The Moment Universe Stories 2

The Miracle of Ivar Avenue

by John Kessel

Release: January 1996
Format: Novelette
Genres: Science Fiction, Mystery and Crime
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

In 1949 Los Angeles, Detective Lee Kinlaw has writer/director Preston Sturges down in the morgue. The only problem is that Sturges is still alive and well in Hollywood.

— Michael Main

It’s a transmogrifier. A device that can change anyone into anyone else. I can change General MacArthur into President Truman, Shirley Temple into Marilyn Monroe.

DEBUT

“The Miracle of Ivar Avenue,” in Intersections: The Sycamore Hill Antholgy , edited by John Kessel et al., January 1996.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1940 to 1949: 1–3 August 1949
Circa AD 2000 to 2099: 2043

Timeline Models

Branch-and-Return Timeline: moment universes
Branching Timelines: “They’re like branches splitting of the same tree trunk.”

Time Travel Methods

Luggable Time Machine

Themes

True Histories: the true history of Preston Sturges’s reemergence

Real-World Tags

Preston Sturges

Groupings

Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (periodical): reprinted in the September 1996 issue
Moment Universe Stories (story series)

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From the transit stage at DAA Studios, 2043 ⋙ to at or near Preston Sturges’s garage, circa 1 May 1949. Note: Det Gruber and Preston Sturgest.
From sixth floor of the Chateau Marmont, West Hollywood, 3 August 1949 ⋙ to the transit stage at DAA Studios, 2043. Note: Det Gruber.