Introduction 7

Prologue
Dream/Vision (unknown date, Moscow) 
 

I need to know the exact date. Jennifer put Sergey's passport down, grabbed the purse on the ground, and headed into the hallway. There was a table to the right before the hallway turned. Jennifer walked to this table. From this position she could see the hallway ended with a door with another door and a mirror to one side and a closet on the other. As she was doing this, she tried to process everything.

If this is true, how would this be possible? What would it mean if I go outside and everything is consistent? In some sense, not being in the US made sense. If there is time travel, why would the location be the same, when there is an entire world to “choose from”. However, if someone else were designing this situation, it wouldn't make sense for them to choose the USSR. Unless they misunderstand what I want, but then they don't know me and this would be too much effort for little gain. Not unless I were actually in this society would manipulating me to believe I am a part of it make sense. But then this wouldn't explain why I am here. As a dream, the issue was she didn't know this world. The details couldn't be correct without external knowledge. And this doesn't feel like a dream. The sights are real, in detail, full detail. I have trouble focusing further than normal in dreams and here I can. And the design of this home is realistic yet unfamiliar.

But there were more concerns than just what the situation was. For starters, she knew something of what it would be like to be a woman in the past. Something contradicted by what she had seen so far. But the false notions of femininity she knew still existed in the 21st century could only be worse here, and that scared her.
 
For her, though, the 50s, and the entire cold war period evoked another very specific discomfort. The McCarthy era and communist witch hunts; the anti-communist and anti-Russian mentality which permeates (or defines?) American mentality even into the 21st century. Purposefully demonizing people for being different typically made Jennifer feel she was the one being rejected. There was too much chance for her to be included in the targeted group. Well I guess this is not a concern here. But I may be forced to participate in perpetrating the equivalent. I do not know if I will be able to handle that.

She turned on the light and picked up the paper to look at the date. December 3rd, 1963.