Short Story
Against the Lafayette Escadrille
- by Gene Wolfe
- in Again, Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison (Doubleday, March 1972)
I’m a little surprised at how much I am enjoying Gene Wolfe’s stories. This is a fantasy of a man who builds an exact replica of a Fokker triplane; then, one day on a flight, he sees a beautiful girl in a vintage balloon, an event that seems explicable only via time travel.
The story puts me in the mood of Jack Finney’s wonderful non-time-travel story, “Home Alone.”
The story puts me in the mood of Jack Finney’s wonderful non-time-travel story, “Home Alone.”
I have been hoping to speak privately with Amphiareaws about Time’s enmity. I know that I will not be born for many years. I know also that I have traveled the wrong way through those many years to join our crew. Was that in violation of Time’s ordinances? If so, it would explain his displeasure; but if not, I must look elsewhere. 
