Radio Jones came dancing down the slidewalks. She jumped from the express to a local, then spun about and raced backwards, dumping speed so she could cut across the slower lanes two and three at a time. She hopped off at the mouth of an alley, glanced up in time to see a Zeppelin disappear behind a glass-domed skyscraper, and stepped through a metal door left open to vent the heat from the furnaces within.
The glass-blowers looked up from their work as she entered the hot shop. They greeted her cheerily:
“Hey, Radio!”
“Jonesy!”
“You invented a robot girlfriend for me yet?”
The shop foreman lumbered forward, smiling. “Got a box of off-spec tubes for you, under the bench there.”
“Thanks, Mackie.” Radio dug through the pockets of her patched leather greatcoat and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “Hey, listen, I want you to do me up an estimate for these here vacuum tubes.”
Mack studied the list. “Looks to be pretty straightforward. None of your usual experimental trash. How many do you need—one of each?”
“I was thinking more like a hundred.”
“What?” Mack’s shaggy black eyebrows met in a scowl. “You planning to win big betting on the Reds?”
“Not me, I’m a Whites fan all the way. Naw, I was kinda hoping you’d gimme credit. I came up with something real hot.”
“You finally built that girlfriend for Rico?”
The workmen all laughed.
“No, c’mon, I’m serious here.” She lowered her voice. “I invented a universal radio receiver. Not fixed-frequency—tunable! It’ll receive any broadcast on the radio spectrum. Twist the dial, there you are. With this baby, you can listen in on every conversation in the big game, if you want.”
Mack whistled. “There might be a lot of interest in a device like that.”
“Funny thing, I was thinking exactly that myself.” Radio grinned. “So waddaya say?”
“I say—” Mack spun around to face the glass-blowers, who were all listening intently, and bellowed, “Get back to work!” Then, in a normal voice, “Tell you what. Set me up a demo, and if your gizmo works the way you say it does, maybe I’ll invest in it. I’ve got the materials to build it, and access to the retailers. Something like this could move twenty, maybe thirty units a day, during the games.”
“Hey! Great! The game starts when? Noon, right? I’ll bring my prototype over, and we can listen to the players talking to each other.” She darted toward the door.
“Wait.” Mack ponderously made his way into his office. He extracted a five-dollar bill from the lockbox and returned, holding it extended before him. “For the option. You agree not to sell any shares in this without me seeing this doohickey first.”
“Oh, Mackie, you’re the greatest!” She bounced up on her toes to kiss his cheek. Then, stuffing the bill into the hip pocket of her jeans, she bounded away.
Fat Edna’s was only three blocks distant. She was inside and on a stool before the door jangled shut behind her. “Morning, Edna!” The neon light she’d rigged up over the bar was, she noted with satisfaction, still working. Nice and quiet, hardly any buzz to it at all. “Gimme a big plate of scrambled eggs and pastrami, with a beer on the side.”
The bartender eyed her skeptically. “Let’s see your money first.”
With elaborate nonchalance, Radio laid the bill flat on the counter before her. Edna picked it up, held it to the light, then slowly counted out four ones and eighty-five cents change. She put a glass under the tap and called over her shoulder, “Wreck a crowd, with sliced dick!” She pulled the beer, slid the glass across the counter, and said, “Out in a minute.”
“Edna, there is nobody in the world less satisfying to show off in front of than you. You still got that package I left here?”
Wordlessly, Edna took a canvas-wrapped object from under the bar and set it before her.
“Thanks.” Radio unwrapped her prototype. It was bench-work stuff—just tubes, resistors and capacitors in a metal frame. No housing, no circuit tracer lights, and a tuner she had to turn with a pair of needle-nose pliers. But it was going to make her rich. She set about double-checking all the connectors. “Hey, plug this in for me, willya?”
Edna folded her arms and looked at her.
Radio sighed, dug in her pockets again, and slapped a nickel on the bar. Edna took the cord and plugged it into the outlet under the neon light.
With a faint hum, the tubes came to life.
“That thing’s not gonna blow up, is it?” Edna asked dubiously.
“Naw.” Radio took a pair of needle-nose pliers out of her greatcoat pocket and began casting about for a strong signal. “Most it’s gonna do is electrocute you, maybe set fire to the building. But it’s not gonna explode. You been watching too many kinescopes.”
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday October 06, 2009 12:35pm EDT
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday October 06, 2009 01:22pm EDT
So, is Amelia Spindizzy this alt-history's Amelia Earhart?
Wednesday October 07, 2009 03:29pm EDT
Wednesday October 07, 2009 09:25pm EDT
Wednesday October 07, 2009 09:35pm EDT
VIEW ALL BY · Thursday October 08, 2009 08:36pm EDT
Given my usual tendencies, this is darned high praise for the smoothness and integration of your story.
I even enjoyed the flying/flight parts, though really, a gyrocopter competing with a fixed-wing aircraft? Well, it would make a visually appealing movie.
A great story: thanks Michael & Eileen for writing it, and Tor for making it available.
Friday October 09, 2009 02:53am EDT
Heresiarch: I like to think of Earhart as being our timeline's Amelia Spindizzy.
A. Dorrance: Glad you heard the Readercon performance: Swanwick and I are only rarely in the same place and time. It was great fun to do. There may be a tape of it somewhere.
BenHM3: You're quite right. Amelia had to rely on the element of surprise if she was ever going to knock Eszterhazy's plane out of the sky. That's why she tended to position herself between him and the sun. Also, her gyro was really noisy and erratic in flight -- but then, so was his plane.
Friday October 09, 2009 06:43am EDT
I had nearly given up the genre since it has been handed over to the dragons, swords and sandals, and feudal epics.
THIS kind of writing I can get behind, and intend to start exporing all the authors connected with it, starting with an old favorite, Gibson.
THANK YOU Mr. Swanwick and Ms. Gunn and TOR.COM for opening my eyes, and giving me back a sense of wonder!
VIEW ALL BY · Friday October 09, 2009 06:44am EDT
gxianfranko
VIEW ALL BY · Friday October 09, 2009 10:16am EDT
Friday October 09, 2009 10:34am EDT
VIEW ALL BY · Friday October 09, 2009 01:51pm EDT
I enjoyed every aspect of this story - my only complaint would be that it isn't long enough. I'm totally ready for a novel length version of it, or a novel length story set before the fall of the brains.
Great job, thank you for writing it that I should be able to read it.
VIEW ALL BY · Saturday October 10, 2009 01:34pm EDT
Saturday October 10, 2009 04:51pm EDT
likwidoxigen - I hesitate to post a spoiler, but you can get the drift from pages 11 and 13.
Wednesday October 21, 2009 09:32pm EDT
VIEW ALL BY · Friday October 30, 2009 11:34am EDT
VIEW ALL BY · Tuesday November 10, 2009 01:17am EST
Thursday November 19, 2009 02:22pm EST
Good story!