Worlds to Barter
by John Wyndham
In Wyndham’s first published story, Jon Lestrange (the distant descendant of the
world’s foremost inventor) comes back to the moment of his ancestor’s greatest
invention with a story of how his own time was invaded by the people of the 5022nd
century, demanding to change temporal places with the people of Lestrange’s time.
It is a difficult situation, but I hope I shall convince you. Very few men can have had
the chance of convincing their great-great-great grandfathers of anything. I am now an
anachronism. You see, I was born in the year A.D. 2108,—or should it be, I shall be
born in 2108?—and I am—or will be—a refugee from the twenty-second century. I
assure you that you will be married shortly, but I can’t remember when—I think I told
you I was bad at dates.
“Worlds to Barter” by John Wyndham, in Wonder
Stories, May 1931.