In the Cards

In a near‑future society a compact device called a Grundy Projector lets anyone step a few years ahead to glimpse their own destiny. Students use it to check exam results, couples to preview wedding life, and entrepreneurs to size up markets, turning the streets into a glittering maze of humming bird‑cage contraptions. When the narrator is about to marry Marge, he rents one, chooses the exact address of their future home, and jumps two years forward, hoping for reassurance.

He arrives inside the dome housing unit and watches a frantic scene: his future self and Marge locked in a vicious argument, voices raw with fear and accusations. The glimpse reveals a marriage already cracking, with Marge convinced she’s dying and the protagonist railing against an unseen cause, leaving both terrified of an unknown fate. Confronted with this painful preview, he must decide whether knowledge of the possible collapse can alter the present or simply seal the tragedy.