Crossroads
by Paul McAuley
In an alternate 1960s America where the U.S. is isolationist and Adam Clayton Powell is
president, Time traveler (or “Loop rider”) Ike Turner has a fascination with blues
player Bobby Johnson, so he sticks around a bit longer than he should in 1937 to meet the
musician. It shouldn’t be a big deal; after all, according to Einstein, not even the
Loop riders can change the past.
Anyway, he went away maybe a year, and I don’t know if he went to the crossroads with
ol Legba or not, but Son House told me when he came back he was carryin a gitar, and
asked for a spot like old times. Well, Son was about ready to take a break, and told
Bobby Johnson to go ahead and got himself outside before the boy began. But that time it
was all changed. That time, he tol me, the music he heard Bobby Johnson make put the hair
on his head to standin.
“Crossroads” by Paul McAuley, in Interzone,
April 1991.