Page 69 - Effable Encounters

Autologue

“All right. If you’re same Irving Vielfrass as I am, and you are
living in 1965, then you would know something about Gwendolyn
Diamante.”
“What about her?”
“Aha! You sound defensive. If this is April, 1965, when was the
last time you saw her?”
“Over the Christmas holidays. So what?”
“And what did the two of you do together?”
“I drove out to her parents’ house, picked her up, and we went
down to the beach. But I didn’t tell anyone about it. Not in any
detail.”
“My God!”
“What? What is it?”
“You’re damned right I didn’t tell anyone about it. That was when
we broke up. This is incredible: I’m talking to myself on the other
end of this telephone!”
“No, that is impossible, Mister Whoever-you-are. I don’t know
how you found out all these things about me, but—-”
“Then ask me something nobody else could possibly know. If I
can remember it, it will prove that you and I are the same Irving
Vielfrass.”
“Okay. Try this: when I was seven years old, I stole something
from the purse of an obnoxious woman who was visiting my mother.
What was it, where did I hide it, and what happened concerning the
theft?”
“Ha! Easy, I can remember that—although I can’t tell you
what I did last weekend. That was a box of breath-deodorizing mints,
and I stuck it under the mattress of my sister’s bed. What happened
as a result? Nothing to me. When I went to look for that box later, it
was gone. Eloise must have found it.”
“Jeez. Nobody knows about that. Nobody.”
“Then this is really me, do you understand? There’s been some
kind of disjuncture in the spacetime continuum. It may not last long,
unless this is the beginning of the end. We’d better make the most of
it!”
“But—but—if this is going on for me right now, how come you
didn’t know it would happen? I’m not likely to forget this call, even
after twenty-five years.”

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