room last nights, before.
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: I could get to her.
• 21:56
  Speaker 7: If I could only put my hands on her, if
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: I could touch her.
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: Just Jim, you've got to stop this, but do something
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: about these hallucinations. Hold on, don't you see their progressive?
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: It started with seeing notes and cigarette butts, and now
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: you've seen people.
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: You're trying to tell me I'm losing my mind.
• 22:14
  Speaker 4: No, but I think you ought to have a talk
• 22:16
  Speaker 4: with a psychiatrist. With the proper treatment, those hallucinations would disappear.
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: But if you don't get helpless, I don't need any help.
• 22:23
  Speaker 5: There's nothing wrong with me.
• 22:25
  Speaker 7: My contacts with Jane are not hallucinations, and I can profall. Look, hell,
• 22:30
  Speaker 7: didn't you have a near accident on the Parkway last night?
• 22:33
  Speaker 7: Didn't the car coming around the curve on the wrong
• 22:36
  Speaker 7: side of the road almost smashed head on into you?
• 22:38
  Speaker 4: Wait, Yes it did. I almost went into the ditch
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: trying to get away from it. How did you know that, Jane?
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: Tony? Jane?
• 22:51
  Speaker 7: She said that in her time channel a crash killed
• 22:53
  Speaker 7: Tony Shields. You mean Tony shield who's the driver of
• 22:57
  Speaker 7: that of the car, That's what Jane says.
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: What it's impossible, day.
• 23:01
  Speaker 5: Jane doesn't lie. Hell, why don't you check with Tony?
• 23:18
  Speaker 11: Uh?
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: That's you, Tony. This is Hal Haynes. Look, Tony, there's
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: a little thing that's been bothering me. I'd like to
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: ask you about it. Were you driving your car in
• 23:29
  Speaker 4: the Parkway last night? Yeah? I was. You're sure it
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: was last night?
• 23:33
  Speaker 12: But sure, I'm sure.
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: Wow?
• 23:35
  Speaker 12: What's up?
• 23:35
  Speaker 9: Hell?
• 23:36
  Speaker 4: Well did you almost run into another car coming around
• 23:39
  Speaker 4: that curve near Hawthorne?
• 23:41
  Speaker 12: What's right?
• 23:42
  Speaker 11: Oh?
• 23:42
  Speaker 4: Say hell?
• 23:43
  Speaker 12: How'd you know that? The hell? Are you still on
• 23:47
  Speaker 12: the line?
• 23:48
  Speaker 10: Did you hear me?
• 23:49
  Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, I heard you. I was the driver of
• 23:54
  Speaker 4: the other car. Tony.
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: Well, I'll be hanged.
• 23:58
  Speaker 12: Talk about a small world. Say, hell, I owe you
• 24:02
  Speaker 12: an apologize. I was on the wrong side of the road.
• 24:04
  Speaker 12: Must have scared your half to dead.
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah, now you certainly did.
• 24:08
  Speaker 12: I'm sorry her. But there's one thing I don't get.
• 24:12
  Speaker 12: It was pretty dark last night. How'd you recognize me?
• 24:15
  Speaker 4: Well? I wasn't quite sure. That's why I phoned. I
• 24:26
  Speaker 4: hung up, ceiling dizzy. Jane had told the truth. But
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: Jane was dead. But if she was dead, how could
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: she know about Tony Shields and what happened on the parkway.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: It made no sense, no sense at.
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: All, unless Jane actually existed in some other level or dimension.
• 24:45
  Speaker 4: But that was nonsense, sure, nonsense. Still, I had to
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: talk to Jimmy. I dialed his number. The phone rang
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: a number of times. I was about to give up,
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: when Hello, Jim, This is how I got to talk
• 25:10
  Speaker 4: to you.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: No, I'm very busy, but.
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: This is important. I just spoke to Tony. All right,
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: I'm coming over to York late.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: No, you can't do that.
• 25:17
  Speaker 9: I don't want you here now. Hell, Jane and I
• 25:20
  Speaker 9: are very close. The barrier is getting thin papered. Then
• 25:25
  Speaker 9: we've touched.
• 25:26
  Speaker 4: Each other again, When did this happen?
• 25:28
  Speaker 9: Just now before you phone? We're hoping, hoping and praying
• 25:34
  Speaker 9: that the time barrier is about to.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: Break, but he can't.
• 25:39
  Speaker 4: What would happen if you turned up where she is
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: or if she turned up here?
• 25:43
  Speaker 9: I don't know, but we'd be together, and that's all
• 25:45
  Speaker 9: we care about.
• 25:46
  Speaker 4: But jim listen to me.
• 25:49
  Speaker 9: She's here. What she's come through the barrier? Here in
• 25:57
  Speaker 9: this room, I see her?
• 26:03
  Speaker 4: Jane?
• 26:04
  Speaker 6: Is it reading you wealth?
• 26:06
  Speaker 10: Would it be Hello, doll?
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: Jimmy?
• 26:13
  Speaker 5: Jimmy?
• 26:17
  Speaker 4: He hung up on me. I dialed his number again.
• 26:20
  Speaker 4: The phone rang and rang, no answer. I gave up
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: and tried to figure it out. That oman's voice I
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: heard the phone.
• 26:27
  Speaker 5: And I actually heard it wasn't Jane.
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: Was I becoming affected myself?
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: I had to know. I went to Jimmy's apocket. I
• 26:38
  Speaker 4: rang the bell, kept ringing ringing. No one answered. I
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: tried to open the front door. It was locked. The
• 26:47
  Speaker 4: back door was locked too. The windows were shuttered. There
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: was no way to get in. I tried to phone
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: Jimmy the next morning nowhere. I called it off at
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: at noon he hadn't been there. Finally I went to
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: the police and talked to the detective Thatcher. Thatcher and
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: a couple of patrolmen went to the apartment. They forced
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: the front door, got into the place, searched it and
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: found nothing. I was in the living room smoking a
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: hopeless cigarette when Thatcher came to me.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: All right, mister Haynes, let's have it.
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: Have what?
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: No, this is a joke, ain't it?
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: Certainly not?
• 27:28
  Speaker 12: Look, mister, you tell us you're worried about your friend.
• 27:31
  Speaker 12: We come here and find every door and window locked
• 27:34
  Speaker 12: from me inside. Nobody here, nothing.
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: Well, what's a gag?
• 27:40
  Speaker 12: How did he get out of the apartment and still
• 27:43
  Speaker 12: leave all the dorn windows locked.
• 27:45
  Speaker 5: From me inside?
• 27:47
  Speaker 12: He didn't disappear into thin air, did he?
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: What could I say? That Jimmy had escaped into the
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: oven now, but he was alive on some of the
• 28:01
  Speaker 4: level or dimension of existence as yet unknown to us.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: Thatcher would have taken me straight down to the psychiapic wary,
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: I said nothing. The police dragged ponds and rivers for
• 28:14
  Speaker 4: Jimmy's body, put out missing person bulletins, and so forth.
• 28:20
  Speaker 4: Eventually it was recorded that Jimmy left town, and everybody
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: accepted that obvious explanation I'm the only one who knows
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: what actually happened to Jimmy Patterson. So I'm setting this
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: down for the record to be placed in my safe
• 28:40
  Speaker 4: deposit vault and open only after my death. You can't
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: blame me. Would you care to spend the rest of
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: your life in a straight tack? That's it?
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: The Other Now by Murray Leinster. Thanks to Galaxy, that
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: wonderful science fiction magazine now in the stands next week
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: another extraordinary Tale of Tomorrow Auto Galaxy science fiction magazine
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: called The Stars Are the Sticks by Theodore Sturgeon, A
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: tingling drama sure to send your imagination spinning out beyond
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: the Moon to the man made planet called Curbstone. Rendezvous
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: of Tomorrow's Adventurers. This is your host o mentor, and
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: remember we've got a date next week.
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: Our time. Tales of follow up.
• 30:03
  Speaker 13: Heard in tonight's play where Laws and Zerby as Haynes,
• 30:07
  Speaker 13: Dick York as Jimmy Raymond, Edward Johnson was your host.
• 30:12
  Speaker 3: Music composed and.
• 30:14
  Speaker 13: Conducted by Bobby Christian, scripted adaptation by Michael Sklar, produced
• 30:18
  Speaker 13: by ABC in association with George Foley, and directed by
• 30:23
  Speaker 13: Clark Andrews.