Master of Space and Time Read Free

better, Nancy?”
    â€œA little. Could you do something with Serena? She’s been just awful. This morning she went next door and stuck her hand in the baby’s mouth. That baby only has one tooth, but it bit Serena and she threw a fit. Mary Jo had to carry her back here.”
    â€œWhat a brat.”
    â€œOh, but be nice to her. I was just like Serena when I was little.”
    Unable to turn the knob, Serena began kicking the door. “Dada! Dada! Dada! Dada!”
    â€œHere I come. Don’t break the door.”
    When I opened the door, Serena squealed and toddled off at high speed. I followed her into the kitchen and popped the top on a Bud. One thing about Nancy, she kept the fridge well-stocked. I inhaled the first beer and started a second. That regress had been bad news. In a way it had taken place outside of time. I wondered what would have happened if I’d wrung the neck of the thumb-sized Fletcher in the toy car. The giant would have done the same to me, of course, while being choked himself and uh uh uh. Hall of mirrors. Harry’sdoing. Master of space and time. I’d ask him for five million.
    I got out the phone book and looked under Appliances, Service and Repair . Harry had taken over his family’s business when his parents died last winter. I’d never seen the place yet. The ad was pure Harry:
    Don’t Think We Don’t Think Don’t
Think Don’t
Robotics and Appliance Repair
GERBER CYBERNETICS
    Twenty Years at the Same Location!
Yes, We Take Cash!
824-1301     501 Suydam St.
New Brunswick
    Cybernetics . That was a word Harry and I had always laughed about. Nobody has any idea what it means, it’s just some crazy term that Norbert Wiener made up. Gerber Cybernetics. I dialed the number.
    â€œHello?” An old woman’s questioning quaver.
    â€œThis is Joseph Fletcher. Is Mr. Gerber in?”
    â€œI’ll get him. Haaaaaaaaryr! ” There were footsteps, the sound of breaking glass, a curse, some yelling. The person at the other end knocked the phone off the counter, then picked it up.
    â€œHello?”
    â€œHarry! What do you have?” I lowered my voiceso that Nancy wouldn’t hear me. “I can spare two grand, but no more.”
    â€œWho’s this?” He sounded confused. In the background the old-woman-voice was still yelling.
    â€œWho’s this . Who do you think it is, space cadet?”
    â€œIs this Joe Fletcher?”
    â€œI’m supposed to come tomorrow, right?”
    â€œWe’re open ten to five on Saturdays.”
    â€œI’ll come in early and we can have lunch together. Like real businessmen. Do you have any circuit diagrams for the thing?”
    â€œYou want me to invent something?”
    â€œI thought you already had it. Master of Space and Time , right?”
    â€œI don’t know what you’re talking about, Fletch. Are you drunk?”
    This was getting nowhere fast. If the little Harrys had been from the future, then maybe he really didn’t know what I was talking about. “You’re going to be master of space and time,” I explained. “I want five million dollars.”
    â€œHold on.” There were voices in the background. “Yes, it’s ready, ma’am. Fletcher, I’m going to have to hang up. Customers. See you tomorrow!”
    Serena had climbed onto my lap while I was talking. She was about as short as you can be and still walk. I planted a kiss on her fat little cheek. “You’re not really a brat, are you?”
    â€œDada hand.” She starfished her little paw against my palm. “Serena hand!”
    I looked around our shabby living area. Everything plastic, piles of laundry, and the TV always on. I wished I’d bought some good furniture when I’d had the money. Nancy and Serena deserved better than this.

3
The Peasant and the Sausage
    S ATURDAY was cool and rainy. I stopped by my bank and then