There's No Present Like the Time

By William Mangieri

What constitutes a true waste of time?
Peter and Vanessa have different ideas. While on a rare vacation, Peter chances to meet a mysterious woman who brings these differences to a head.
“There’s No Present Like the Time" is a speculative fiction short story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: William Mangieri
• Release date: Jul 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463156360

William Mangieri

William Mangieri is a karaoke junkie, former theater student, and recovered wargamer who spends as much time wondering "what if?" as "why not?". He writes from Texas, where he and his family live at the mercy of the ghost of a nine-pound westie.William writes mostly speculative fiction (that’s science fiction, fantasy and horror), although he also has a detective series with a soft sci-fi element (Detective Jimmy Delaney.) He completed writing his first novel (Swordsmaster) in 2019; prior to this, he has honed his skills on short fiction. He has been published in Daily Science Fiction and The Anarchist, and six of his stories have earned Honorable Mentions in the Writers of the Future contest.

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There’s No Present Like the Time

By William Mangieri

Copyright 2017 by William Mangieri

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There’s No Present Like the Time

Peter Ptarmigan stopped partway up the narrow stone stairs and sat down so he could catch his breath. He pulled his handkerchief from the breast pocket of his tweed suit for the umpteenth time and staved off the sweat that was dripping down his forehead.

Unbelievable, he muttered.

Eureka Springs was wonderful for scenery, if you didn’t have to navigate the steep, twisting, rock-paved streets and paths for too long. He looked down the way he had come, then up behind him where he had started. He’d been all down and up these stairs, what – seven times? Maybe if he was in better shape. He didn’t get a lot of activity sitting around coding; he knew a few guys who started exercising in their mid-forties; he always thought it was just midlife crisis rearing its head. Maybe it was his turn to start.

The town was also great for the kind of artsy-crafty shops Vanessa loved - when you could find them. Vanessa was looking at kaleidoscopes in a place up the hill when he snuck away from her to look for this damn shop – this Morceaux de Temps that was eluding him. Surely Vanessa, even with her lack of awareness of time, should have been wondering where he was by now.

He would have bought her twenty-fifth anniversary gift before their vacation started, but he’d been so