Time Travelers Never Die - Jack McDevitt [32]
“He first heard about the telescope in 1609,” said Shel.
“When did he die?” asked Dave.
“In 1642.”
“So, if we assume that he would want the meeting to take place after Galileo started using the telescope—”
“We can’t assume that.”
“We can’t?”
“There’s a good chance he’d have wanted to see the Pisa experiment.”
“Dropping cannonballs off the Tower?”
“Yes.”
“When did that happen?”
“Sometime between 1589 and 1592.”
“That leaves us half a century to search.”
“Actually, it’s possible the Pisa thing didn’t happen at all. Some people think the experiment is just a legend.”
“All right.” They were in the den at Shel’s town house. “I guess our more immediate problem is the language. “Parla italiano?”
Shel smiled. “Devo andare adesso.”
“You said, ‘I have to go now.’ ”
“It’s a joke. Parlo italiano like a bandit.”
“I see we’re in for a long trip.”
“I’m not especially competent, Dave. But I’ve been working at it. We went to Rome a couple of times, and once to Venice. I was in high school then, but I picked up some of the language, so I wasn’t really starting from nothing.”
“So now you want to practice?”
“If you have the patience.”
“I’m at your disposal, Shel.”
“Okay. No more English for the rest of the night.”
IF there was anyone David could have confided in, it was Katie Gibson. Katie was a lifeguard at the local YWCA. They hadn’t exactly been doing a lot of dating, but he and Katie were friends. Both were waiting for the One and Only to show up. Meanwhile, they were marking time with each other. Had even slept together a couple of times. But the chemistry wasn’t really there. Dave had even let Katie know about his interest in Helen, whom she’d never met. She was horrified when he told her about introducing Helen to Shel. She’d wished him luck and advised him to be more aggressive. “Get out front with her,” she’d said. “Hire a brass band to follow her around if you have to.”
“That would put her off,” Dave had said.
“Not if there’s anything there. If she likes you, you need to take some action. Sweep her off her feet. If she’s really not interested, nothing you can do will change that.”
“You’re saying I’ve nothing to lose.”
“Exactly.”
Still, he hadn’t hired the brass band, though they’d have been a magnificent sight, standing outside her office down at the medical plaza.
Nor, of course, did he tell Katie about the time travel. As he had elsewhere, he came close. He was on the phone with her, and they were talking about upcoming movies, when she commented that the Churchill biopic, Her Finest Hour, would be opening in a couple of weeks. She was anxious to see it. One of the things he especially liked about her was that she was not much inclined toward chick flicks. Katie enjoyed conflict. Especially the ones featuring an ordinary guy, or woman, who simply decides he’s had enough and takes on whatever constitutes the evil empire, the local mob, corrupt politicians, or maybe just the bully across the street. “It looks like fun,” she said.
And he imagined himself telling her: Katie, I’ve talked to Churchill. In 1931. Really.
“You’re laughing,” she said. “If you don’t want to—”
So then I said to Winston— “No, no,” he interrupted. “That’s good. Let’s do it.”
“What was so funny?”
“Umm. No, I was thinking about something else.” A new Superman film was opening. Dave had never thought about it before, but it must have been hideously diffic ult for Clark Kent to keep his secret. Especially in the face of Lois’s superior attitude.
DAVE sent Shel some Italian films, with the suggestion he watch each of them until he could actually follow the dialogue. Meanwhile, he refreshed his own skills by reading editions of seventeenth-century Italian classics in the original. He settled in each evening with Machiavelli and the poet Giambattista Marino. He read La Reina de Scotia, a drama about the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, by Federico della Valle. He struggled through Dante, and for the first time read the entire work, and not simply The Inferno. When he was finished, he understood why people still read