41 Comments

Poor Clayton hadn't read the Bradbury story with the butterfly....

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Everyone should read Bradbury and other science fiction writers before they travel in time. There's no better instruction manual than those by scifi writers.

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Give me those time travel stories…always thought provoking and twisty . I enjoyed the suspense. When I was tenish I read a book called Danger: Dinosaurs! By Ricard Marsten, 1953. I was truly scared. I found a dusty copy in a used bookstore and reread it. Still scary!

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Classic time travel stories are among the best. I haven't read Danger: Dinosaurs! but I'll check it out.

I'm happy you liked reading this little tale of mine.

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That was a twist! Though a little warning voice was telling me that there might be problems caused by the dime exchange. Fun story!

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I'm glad you liked The Cheater. Like when we walk in the woods, it's best not to leave anything that doesn't belong in the past.

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Great read, as always, you find a surprising yet inevitable twist to end with. Thanks!

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Thank you, Tree. I guess there's truth to the saying, "Cheaters never prosper."

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What a mind you have, Bill Adler. Hard to tell fact from fiction here! Great story.

PS It is still cheating...

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Thank you, Sharron. I'm happy you liked this tale or morals and immorals. I think it's cheating, too.

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The question was posed in City Slickers. What if a space ship came down with a beautiful woman and she would have sex with you and then she would fly fly away. No one would even know!

"But I'd know. And I wouldn't like myself"

In another brief essay the idea was posed you can only have monogamy once. If you break that it is over.

Monogamy is a thrilling opportunity. It is many things. Among other things it is an oasis. It changes over time. It is a shared journey.

In another brief essay the idea was posed you can only have monogamy once. If you break that it is over.

The prospect of breaking that bond is frightening.

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I haven't read City Slickers, but I'll check it out.

Yes, there are some things that you can never undo as Clayton discovered.

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It's a wonderful comic movie! One of the the best! Many lovely comic and insightful vignettes:

Thanks for your reply!

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"Haven't you heard about the guy known as the Cheater?/He'll take your girl and then he'll lie and he'll mistreat her..." (Bob Kuban and the In Men, late 1960s).

This one didn't get that far, but it could have happened.

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I'm listening to The Cheater now on YouTube. Catchy beat.

With time travel there's always a chance that Clayton will return to the past and then knows what will happen?

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“What if you went back in time and had sex with a woman?” When I got to this line, I thought the story was going to end in a “I’m my own grandpa” situation.

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I'm glad I could surprise you.

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I seriously really love the twists you put in! Another great read!

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Thank you, Kathy. I'm very happy to hear that.

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Inflationary repercussions.

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Indeed, yes.

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Fantastic story Bill! Time travel tales have always perplexed me. They seem to be split into two camps, those that believe you can change the past, and those that say the universe has a way of making it happen anyways.

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Thank you. I love to write time travel stories and I'm glad you enjoyed this one. They perplex me, too, at times because the rules for time travel seem both fluid and contradictory, with a little complexity thrown in.

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Indeed.

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Cheaters never prosper, as they say. I was expecting Betty to be his friend’s Grandmother and he became his grandfather. Or he made her pregnant and changed history in some terrible way. So many possibilities for disaster. 🤣

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I think there's a sequel to come, and that's where the real mayhem will begin.

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I thought Emily Crawford was going to be revealed to be Betty and The Cheater’s wife in this time was Betty’s granddaughter, with The Cheater being grandfather to his wife.

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I like that twist!

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So inventive. 10 years in Rikers... I hope Betty was worth it! I wonder if Rikers has any policy against bringing that device into the cell? Could wind up being the most glorious 10 years in history!

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Thank you, Peter. I'm glad you enjoyed this this tale of oops, maybe I should have.

But time travel being time travel, Clayton might receive a letter in prison from Betty, as she helps him plot his escape and return to 1920.

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It's still cheating. Bwahaha!

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I agree. Some people will cheat to make their cheating not feel like cheating, but it still is cheating.

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All that trouble caused by a dime. Sigh. Of course, in 1920 a dime was really worth something and was made of silver.

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Cat guess saying is true: life can change on a dime

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Cat is wise.

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