Drifters (fiction)

The world about me blurs for an instant, the people notice nothing. I stay silent for a moment as I settle into this new place/time. Another day on the job and a job I have to guess at.
No one ever tells me anything.
The coffee cup before me is half-full, where I drifted in from, it was a soda without ice. I don’t like coffee, but looking over the bar for the soda fountain, I see only Barista equipment. No soda jerks on this world-line. I pick up the mug, still warm, so This Rendition of me hasn’t been here for to long.
“You want me to top off that Joe for ya, Rick?” Asks the waitress behind the bar. Obviously, I am a regular here, just as I was a regular at the bar I walked into on the other worldline, only my name there was Robert.(not Bob, that version Hated ‘Bob’.)
“Sure thing. Ya got a paper laying around I can get a gander at?” One advantage of using shadows of ourselves is already having the familiarity of the space time we are traveling too. Hard to access all the memories, but they are there too.
“Yeah, Charlie bought one this morning, just want the sports or the obits?”
“The whole thing if he’s done with it, if’n ya don’t mind. “ I check the status of my stomach to see if this version has already eaten. He hadn’t, “Can ya get me a plate of slop too. Feelin’ kinda grumbly this morning.”
“Whoo-boy, I’ma gonna get a tip from Scrooge McRick,,,” she laughs as she heads towards the window to the kitchen. I glance at the mirror near the window, using it to glance outside the building. Oh-shit. It looks like the mid 1930’s out on that street. There is even a horse drawn ice-cart making its rounds. Michelle returns with the promised paper and I thank her. I lay it out on the counter front page up, I don’t really need to read it, so much as see what the general layout of this world-line is. Apparently the King of Germany is having issues with an English Pope in London. At least I won’t be dealing with Nazi’s again. I hope,,,
This track is about 5 deviations from my main line. I keep scanning the headlines, hoping my ‘pilot’ will highlight one of them, indicating what my job is here. All world-lines converge to some extent: I am not an anomaly in line drifting, I am a controlled drifter. Unfortunately, there are uncontrolled drifters out there that muck up other lines. Us controlled drifters are the hunter killers of those uncontrolled drifters, but we are also the janitors to clean up the messes they create.
“Here’s breakfast Rick,” Michelle says, putting the plate on top of the paper I’m scanning. “You need to eat and not worry about that malarky. Ain’t nuthin’ new under the sun.”
“Truer words were never spoken, Michelle” I reply back, looking down at two eggs sunny side up and a side of baked beans and hagus. Gonna be a long slog through this world line. I get the impression from the hagus, that they have never seen biscuits and gravy or bacon. Michelle slips my bill under the coffee mug, face down.
I move the plate and continue scanning the paper as I eat. This version of me doesn’t seem to mind the odd to me tastes of hagus and baked beans for breakfast, so I isolate that part of my mind away from my mission side and carry on. After a lifetime of drifting the world lines, its easy to do. Finally, after I had finished the plate of ‘slop’, and into my third ‘cuppajoe’, one headline ‘illuminated’ for me.
“Senator Gregory promotes Federal Reserve Bill”
I grab my bill for my breakfast and look at the costs. A full breakfast and coffee: eight cents. I reach into my pocket for change, and see all silver coins. No bills of any sort. I lay a quarter down on top of the bill, wave goodbye to the staff and head to the street. The smells of unregulated carburetors and horse shit assails my sinuses. The tallest building I see is maybe 10 stories. Downtown Chicago, and nothing taller than 100’ and everything is brick construction. Maybe this world line is a bit more than 5 deviations from mine. I reach back into my pocket and check my change: Yup, a $20 gold eagle and a bunch of silver cartwheels; so The U.S. is an actual country here, and since there are Senators, I am assuming that this version is a solid Constitutional Republic, not the Democratic nightmare that my world line had devolved into. Maybe this is the ‘anchor’ line that keeps my regular world line from deteriorating into full blown world communism. Other than baked beans and hagus as breakfast items, I could learn to like it here.
I’d better hold that thought, there are likely some nasty surprises in store for me: after all, Germany has a King and the center of the Catholic Faith is now located in London, not Rome. I would love to see a history book and how that little shift came to be. I’m getting nothing from this version of me’s memories. Probably King Henry the Second and all of his divorces had something to do with that shift.
First stop, a library, to catch up on world details I am lacking in this version of me. Second stop, Senator Gregory’s offices or home. I need to be close to feel if this Senator is a Drifter, and it doesn’t matter if he is controlled or a rogue; my mission is to stop him from getting that bill enacted.

(stay tuned)