Excerpt From No Time Like Now

A selection from No Time Like Now, a story included in my short story collection Slow Machine and Other Tales of Suspense and Danger, now available at Amazon Kindle Books.

NO TIME LIKE NOW
"Another day. Another dozen floors swept," Carter said, covering his mouth with his hand, as if stifling a yawn. Although he hoped he sounded tired to Luisa, his heart raced with anticipation.
Luisa laughed while she took away his empty coffee cup to the sink behind the counter. "That's what you do now? Sweep floors?"
She remembered him. Why else had she said "now", as if she had known what his job used to be? He struggled to conceal the excitement in his voice as he spoke. "I guess you could say I'm a janitor, but that's pushing it. Really, I just sweep floors."
She laughed as she rinsed out the cup and set it in the sink. "Well, we all do what we have to do." She placed a rag under the tap, ran some water on it and then wiped the counter. "Will that be all for tonight?"
He looked up at the clock beside the door. Not long until curfew. He would have to move fast.
"I guess so. Could I have the bill please?"
"Sure."
He wanted to look at her again, but he was afraid she would think he was staring. Instead, he glanced again at the clock, clenching and opening his fists as he watched the second hand sweep around.
All the better that he couldn't look at her. Take a moment to think over what he had seen. She'd aged for sure, the wrinkles about her eyes, the slight plumpness of her face, her friendly but tired voice all betrayed the passage of time, but her long dark hair had the same luster, her brown eyes the same flash of passion.
He chanced another glance as she wrote up the bill at the cash register. There was something about how she wore her starched and austere waitress uniform of plain slacks and cotton blouse that made it sexy, even if it fully complied with the Guardians' Moral Code. Just the same way the Luisa he had known long ago would have worn it.
As she returned to give him his bill, she smiled. "There you go,"
"Thanks."
She walked away and he pulled out his pen from the pocket of his faded and frayed windbreaker, something he once would have been embarrassed to have been seen wearing. But now...
Choking back the fear that made his throat burn and his hand tremble, he scribbled on the back of the bill his address and the brief note that he had memorized, the small but important message he had wanted to give to her ever since he'd first seen her at the coffee shop weeks before.
He pulled some coins from his pocket. Enough for the bill and a good tip.
He left the money and the bill on the counter.
As he rose from his stool and went to the front door of the coffee shop, he looked over his shoulder and saw her slipping the bill into her pocket.
"We'll talk about Gold Castle!" she called to him.
Silently he nodded and passed through the door into the quiet night. The street lights dimmed once, twice and then regained their previous brightness. The Guardians' way of warning that eleven o'clock curfew was only forty five minutes away.
Gold Castle. He couldn't believe his luck. She really did remember him.
*
Carter returned to his bachelor apartment only blocks from the coffee shop. He stood at the door, switched on the single bare overhead light bulb and looked around.
He preferred to think of his place as the very definition of simplicity. It was the only way he had of dignifying the drabness of his surroundings.
His apartment was sparsely furnished. An alcove in a corner was equipped with an old stove. The center of the room featured a table, a chair, a sofa that doubled as his bed, a chest of drawers, and a clock radio on the table. A narrow hallway led to a cramped washroom. Before the washroom was a modest closet. A small window framed by dusty venetian blinds provided a meager view of the street two floors below.
He thought it might be a good idea to liven the place up just a little for Luisa's arrival.
He opened the closet door and after pulling aside the shirts crammed along the rack, he pressed his hand against the wall. He pulled at a chunk of plaster until it gave away, exposing a patch of brick wall behind. He grabbed one of the bricks, until an opening came into view. From this he gingerly removed a bundle wrapped in cloth. He set this down on the floor and slowly unwound the cloth until he saw the compact digital camera he had bought the other day from some shopkeeper up the road. The guy claimed to have kept it from the days before the Guardians, but Carter wasn't so sure.
Underneath the camera was the picture, clipped out long ago from some forgotten magazine. He unfolded it. His nose crinkled as a slight odor of dust and age wafted from the faded and tattered paper, but he smiled with pride as his eager eyes took in the image on the paper.
Bold yellow letters at the top of the page screamed GOLD CASTLE BEER - GOLDEN FLAVOR.
Underneath the headline, two women in bikinis reclined on a beach, basking in the glow of a golden sunset. A bottle of Gold Castle loomed on the twilit horizon.
His smile faded. Better not to leave the picture and the camera out. He should wait until he had talked to her first and made sure of a few things. After all, as everyone knew, possession of a photograph, not to mention a camera, was a criminal offense.
He wrapped the camera and picture again in the cloth and returned the bundle to the hiding place, replacing the brick and the chunk of plaster to their former positions. He hurried over to the window and pulled aside the blind, just in time to see the street lights blink five times.
Only five minutes to curfew.
He looked along the lonely street that stretched before the apartment in a faded ribbon of cracked asphalt. Cars had vanished, and pedestrians knew better than to be out so close to curfew. Except one. Yes, someone was walking, almost running up the broken sidewalk. As the figure drew closer, Carter recognized it.
Luisa.
He clenched his hands into tight, sweaty fists and he took several deep breaths as he walked to the door, standing before it, awaiting her arrival. Was she really Luisa, the model from long ago, or was she an agent from the Guardians sent to destroy him?
Best not to think about it. Best...
A knock at the door.
He unchained it and threw it open.
Luisa stood in his doorway.
"Hello, Mark," she said, her voice barely a whisper. Her breath came in short gasps. She must've ran up the steps to the apartment.
"Welcome," Carter answered, his voice almost choking in his throat.
She remembered his name. His real name.