The Fire

Bally started to talk. She kept fidgeting, moving the hood over her face so it would cover her burns. "I, um, I was in New York, I think. It was only for a few hours and then I went back to sleep and I woke up back in my time. I called Roland and Mona and they came out to get me. They said you had disappeared a few days ago, but they were sure you would turn up, just like me."

We were sitting on a bench in a park. Mona had been staying at nearby low-rent housing, but she said the room was as small as a coffin, so she didn't want to stay there. She wanted to tell the story in the open air.

"So I was at the house and a few days later, I woke up to a noise. I went downstairs and you were there. I mean, it wasn't you you, but a future you. You looked older and your face had...scars." She couldn't look at me when she was talking, like she was ashamed at herself, even for something I had done. "You were pouring gasoline all over the house. I didn't know what to do. I tried to wake up Roland and Mona, but their beds were empty. They must have become unstuck in the night."

She leaned forward. "Finally, you, the future you, lit a match and...well, set the house on fire. You didn't say anything. You just looked at me with this...grin on your face. And then..." She stopped.

"What?" I said. "What happened? Why didn't you just run, get out of there?"

"Because you were burning," she whispered. "You had set yourself on fire, too, and I wanted to put it out. I tried to put it out, but I couldn't. It hurt so much and then...then I remembered being dragged out of there by a firefighter. I remember the pain of the cold air on my skin and I tried to find you again, but you weren't there."

She stopped talking then. "I'm sorry," I said. "I don't...I don't know why I would do that. What would make me."

"I've been thinking about it," she said. "It was probably one of the Unchanging. The Rover or the Rawboned Man. Or maybe, I mean, I've heard of something recently that can look exactly like other people. Maybe it was that."

"Maybe," I said.

"And now you're back," Bally said. "The present you, not the future you. Now we can look for Roland and Mona, right? Now we can find another place to live and everything will be fine, right?"

"Right," I said. "Right."