A Clock Only Turns In One Direction

[sameoldsong]

Sean's place isn't much to look at but it'll do for now. The four-story tenement is squat compared to others on the street, low and old and not very well kept up. Someone divided the apartments up years ago to squeeze more money out of the building, so what they've got is a room and a half to themselves - a big bedroom, an okay sized bathroom, and a narrow kitchen with barely enough room for the ice box and sinks. No stove, but Sean's managed to get by without it for now, thanks to all the automats and restaurants nearby.

The bedroom's the best part of the apartment. It's got a window that looks out over the fire escape, and it's got a half-decent bed and a cot that Kyle can start out with and trade in for a real one, once they've got the money to get that sort of thing. Sean's got a small table set up in the closet and underneath it, there's a short shelf crammed full of pulp magazines with flashy and lurid covers. Most of it is crime fiction, but there's hero pulps too, and the science fiction and even a few of the romance ones tucked near the bottom of the piles.

It's a little strange getting used to having someone else in his space again, but Sean picks it up quickly. After all, he spent most of his life sharing rooms with family and falling asleep listening to the sounds of their breathing and snoring. And feeding two is as cheap as feeding one, especially when you've got two paydays to put together.

The biggest difference with Kyle is that he's got questions, and a lot of them. Sean's chosen to believe him, and it's probably good he did, because Kyle sure believes himself. It's a little funny answering questions about everything, because Kyle really doesn't know a thing about the world.

Well, that's not entirely true. He knows some things. You just can't ever be sure what he knows and what he doesn't. For one, Kyle's very handy with a gun.

It's clear he doesn't like the work they're doing but that's okay. So far they've gotten lucky and Sean's pretty sure it's just drugs they're moving, which is better than some of the other alternatives. They show up, they unload the ships in the dark, they get paid out and they take a trolly back home, just in time to get to the neighbourhood as the shops are opening up.

They get some fresh sandwiches and a few things to eat later and head back up to the apartment. It's warm, so Sean pops the window and goes out to sit on the fire escape with Kyle while they eat. The view's not the most exciting, but he still likes looking at it, just watching all the people head off to work or the kids go off to school.

"So what do people eat in the future?" Sean ends up asking, since it seems like Kyle isn't even a little picky about what food he gets.

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[chronosoldier]

Kyle's spent most of his life living in a series of uncomfortable places. Burned out buildings. Abandoned and scavenged autos. Spider holes. If the place was suitable for hiding from metal, he'd hunker down there for the day. Even after joining the Resistance his living conditions were hardly vast, him and three other men bunking in a single room barely large enough to fit their cots. So to him, Sean's apartment is positively spacious. He enjoys pacing it the first few days, walking from room to room and just taking them in.

And then there's the view. He's passed whole hours admiring that view, just standing at the window while Sean was out and silently taking it all in, so silently Sean thought he had left until he came to the bedroom looking for one of the pulps. Kyle has been enjoying those too, once Sean introducing him to them and explained what their purpose was. Few books survive in 2029, let alone books written just to entertain. Reading's not something he has gotten to do very often, and to his surprise he enjoys it. Climbing out onto the fire escape, he can take one of the pulps with him and just lose himself in it all, the words on the page and the images in his head and then the sights smells and sounds all around him.

As roommates go, Kyle is singularly unobtrusive. He sleeps quietly, neither snoring nor sleep talking, with only the occasional fitful night that might disturb Sean. He always asks before touching any of Sean's stuff, always knocks before using the restroom, and never takes long in the tub.

But he does ask questions. Oh, but he asks questions. About everything -- Ireland (not Eyer Land; Sean had shown him the correct spelling in a newspaper and he had memorized it carefully), Britain, the Irish War (wars actually, as there's been more than one), the great War, the pulps, and just about anything else that catches his eye. Compared to 2029 the world of 1924 is impossibly complex, alive in a way he never imagined and so beautiful he could weep at it. It's a good thing he took Sean's proposition, because even after six weeks he now realizes he knew basically nothing.

He knows guns, though. Even the guns of this day, antiques by 2029, he's handled before. Any firearm's a good salvage after all, and a good soldier knows how to use good salvage.

So Sean introduces him to his boss, Kyle proves he's handy with a gun and knows how to lift, and just like that they put him to work. And it's quiet work to his relief, quieter than he was expecting, even if there's a couple of odd stragglers he and Sean have to scare off. He's already used to night shift work, in his era that's the only safe time to come out. And then they ride the trolly home and usually make in time for the opening shops, and that's the best part. It's like seeing the neighborhood come to life in front of him.

After a week of mostly-regular meals Kyle's no longer wolfing down any food that hits his hands, at least not right away. He waits to eat his sandwich so he can eat it with Sean, the two of them passing through the apartment they share and climbing out onto the fire escape to enjoy the cool morning air. He stares out at the view attentively, gladly taking in the morning even though he's seen mornings just like this from this same fire escape before now. He likes seeing the people come and go, and luckily for him Sean does too.

"Whatever we can find," Kyle tells him, unwrapping his sandwich but not tucking into it just yet, opting to savor the smell of it instead. "Most of it doesn't taste as good as this. Or smell as good."