"THE YEAR 2103"

Chapter IV

                                                               "I know not what the future has

of marvel or surprise,

Assured alone that life and death

His mercy underlies."

Pawnee Indian Prayer

Where should I start? As I lay in the dark, I went back over each of the troublesome questions the doctor had raised in my mind. Surely it was necessary for me to assume that Dr. Karoll was sincere. It would be little short of insane to imagine that a hoax was being played upon me to drive me mad. My reason quickly denied the possibility that the kindliness shown me during my weakness could be combined with some diabolical plan to shatter my mind. No, that would be irrational. But what could Dr. Karoll have meant when he told me that I was probably more than a hundred years older than I thought? "This is the year 2103," he had said...just as simply as that.

Here was the necessary starting point to work from. I set myself to carefully reviewing all my recent experiences. I was sure that I could find the logical consistency in the circumstances and events that would exist if I were actually alive in the year 2103. The doctor had unconsciously asked me where did I live instead of where do you live. None of the family had shown familiarity with the name of a good sized and very well known city, but later agreed that we were close to its geographical location. After I went over the evening's conversation, I thought about the unusual medical treatments given me, the interior of the home I was in, the many conveniences that were new to me, the interest shown in an ordinary person like myself by these people to whom I was a total stranger. Then there was the offer, which seemed quite sincere, for me to feel that their home was my own. These things would be appropriate if I were a person who had been transported some one hundred or so years into the future.

Difficult as the question was, I would have to consider the possibility that I was indeed living in the year 2103. Unless I could do this, my mind would be cut off from further rational thought. Later on I could think about how to fully satisfy myself upon this question.

The next question was: How could I have regained consciousness a hundred years later than Professor Darch and I had planned? I was beginning to remember the events which preceded my entry into suspended animation. The cave entrance above Bill's summer cabin overlooked a green valley about ten miles west of Asheville. We had made such careful preparations that there seemed not the remotest possibility anything could go awry. My concern that nothing should disturb my entranced sleep bordered on obsession. We had taken elaborate steps to conceal our activity and to prevent accidental discovery of the cave opening by hunters or any others. However, we had also taken three personal friends into our confidence so that we would have witnesses to the experiment and to insure that, should anything happen to Bill Darch, I would still be properly awakened after three months. Considering these precautions, it seemed impossible that a catastrophe could have overtaken Bill and the three friends as well, so that no one was left to awaken me. This was as far as my thinking could take me. I gave up at four a.m., said a prayer, then sank into a deep dreamless sleep.