“The Commuter” November 1952

A tired commuter named Ernest Critchet attempts to buy a commute book at the ticket counter in the train station. He wants to go home to Macon Heights. The problem is Macon Heights doesn’t exist. When Critchet sees no Macon Heights on the map, he disappears. The next day, he wants to buy the same commute book, so the ticket taker shows him into Vice President Paine’s office. Paine finds out that Macon Heights is a modern suburb of 5,000 people. He shows Critchet a map with no Macon Heights, and Critchet disappears again. But the name Macon Heights is vaguely familiar to Paine. He goes to his girlfriend Laura in her nicely furnished apartment and asks her to research it. The next day, he takes the train out to investigate. He asks the old conductor. No Macon Heights. He transfers to a train back to the city, which stops where Macon Heights should be. Paine asks the young conductor (reading a pulp magazine—a nice touch). This is the Macon Heights stop and always has been. Confused, Paine goes to Laura’s. It seems the city voted on three new suburban developments, but only two passed. Macon Heights lost by one vote. But now it seems to be coming into existence anyway, suggesting that the past, at least in part, must be mutable. Paine returns to Macon Heights and it is real. He sees the people who live there and has coffee in a diner. All the sudden he becomes terrified, reasoning that changes in the suburbs could be altering the city; his own life, even, could be affected. He returns to the city and sees strange businesses he does not recall. He returns to Laura and is relieved. Same old apartment. But not really. Her handsome green couch is now the blue one with cigarette burns he remembers. He and Laura are married with a boy. Macon Heights has changed everything.