Only…
it wasn’t Anthony.
Anthony
was somewhere else.
Because now…
Gina
was somewhere else too.
Katya
stared
at the map.
“If Rochester
doesn’t work…”
she muttered,
“…then she grows up
in Vermont.”
Tiki blinked.
“Your solution
to destiny
is real estate?”
Katya
ignored him.
Different school.
Different streets.
Different friends.
Different life.
No concerts.
No canoe.
No barbecue.
No Anthony.
Elegant.
Again.
The machine
lurched sideways.
The year
stayed put.
The address
didn’t.
A farmhouse.
Mountains.
Snow.
A mailbox
with Gina’s name
painted crooked.
Katya smiled.
“See?”
Tiki
looked
through the windshield.
A yellow school bus
rattled
down the road.
Three kids
got off.
One waved.
Another
carried
a guitar.
The third—
“…Anthony?”
Katya froze.
“No.”
The boy
wasn’t Anthony.
Wrong face.
Wrong hair.
Wrong century,
almost.
He knocked
on the farmhouse door.
“Hi.”
“My family
just moved here.”
“My parents said
there’s another kid
my age.”
Behind him,
a moving truck.
On the side,
the company logo.
Mutual Friends Moving & Storage.
Tiki
closed his eyes.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
Katya
was already
doing math.
“If she grows up
here…”
she whispered,
“…they become
childhood friends.”
Tiki sighed.
“Congratulations.”
“You prevented
the romance.”
Katya looked hopeful.
“Really?”
“No.”
“I think
you just invented
something worse.”
The Time Machine
hovered,
patient
as ever.
Destiny,
it seemed,
didn’t care
where Gina lived.
It had
excellent forwarding addresses.
Corney Press 