Excerpt from "Here By Mistake: The Secret of the Niche"
[Fourteen-year-old Brandon, from upstate New York in 2005 (now stranded in New Orleans in 1965), reacts to going on a "swamp tour".]
Brandon took notice of the boat, which creaked and moaned every time a passenger stood up or moved across a bench. The wood looked almost rotten, and the canvas canopy was just as mossy as the wood. Suddenly Brandon realized that he loved it—the whole mossy, rotten mess of it. Like the smell of rot, it fit the place. In 2005 the boat would probably be fiberglass and the canopy nylon. Or there wouldn’t be a boat and the swamp tour would be done by watching video on the Internet. Like the channel knob and its “thumps”, the boat was physically happening—and Brandon was happening with it. And that was not all. For the first time since going through the niche, Brandon found himself liking the whole idea of being in 1965—indeed, the whole idea of time travel. Surprised, and a little scared, he wondered what had changed in him. He was quickly diverted by the wonders of the swamp.
Brandon took notice of the boat, which creaked and moaned every time a passenger stood up or moved across a bench. The wood looked almost rotten, and the canvas canopy was just as mossy as the wood. Suddenly Brandon realized that he loved it—the whole mossy, rotten mess of it. Like the smell of rot, it fit the place. In 2005 the boat would probably be fiberglass and the canopy nylon. Or there wouldn’t be a boat and the swamp tour would be done by watching video on the Internet. Like the channel knob and its “thumps”, the boat was physically happening—and Brandon was happening with it. And that was not all. For the first time since going through the niche, Brandon found himself liking the whole idea of being in 1965—indeed, the whole idea of time travel. Surprised, and a little scared, he wondered what had changed in him. He was quickly diverted by the wonders of the swamp.
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