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"And then," I said, "everything was back the way it was I was standing there again, in the dark, shoes and socks soaked in that stinking, ice-cold liquid To say it was a weird feeling doesn’t do it justice, because at thatand an equally clear "

This seeh He said, "So, did the plane go down or not?"

"No" I paused for a moment and said, "It didn’t Not yet"

This confused Arnie further, but he waited patiently for ood reporter, down to the last

I said, "And as I was standing there, in the stench and the darkness, a thought ca, the shadow man ‘This ht then that all o back there to that spot at any tio back and short that wire or ja with two hundred other people But that ain’t so strange, is it? You drive to the doctor’s office to hear the results of your X-ray and you pray that it isn’t cancer Isn’t that what you’re praying for, that God will reach back in the past? Back before the X-ray was taken, before you even saw the doctor Months before, so He can stop that tu in the first place?"

Arnie nodded and said, "Only this was the opposite, right? A threat They were tellin’ you they can go back and irl out of the equation Anytime they want So you wake up someday and see empty bed beside you and say, ‘Gosh, it’s a pity Ao’ And you look and see all the headlines have changed and all those lives are lost and history is tweaked Changed to suit their needs"

I said, "You do catch on, Arnie It takes a little tie," he continued, "was that you need to back off ’Cause why elsehatever plans they got, because if not they’ll go back and cut Amy out of the timeline"

I started to speak, couldn’t, then sed and finally said, "You see, I screwed it up I had it just right in the beginning, I had no connections No family, no money, no career, no nothin’ What could they do to ed with Aot a hold on reen eyes and I think, hey, saving the world, that’s Hollywood bullshit The best I can do is save this little bit of the world, this little corner that irl stand in And every ti Like the game is over, check and mate"

Arnie said, "And you never ate her?"

"What?"

"You never turned into a monster and ate her?"

"No I’ve never turned into a ht for ato?"

I shrugged Arnie let out a breath, then stood up off the floor and brushed off his pants with his hands He said, "I don’t knohat this’ll ht of what you just said But I think you should hear it"

"Are you going to tellthis tionna tell you now, if you do decide to write all this up as a feature article it’s gonna suck"

"For the purposes of what I’onna start with the premise that the shadow people are real, okay? Not that I’m convinced, but just for the purpose of what I’m about to say"

"Yeah, yeah"

"And that ti to them as it means to you and me And, like you said, they can reach backward and pull you right out of the past and present and everything and nobody is the wiser"

"Right, right" I o on

"So how far back do you think they could go? Could they go back and vanish the guy who cured polio?"

"Oh I don’t--I don’t think so"