D. P. from tomorrow

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

79340

Title

D. P. from tomorrow

Language

en

Book source

Project Gutenberg

Description max 80 words

In a bustling 1950s newsroom, skeptical editors dismiss a refugee claiming to flee a future dictatorship led by Gerald Twombly. When the stranger's warnings about an impending police state seem absurd, a strange twist reveals that the very act of dismissing him may have doomed their own timeline.

Summary up to 500 words

Set in the bustling newsroom of a typical American newspaper during the early 1950s, Mack Reynolds' "D. P. from Tomorrow" opens with editors Ed Kerry and Jake managing mundane inquiries from trivia seekers. The atmosphere shifts dramatically when Ted Ruhling brings in Martin Cantine, a disheveled refugee claiming to have escaped another space-time continuum ruled by the despot Gerald Twombly. Cantine warns that in ten years, Twombly will establish a ruthless dictatorship utilizing advanced surveillance technology and truth serums, forcing citizens to flee via an experimental device called the S-T Invertor. The newsroom staff reacts with immediate skepticism and amusement. While Cantine's story makes internal sense—explaining how space travel necessitates time displacement—the dictator's name sounds ridiculous, and no one has ever heard of Gerald Twombly. Jake, the weary city editor, grows tired of the "nut" and suggests gagging the man or running a short piece to mock him. Kitty Kildare interrupts with her own column about a new political system, which Ed Kerry sarcastically guesses is also named Twombly. The narrative hinges on the tension between the mundane reality of the newsroom and the high-stakes warning from the future. As Cantine earnestly describes the horrors awaiting his timeline, including cybernetic-controlled tapping devices that listen to every conversation, the editors decide to check his story against their vast repository of general knowledge. Finding no record of the dictator or his regime, they prepare to dismiss him as insane. The text builds toward a critical moment where the validity of Cantine's claims is tested against the reality of their current timeline. As two white-coated interns arrive to take Cantine away, the refugee realizes he is being treated as a charlatan. He desperately shouts for them to investigate Gerald Twombly before it is too late, but they lead him out, struggling. The staff settles into an embarrassed silence, debating the credibility of the refugee. They note that while his story made a certain amount of sense, checking it reveals no evidence of the threat. The story ends with the staff still debating the credibility of the refugee, leaving the ultimate fate of their universe hanging in the balance as they decide whether to run a gag piece or ignore the warning entirely.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

Download URL

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/79340.epub.noimages

Local file path

data/epubs/pg79340.epub

Download EPUB

Downloaded at

2026-08-19 21:09 UTC

Categories

No categories stored.