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night's room had had two doors, and two windows, and here were two doors and
two windows in the same locations. But these windows lacked screens or shades,
as well as nearly all their glass. Green leaves, as of dense bushes, were
crowding in from outside; he must be on the ground floor. Through the broken
windows came in the smell of lilacs and the song of robins.
For a minute or so he stood unsteadily in the middle of the room, turning
round and round in a kind of hopeless stupidity. He stared at the faded and
weathered wallpaper last night the walls had been painted and at the
white-painted woodwork. Yes, as far as the general architecture went, this
looked like the same room in which he had fallen asleep last night. But last
night's house had been decorated and comfortably furnished, and this one was
long abandoned.
When Jerry stumbled over to the door to the room adjoining and pushed it open,
there was no one in there either. This chamber was as barren as the one in
which he had awakened, and its windows were broken too. Outside the broken
windows, birds were singing cheerfully. No doubt they had a good idea of where
they were.
The need to find plumbing, or some emergency substitute, was fast becoming an
imperative. Jerry, wary of the splintery floor, got his feet into the boots.
They fit him perfectly, and felt as if they had
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Saberhagen, Fred - After the Fact been already broken in. Then he went down
the hallway looking for a bathroom.
He needed only a few moments to decide that he was wasting his time. There
wasn't a bathroom in this house, not on the ground floor anyway, and if there
was one upstairs it couldn't be functional. So he would just have to go
outside. Somewhere&
He reached a back doorway, from which the door was missing.
Untended fields surrounded the house for as far as he could see. In a back
yard overgrown with weeds were a couple of ramshackle outbuildings, including
a privy partially screened from the house by tall hollyhocks barren of flowers
this early in the year and more spring-blooming lilac bushes. The door of the
privy squeaked open on what looked like homemade hinges when Jerry pushed it
in, and a field mouse scurried out of his way. The smell inside was very old,
but still pungent enough to be the final trigger for his nausea.
Emerging some time later from the wooden sentry-box of the abandoned latrine,
Jerry felt considerably better, though his head still ached and his hands
trembled. At least he was back in the world again, and prepared to deal with
it.
In a great silence he walked completely around the deserted house, confirming
that he had the place entirely to himself. Then he stood for what felt like a
long time in the back yard, looking things over.
He shaded his eyes with a hand when he looked east against the morning sun.
There were no other houses nearby in any direction;
there was what looked like another farmhouse, about a mile to the
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Saberhagen, Fred - After the Fact south, but that was too far away for him to
be able to make out any details.
Whoever had concocted this joke had known what they were doing, and had spared
no effort or expense.
From where Jerry stood he was able to see a part of an unpaved road that
passed close in front of the house. There were no phone lines along that road,
no utility poles of any kind. He could see part of a split-rail fence, much
like the ones at New Salem. There was no traffic passing. He watched for what
felt like a considerable time
his wristwatch was missing and not a single vehicle came by.
When he gave up at last and re-entered the house, his first sickness and
confusion had passed, and he could look at things more thoughtfully. Now Jerry
noted the complete absence of light switches. Not surprising when there were
no incoming wires visible.
Nor were there any electric outlets in the barren walls, any more than there
was running water in the kitchen. He'd passed a hand-
levered pump in the back yard.
Next he toured the house, upstairs and down; everything he saw confirmed that
the place had been abandoned for years. Almost all the windows were gone, all
the rooms suffering from exposure to the weather. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]