Another example: in her apartment, Wanda Tamberly floors Castelar with an improvised club and phones Everard but gets his answering machine. As Castelar, bleeding, rises and advances, sword in hand, Wanda screams into her phone:
"'Wanda Tamberly. Palo Alto. Time traveler... Friday night before Memorial Day. Help!'" (p. 713)
Possibly about to be killed, certainly with the sword point at her throat, Wanda thinks that at least she has left a clue for Everard. She does not think of time travel. Meanwhile, a timecycle bearing Everard and a woman colleague, hovers outside the window. They see Castelar threatening Wanda. Could they not have stunned him through the window? Instead, they hop inside. However, they are above Castelar's timecycle and flattened against the ceiling. Everard is hampered in pointing a gun at Castelar who leaps onto his timecycle and escapes. Wanda asks why they did not jump back in time. Everard replies that this is not a good idea. I agree although possibly not for quite the same reasons.
Of course, the author controls the sequence of fictional events. If Anderson had wanted Castelar to be captured in Wanda's apartment, then that is what would have happened. However, the author had planned a more dramatic climax for Castelar. In "Time Patrol," Stane is apprehended relatively quickly because more has to happen involving Everard and Whitcomb before the story concludes. A fictional plot is carefully constructed, unlike the haphazard successions of events that constitute real life.
1 comment:
Real life has a story and a plot... but only in retrospect.
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