City Out of Time. William Robison III
leaned in between the two brothers to change their point of view. They both looked at Celeste and forgot whatever else they were going to say. Celeste pretended not to notice.
“Where did you live out there, Lanz?” Celeste asked.
Lanz looked out the window and pointed over a nearby peak. “About fifty miles over that hill… in Vegas.”
“Vegas? Is that a nice town?”
“You’ve never been to Vegas?”
Celeste thought about it for a moment and then said, “No. I don’t think so.”
Lanz looked at Seth who just shrugged his shoulders, “Travelers come from all over, Lanz. Some have never been anywhere but home and here. Just because most of us have some sort of wanderlust doesn’t mean we’ve always been able to act upon it. Even normal people want to travel to far more places than they could ever visit.”
Lanz leaned back in the booth and gently rested his hand on Celeste’s hand. “Someday I’ll have to show you my home town.”
Celeste pulled her hand out from under Lanz’s and asked, “In what year?”
“We could go tomorrow,” Lanz suggested, “It’s only 50 miles away.”
“I think she was asking in what year you wanted to visit… personally, I’ve always loved the Rat Pack years,” Seth returned.
The waitress returned just then with their orders. She placed them expertly in front of each of them, but stopped just after she had delivered Lanz’s meal and frowned.
“What sort of outfit is that supposed to be?” she asked.
Lanz was wearing his rewashed clothes from the day before – a t-shirt and a pair of Dockers stretch pants. But he was completely underdressed for business attire and over-dressed for casual. His brother and Celeste were in their Corps uniforms and were apparently inconspicuous in the City – but Lanz stuck out in his 90’s specific attire.
Seth leaned in to rescue his brother. “He’s an actor from over at the theater. It’s a costume.”
“What’s it supposed to be?” she asked.
“The future,” Lanz said, theatrically.
“Disrespectful, if you ask me,” she replied, and walked away.
“What? They’ve never seen James Dean here?”
“James Dean was cool, bro,” Seth noted.
Lanz tucked into his Bacon Cheeseburger and was pleasantly surprised at how good it tasted. It was one of the freshest, juiciest, and tastiest cheeseburgers he’d ever had. The look on his face must have said it all, though, because Seth was nodding in rhythm to Lanz’s chewing.
“See what I mean,” Seth said. “It’s good, yeah?”
Lanz nodded and immediately took another bite. It was just as good as the first.
Even Celeste seemed to enjoy her burger, though she didn’t eat it as vigorously as Lanz and Seth devoured theirs. Lanz finished his burger in what felt like record time and was ready to eat another one, but decided to munch on his French fries and drink his chocolate shake instead. He was just finishing his shake when Celeste finished her cheeseburger.
“Well, guys,” Seth said between burps, “I’d love to stay and chat but I’ve got to get back for debrief – and then, I think, maybe I’ll head over to the bar before heading home for the night. Anyone care to join me for a drink later?”
“I’ve got to work in the morning,” Lanz noted.
“Me too,” Celeste replied.
“Okay, then… see you later, guys,” Seth said.
He got up and walked out of the diner.
Lanz turned to Celeste and asked, “What about you? Do you have a debriefing to go to?”
“No… I’m pretty much off duty.”
“I was just going to take a tour of the City when I ran into you,” Lanz said. “I could really use a good tour guide.”
“I don’t know, Lanz… I’ve got things that I was planning to do.”
“Like what?”
“I have a ton of laundry,” she noted. “And… well, I’m… there was a book I was going to read.”
“Right… laundry… and reading…” Lanz said. “Or… a nice tour of the City and some good conversation?”
Celeste smiled. “So you see my dilemma then?”
“Oh, definitely… these are such impossible choices,” Lanz intoned seriously, “A decision of this magnitude must be weighed with the utmost conviction.”
“I don’t think you’re taking my lack of laundry seriously,” Celeste noted.
“If you run out of clothes… we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it,” Lanz winked.
“And then there is the book…”
“Yes,” Lanz said, as he stood up, “I hadn’t thought about that just yet. What sort of book is it?”
“Hard cover,” she returned.
“Hmm… very important then,” Lanz held out a hand for Celeste and helped her to her feet.
For a brief moment they stared into each other’s eyes.
“If you come with me, I’ll tell you a story that you’ll never find in any book,” Lanz commented.
“What sort of story?” she asked.
Lanz stepped away from her and started walking towards the door, “You’ll have to come with me to find out.”
Lanz walked aimlessly in the direction of the Plaza until Celeste caught up to him and said, “If you want a proper tour, we’d better return to your own time.”
They passed through the tube station again and headed up a staircase marked “90” and emerged in the Plaza that Lanz had come to know as his own. But very quickly, they turned and exited the Plaza and for the first time in his own time, Lanz was walking the streets of the City.
He noticed immediately the lack of any name-brand stores or offices or marketing. It was like the TV ad people had gone through town air-brushing out all of the various signs, logos, and markings of pop-culture. It looked like a normal town in every other way, but that one way was quite apparent in its invisibility.
“What are all these stores? If nobody owns anything?”
“It’s not quite like that,” Celeste explained. “Just because you can’t buy a television, doesn’t mean you can’t own one. If you wanted a TV, for instance, you’d go to Jay’s Television Emporium on New Hampshire Street. It looks like any other television store on the inside, except that once you select the TV that you want, instead of paying you go to the counter and enter your name on the want list. When the next TV becomes available, they deliver it to your home.”
“Just like that?”
“There’s really no reason for it to be more complicated than that,” Celeste answered. “There’s no real need for capitalism here. How rich can you possibly want to get when you can take anything you want from anywhere and anywhen? Possessions become kind of meaningless with time travel.”
They continued walking, looking into the shop windows along the way, until they came to a large boulevard that crisscrossed the valley down its center spine – parallel to the river but a few blocks removed. A trolley line ran up the center of the boulevard – east and west. They boarded a trolley heading east. The trolley was quite full, and the two of them had to stand.
The trolley looked old-fashioned