Finally, “What if the Diaboli are victorious after all?”
Stock said, “They aren’t. Two weeks ago, the main fleets joined action and theirs was annihilated with practically no loss to ourselves, although we were greatly outnumbered. We might have been fighting unarmed ships. We had stronger weapons of greater range and more accurate sighting. We had three times their effective speed since we had antiacceleration devices which they lacked. Since the battle a dozen of the other human governments have decided to join the winning side and have declared war on the Diaboli. Yesterday the Diaboli requested that negotiations for an armistice be opened. The war is practically over; and henceforward the Diaboli will be confined to their original planets with only such future expansions as we permit.”
Altmayer murmured incoherently.
Stock said, “And now union becomes necessary. After the defeat of Persia by the Greek city-states, they were ruined because of their continued wars among themselves, so that first Macedon and then Rome conquered them. After Europe colonized the Americas, cut up Africa, and conquered Asia, a series of continued European wars led to European ruin.
“Disunion until conquest; union thereafter! But now union is easy. Let one subdivision succeed by itself and the rest will clamor to become part of that success. The ancient writer, Toynbee, first pointed out this difference between what he called a ‘dominant minority’ and a ‘creative minority.’
“We are a creative minority now. In an almost spontaneous gesture, various human governments have suggested the formation of a United Worlds organization. Over seventy governments are willing to attend the first sessions in order to draw up a Charter of Federation. The others will join later, I am sure. We would like you to be one of the delegates from Earth, Dick.”
Altmayer found his eyes flooding, “I--I don’t understand your purpose. Is this all true?”
“It is all exactly as I say. You were a voice in the wilderness, Dick, crying for union. Your words will carry much weight. What did you once say: ‘In a good cause, there are no failures.’ “
“No!” said Altmayer, with sudden energy. “It seems your cause was the good one.”
Stock’s face was hard and devoid of emotion, “You were always a misunderstander of human nature, Dick. When the United Worlds is a reality and when generations of men and women look back to these days of war through their centuries of unbroken peace, they will have forgotten the purpose of my methods. To them they will represent war and death. Your calls for union, your idealism, will be remembered forever.”
He turned away and Altmayer barely caught his last words: “And when they build their statues, they will build none for me.”
In the Great Court, which stands as a patch of untouched peace among the fifty busy square miles devoted to the towering buildings that are the pulse beat of the United Worlds of the Galaxy, stands a statue . . .
---
Easily the most frequently asked question put to any writer of science fiction stories is: “Where do you get your ideas?”
I imagine the person who asks the question is sure that there is some mysterious kind of inspiration that can only be produced by odd and possibly illicit means, or that the writer goes through an eldritch ritual that may even involve calling up the devil.
But the answer is only, “You can get an idea from anything if you are willing to think hard enough and long enough.”
That long-and-hard bit seems to disillusion people. Their admiration for you drops precipitously and you get the feeling you have exposed yourself as an imposter. After all, if long-and-hard is all it takes, anyone can do it.
Strange, then, that so few do. Anyway, my wife once broke down and asked me that question even though she knows I dislike having it asked. We had moved to the Boston area in 1949, when I took my position with Boston University School of Medicine, and periodically we made a train trip back to New York to visit our respective families.
Once, on one of those train trips, perhaps out of boredom, she asked The Question. I said, “From anything. I can probably get one out of this train trip, if I try.”
“Go ahead,” she said, naturally enough. So I thought hard and told her the story of a train trip which, when I got back home, I typed up in permanent form and called “What If--.”
The story is unusual for me in another respect, too. I am not strong on romance in my stories. Why that should be, I will leave to the parlor psychoanalyst. I merely state the fact.
Sometimes, I do have women in my stories. On rare occasions, as in “Hostess,” the woman is even the protagonist. But even then romance is a minor factor, if it appears at all.
In “What If--,” however, the story is all romance. Each time I think of that, the fact startles me. I believe it is the only one of my many stories that is all serious (as opposed to ribald) romance. Heavens!
First appearance--Fantastic, Summer 1952. Copyright, 1952, by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company.
What If--
Norman and Liwy were late, naturally, since catching a train is always a matter of last-minute delays, so they had to take the only available seat in the coach. It was the one toward the front; the one with nothing before it but the seat that faced wrong way, with its back hard against the front partition. While Norman heaved the suitcase onto the rack, Liwy found herself chafing a little.
If a couple took the wrong-way seat before them, they would be staring self-consciously into each others’ faces all the hours it would take to reach New York; or else, which was scarcely better, they would have to erect synthetic barriers of newspaper. Still, there was no use in taking a chance on there being another unoccupied double seat elsewhere in the train.
Norman didn’t seem to mind, and that was a little disappointing to Liwy. Usually they held their moods in common. That, Norman claimed, was why he remained sure that he had married the right girl.
He would say, “We fit each other, Liwy, and that’s the key fact. When you’re doing a jigsaw puzzle and one piece fits another, that’s it. There are no other possibilities, and of course there are no other girls.”
And she would laugh and say, “If you hadn’t been on the streetcar that day, you would probably never have met me. What would you have done then?”
“Stayed a bachelor. Naturally. Besides, I would have met you through Georgette another day.”
“It wouldn’t have been the same.”
“Sure it would.”
“No, it wouldn’t. Besides, Georgette would never have introduced me. She was interested in you herself, and she’s the type who knows better than to create a possible rival.”
“What nonsense.”
Livvy asked her favorite question: “Norman, what if you had been one minute later at the streetcar corner and had taken the next car? What do you suppose would have happened?”
“And what if fish had wings and all of them flew to the top of the mountains? What would we have to eat on Fridays then?”
But they had caught the streetcar, and fish didn’t have wings, so that now they had been married five years and ate fish on Fridays. And because they had been married five years, they were going to celebrate by spending a week in New York.
Then she remembered the present problem. “I wish we could have found some other seat.”
Norman said, “Sure. So do I. But no one has taken it yet, so we’ll have relative privacy as far as Providence, anyway.”
Livvy was unconsoled, and felt herself justified when a plump little man walked down the central aisle of the coach. Now, where had he come from? The train was halfway between Boston and Providence, and if he had had a seat, why hadn’t he kept it? She took out her vanity and considered her reflection. She had a theory that if she ignored the little man, he would pass by. So she concentrated on her light-brown hair which, in the rush of catching the train, had become disarranged just a little; at her blue eyes, and at her little mouth with the plump lips which Norman said looked like a
permanent kiss.
Not bad, she thought.
Then she looked up, and the little man was in the seat opposite. He caught her eye and grinned widely. A series of lines curled about the edges of his smile. He lifted his hat hastily and put it down beside him on top of the little black box he had been carrying. A circle of white hair instantly sprang up stiffly about the large bald spot that made the center of his skull a desert.
She could not help smiling back a little, but then she caught sight of the black box again and the smile faded. She yanked at Norman’s elbow.
Norman looked up from his newspaper. He had startlingly dark eyebrows that almost met above the bridge of his nose, giving him a formidable first appearance. But they and the dark eyes beneath bent upon her now with only the usual look of pleased and somewhat amused affection.
He said, “What’s up?” He did not look at the plump little man opposite.
Livvy did her best to indicate what she saw by a little unobtrusive gesture of her hand and head. But the little man was watching and she felt a fool, since Norman simply stared at her blankly.
Finally she pulled him closer and whispered, “Don’t you see what’s printed on his box?”
She looked again as she said it, and there was no mistake. It was not very prominent, but the light caught it slantingly and it was a slightly more glistening area on a black background. In flowing script it said, “What If.”
The little man was smiling again. He nodded his head rapidly and pointed to the words and then to himself several times over.
Norman said in an aside, “Must be his name.”
Liwy replied, “Oh, how could that be anybody’s name?”
Norman put his paper aside. “I’ll show you.” He leaned over and said, “Mr. If?”
The little man looked at him eagerly.
“Do you have the time, Mr. If?”
The little man took out a large watch from his vest pocket and displayed the dial.
“Thank you, Mr. If,” said Norman. And again in a whisper, “See, Liwy.”
He would have returned to his paper, but the little man was opening his box and raising a finger periodically as he did so, to enforce their attention. It was just a slab of frosted glass that he removed--about six by nine inches in length and width and perhaps an inch thick. It had beveled edges, rounded corners, and was completely featureless. Then he took out a little wire stand on which the glass slab fitted comfortably. He rested the combination on his knees and looked proudly at them.
Liwy said, with sudden excitement, “Heavens, Norman, it’s a picture of some sort.”
Norman bent close. Then he looked at the little man. “What’s this? A new kind of television?”
The little man shook his head, and Liwy said, “No, Norman, it’s us.”
“What?”
“Don’t you see? That’s the streetcar we met on. There you are in the back seat wearing that old fedora I threw away three years ago. And that’s Georgette and myself getting on. The fat lady’s in the way. Now! Can’t you see us?”
He muttered, “It’s some sort of illusion.”
“But you see it too, don’t you? That’s why he calls this ‘What If.’ It will show us what if. What if the streetcar hadn’t swerved . . .”
She was sure of it. She was very excited and very sure of it. As she looked at the picture in the glass slab, the late afternoon sunshine grew dimmer and the inchoate chatter of the passengers around and behind them began fading.
How she remembered that day. Norman knew Georgette and had been about to surrender his seat to her when the car swerved and threw Liwy into his lap. It was such a ridiculously corny situation, but it had worked. She had been so embarrassed that he was forced first into gallantry and then into conversation. An introduction from Georgette was not even necessary. By the time they got off the streetcar, he knew where she worked.
She could still remember Georgette glowering at her, sulkily forcing a smile when they themselves separated. Georgette said, “Norman seems to like you.”
Livvy replied, “Oh, don’t be silly! He was just being polite. But he is nice-looking, isn’t he?”
It was only six months after that that they married.
And now here was that same streetcar again, with Norman and herself and Georgette. As she thought that, the smooth train noises, the rapid clack-clack of the wheels, vanished completely. Instead, she was in the swaying confines of the streetcar. She had just boarded it with Georgette at the previous stop.
Liwy shifted weight with the swaying of the streetcar, as did forty others, sitting and standing, all to the same monotonous and rather ridiculous rhythm. She said, “Somebody’s motioning at you, Georgette. Do you know him?”
“At me?” Georgette directed a deliberately casual glance over her shoulder. Her artificially long eyelashes flickered. She said, “I know him a little. What do you suppose he wants?”
“Let’s find out,” said Livvy. She felt pleased and a little wicked.
Georgette had a well-known habit of hoarding her male acquaintances, and it was rather fun to annoy her this way. And besides, this one seemed quite . . . interesting.
She snaked past the line of standees, and Georgette followed without enthusiasm. It was just as Livvy arrived opposite the young man’s seat that the streetcar lurched heavily as it rounded a curve. Liwy snatched desperately in the direction of the straps. Her fingertips caught and she held on. It was a long moment before she could breathe. For some reason, it had seemed that there were no straps close enough to be reached. Somehow, she felt that by all the laws of nature she should have fallen.
The young man did not look at her. He was smiling at Georgette and rising from his seat. He had astonishing eyebrows that gave him a rather competent and self-confident appearance. Liwy decided that she definitely liked him.
Georgette was saying, “Oh no, don’t bother. We’re getting off in about two stops.”
They did. Livvy said, “I thought we were going to Sach’s.”
“We are. There’s just something I remember having to attend to here. It won’t take but a minute.”
“Next stop, Providence!” the loud-speakers were blaring. The train was slowing and the world of the past had shrunk itself into the glass slab once more. The little man was still smiling at them.
Liwy turned to Norman. She felt a little frightened. “Were you through all that, too?”
He said, “What happened to the time? We can’t be reaching Providence yet?” He looked at his watch. “I guess we are.” Then, to Liwy, “You didn’t fall that time.”
“Then you did see it?” She frowned. “Now, that’s like Georgette. I’m sure there was no reason to get off the streetcar except to prevent my meeting you. How long had you known Georgette before then, Norman?”
“Not very long. Just enough to be able to recognize her at sight and to feel that I ought to offer her my seat.”
Liwy curled her lip.
Norman grinned, “You can’t be jealous of a might-have-been, kid. Besides, what difference would it have made? I’d have been sufficiently interested in you to work out a way of meeting you.”
“You didn’t even look at me.”
“I hardly had the chance.”
“Then how would you have met me?”
“Some way. I don’t know how. But you’ll admit this is a rather foolish argument we’re having.”
They were leaving Providence. Liwy felt a trouble in her mind. The little man had been following their whispered conversation, with only the loss of his smile to show that he understood. She said to him, “Can you show us more?”
Norman interrupted, “Wait now, Liwy. What are you going to try to do?”
She said, “I want to see our wedding day. What it would have been if I had caught the strap.”
Norman was visibly annoyed. “Now, that’s not fair. We might not have been married on the same day, you know.” r />
But she said, “Can you show it to me, Mr. If?” and the little man nodded.
The slab of glass was coming alive again, glowing a little. Then the light collected and condensed into figures. A tiny sound of organ music was in Liwy’s ears without there actually being sound.
Norman said with relief, “Well, there I am. That’s our wedding. Are you satisfied?”
The train sounds were disappearing again, and the last thing Liwy heard was her own voice saying, “Yes, there you are. But where am I?”
Liwy was well back in the pews. For a while she had not expected to attend at all. In the past months she had drifted further and further away from Georgette, without quite knowing why. She had heard of her engagement only through a mutual friend, and, of course, it was to Norman. She remembered very clearly that day, six months before, when she had first seen him on the streetcar. It was the time Georgette had so quickly snatched her out of sight. She had met him since on several occasions, but each time Georgette was with him, standing between.
Well, she had no cause for resentment; the man was certainly none of hers. Georgette, she thought, looked more beautiful than she really was. And he was very handsome indeed.
She felt sad and rather empty, as though something had gone wrong-- something that she could not quite outline in her mind. Georgette had moved up the aisle without seeming to see her, but earlier she had caught his eyes and smiled at him. Liwy thought he had smiled in return.
She heard the words distantly as they drifted back to her, “I now pronounce you--”
The noise of the train was back. A woman swayed down the aisle, herding a little boy back to their seats. There were intermittent bursts of girlish laughter from a set of four teenage girls halfway down the coach. A conductor hurried past on some mysterious errand.
Liwy was frozenly aware of it all.
She sat there, staring straight ahead, while the trees outside blended into a fuzzy, furious green and the telephone poles galloped past.