Consider the Possibilities

By Stephan James

Harrison Carver awakes one Saturday morning to find a time-displaced army recruiter on his doorstep.

An actual Uncle Sam from the 1950s somehow managed to find his way into the 2010s and recruits Harrison to help him retrieve several AWOL soldiers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Water Dragon Publishing
• Release date: Feb 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9781962538466

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Consider the Possibilities

Stephan James

Copyright © 2024 by Stephan James

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Author’s Note

This story began, as many do, with a writing practice session and expanded from there. There is a lot of conversation these days about multiverses and quantum entanglement, and most of it seems very far removed. While the surface of this story si about those concepts, turns out it’s actually about the personal and societal changes that we’ve all experienced over the past few decades. And whether or not we are prepared to deal with those that are to come in the future.

Consider the Possibilities

If he’d seen me first, he might have shied away from knocking on my door before 8 am on a Saturday. I can’t imagine what I looked like after four hours of sleep in the past two nights, unshaven, bleary-eyed and worn down from worry and beating myself up. But he had no visibility from the porch, obviously, which is why he felt the liberty to assault the door frame.

Bang, bang, bang came the noise, startling me out of my stupor. I realized I’d been standing motionless for a good five minutes waiting for the coffee.

Who’s there? I called. The kitchen is right off the entryway of the house. The house that seems so much emptier after Janine left. After twenty-three damn good years! At least I thought they were good.

Sergeant Comrow. His voice was way too energetic for the time of day. He must have had a good night’s sleep. I envied him that much, at least.

What? Why the hell would a sergeant be on my porch?

When I opened the door the sight startled me. There, in full red-white-and-blue glory, all of five feet tall and maybe a hundred pounds, looking every bit of eighty years old, stood Uncle Sam.

Yep. That one. The guy from those old recruiting posters, who’s always looking right at the camera and pointing his finger in that menacing way.

Oh, shit, I said, before I could stop myself.

Don’t swear, son. It’s not becoming of a representative of the world’s most respected nation.

The old man