Joseph Samachson

“ Paul took it in his stride, though."
"There aren't any earthquakes on Ganymede," said her father. "If your memory of that incident is correct, you're looking in the wrong place."
"I suppose so," he said. "But what's the right place?"
"Perhaps if you thought of a few more incidents, we might figure it out. It's the little things you don't forget that can be most helpful."
What nonsense, thought Carol, although she kept the thought to herself. The little things can be most harmful. They keep the pain, and the memory of pain, alive and vivid. ”

“ Two children, a boy and a girl, were standing with a smiling young woman in front of a sturdy, old-fashioned plastic house. Their clothes were out of fashion by a year or so, but that depended on where you were. Mars, for instance, was always three years behind Earth. Here on Ganymede, on the other hand, you might even be ahead of Earth in some respects.
As Carol's eyes lifted to his, she saw him staring at the picture with such longing that she at once knew herself for a fool. They're his wife and children, she thought. He's trying to find them. ”

“ Callendar wasn't adrift in space for a year or two, as he thinks. He was adrift for two centuries."
"No! Oh, no!"
"That's why the clothes in those pictures seemed odd. They've been in style and out again half a dozen times, with slight changes each time. That is why, furthermore, he can't find his wife and children on any of Jupiter's moons. The moons were first colonized ninety years ago."
"But he says—"
"He'll never see his wife and children again. They've lived their lives and died and been buried in the past. He should have died with them in his own time and not lived into ours." ”