From: xibo@fido.econ.arizona.edu (Mr. Coates)
Newsgroups: alt.angst,talk.bizarre
Subject: while driving home
Date: 20 Dec 92 07:51:45 GMT
Organization: Xibological Perimeter


"He's seeing monsters..."

	A very strange thing happened to me on the way home from the office
tonight.  I had been working on a Saturday, which I don't normally do, but
had chosen to do so on this day because I had skipped the past couple days
due to illness.  It was just after midnight and last call was coming near
at the various bars around town; I thought I might stop at one if I could
stop shivering (it was rather cold out).
	But as it happened, the heater in the car had not warmed me up to
a comfortable temperature by the time I neared the various bars, so I chose
to go straight home instead.  Maybe I'll go out for a drink during the
week sometime.  Before Xmas, before I have to visit El Paso for the obligatory
family rituals.  Maybe next year I won't attend; maybe by then I'll have
company of my own to keep... sure.
	Anyhow, as it happens, I was driving north on Campbell, passing
the various slow-motion cars with my sexy red MR2, a sports car I've worked
long and hard to earn.  I found myself pulling up to a red light behind
another sexy red MR2.  I don't know about you, but in Tucson such cars are
pretty darn rare.  It struck me as more than just a coincidence that this
car, which looked just like mine, was right in front of me, occupying a
space on the road that I would normally take if it were not there.
	And then I noticed I could not see the front of the MR2 in front
of me.  I could see the front of my car, but only the rear of the car ahead.
I looked behind me to see if the rear of my car was still there, and it was,
but then of course I could tell if the other car still existed.
	It had to be a temporal abnormality.
	The car ahead was not another MR2; it was *my* MR2.  I was seeing
the future again.  Several months ago, when I owned a Sentra, I saw the
future; a red MR2 was parked in my spot at the apartment complex one day.
I thought nothing of it at the time, merely wrote a note to the owner that
he had better not park in my spot again, or suffer dire consequences.  And
so, it never appeared there again.  Months afterward, I ended up buying my
red MR2.
	So this MR2 in front of me on the road, was a future self.  I peered
through the rear window, to see if I could actually see myself; and I wasn't
able to make out much, but I did see a hat, probably a fedora.  I wear such
a hat.  And of course, when peering into the car ahead, I could not see the
hat I was wearing on my true self.
	There was a major difference, however.  In the passenger seat was a
female, she was leaning over and talking with the driver.  Before I could
grasp more detail, my turnoff for the apartments came up.  But the other
MR2 did not make the turn; it kept going north, outside the city, into the
area where the nice houses are, where Campbell takes many fun curves.
	I thought some more, and realized that this other MR2, this other
self, could perhaps not be from my future, but could be from an alternate
reality, where my life had taken a different turn.  This leaves me left
wondering, just wondering, what I have to do to get back on the timeline
that leads up the hill.  Where did I err?


Xibo