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eBook Category: Science Fiction
eBook Description: An abandoned lodge in the California woods becomes a timeslip to 1928 for a weary Christmas Eve traveller.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: Asimov's, 2000
Fictionwise Release Date: February 2001

128 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [80 KB], eReader (PDB) [32 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [19 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [18 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [40 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [90 KB], hiebook (KML) [72 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [42 KB], iSilo (PDB) [15 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [20 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [47 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [30 KB]
Words: 5601
Reading time: 16-22 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

Time takes a holiday in this new short story from Kage Baker. Fans of Ms. Baker’s “The Company” series will find much to enjoy in this non-Company story. Rather than being simply set in the past, Time plays a much more central role in the plot of this story. Dolliver finds himself in dire straits on Christmas Eve until he wanders into Navarro Lodge and discovers that his life could get much worse—he could not exist! In the time sump of Navarro Lodge, 1928, he meets a fellow lost soul from the present whose fate will also be decided in Navarro Lodge that night. Along the way, we are treated to a descriptive tour de force, as the two characters act as our prism for viewing not only the events from that long ago Christmas Eve, but also the richness and complexity of the lodge and its inhabitants. The story so overwhelms the senses that the time paradox presented does not become apparent until long after you have stopped reading. A must read for those who like stories rich in detail, as well as those looking for a unique “time travel” angle. -Paul Walker, Fictionwise Recommender

I quite liked Kage Baker's "Merry Christmas from Navarro Lodge, 1928", a timeslip story with a real difference. A man, down on his luck, ends up thrown back from the present to the title building and time. He sees a group of partiers, but while he can touch physical things and eat the food, the others can't perceive him. Then he meets another man in the same situation. Slowly we learn a bit of their history, and then a story about a love triangle between a rich banker's son, a rich young woman, and the poor waiter she really loves, but is afraid to defy her family for. The end is a nice twist. This isn't a particularly profound story, but it's solidly enjoyable. -Rich Horton, Tangent Online (Learn more about Tangent Online, the Internet's leading SF&F short fiction review website)

It occurred to Dolliver that if he took off his coat before he went in, he'd make a better impression, so he hung it on the low fence that ran along the driveway. The cold bit into him at once. Hugging his arms he sprinted up the front steps and shouldered through the doors, rehearsing what he'd made up to say, which was: Excuse me, I'm afraid I've had something embarrassing happen. My lady friend and I were having an argument and she stopped the car and asked me to get out and look at the right front tire. When I got out, she drove off--she's got my coat, my wallet and all my credit cards, my cell phone--I wonder if I could throw myself on your mercy, since it's Christmas Eve? I'd be happy to sleep in the lobby--

He went up to the desk, dark wood decorated for the holiday with swags of holly branches. There was a man there writing in a ledger. Dolliver cleared his throat and said, "Excuse me--"The man didn't look up. Dolliver moved in closer and tried again. "Excuse me--"

Still, the man ignored him. He looked about twenty-five, wore a plain brown sweater over an oxford shirt, wore steel-rimmed glasses: nothing to tip Dolliver off that anything strange had happened, and after all people had been pretending they didn't see him all day.

What did seem weird was the fact that the man was writing in the ledger book using a long wooden pen with a steel nib, and dipping from a little fireplug-shaped bottle of Schaefer's Ink. No computer terminal, there on the desk. No telephone.

Dolliver stepped forward, put both hands flat on the desk and said, as loudly as he could, "EXCUSE ME!"

The man wrote on, with a calm and pleasant expression on his face, giving no acknowledgment Dolliver was there at all.

After a moment of staring Dolliver said huffily, "Well!, fine then!" and drew himself up and marched into the main lobby.

There was a big fireplace in there, made of river cobbles, with a bright fire of alder and cottonwood logs. He went straight to it and warmed himself, and as he turned he prepared another speech: Er--excuse me, but is the person at the counter hearing-impaired? I've been trying to get his attention...

But as he looked out at the room, he knew.