Miriam and her fellow time travelers, John and Stan, set up camp in an abandoned watchtower
to observe and record the siege of the walled city-state Plataea in the Peloponnesian War.
It was a shock to find that the expedition could go no further back than 429 BC; though
for some of us, it was not an unwelcome one. Miriam was perhaps the only one amongst us
who was annoyed that we couldn't get to Pericles. He had died earlier, in the part of the
year we couldn’t reach. So near—but we had hit a barrier, as solid as a rockface on
the path of linear time, in the year that the Peloponnesian War was gaining momentum.
DEBUT
“On the Watchtower at Plataea,” in Other Edens II, edited by Christopher Evans
and Robert Holdstock (Unwin Paperbacks, November 1988).
VARIANTS
Debut. “On the Watchtower at Plataea,” in Other Edens II, edited by Christopher Evans and Robert Holdstock (Unwin Paperbacks, November 1988).
It was a shock to find that the expedition could go no further back than 429 BC; though
for some of us, it was not an unwelcome one. Miriam was perhaps the only one amongst us
who was annoyed that we couldn't get to Pericles. He had died earlier, in the part of the
year we couldn’t reach. So near—but we had hit a barrier, as solid as a rockface on
the path of linear time, in the year that the Peloponnesian War was gaining momentum.
1 English variant