Looking for post-apocalypse time travel short story

[Peter Andersen]

Hi-- I read a story back in the 80's (although it may have been much older) about a guy walking through the post-apocalyptic rubble to find another guy with a time machine. He finds him, and they discuss the cost of time travel. The customer says he'll think about it. Next we see him at home with his family, having an uneventful evening. Then he's back at the time travel guy saying, "It was worth it" and we realize all he wanted was to go back and spend an evening with his family before the world had been destroyed. It's a terrific story and I'd love to find it again. Any ideas? Thank you!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

This sounds to me a lot like a story by Robert Sheckley called "The Store of the Worlds," also known as "The World of Heart's Desire" (Playboy 1959, reprinted many times) assuming the memory of it is slightly off. In the Sheckley, there is no actual time travel. Instead, you go to "the shop of the worlds" to obtain an imaginary reality to enjoy. The gimmick of the story is that the guy seems not to purchase such a fantasy world, goes back and has a very ordinary day, then we find out at the end that this ordinary day is the fantasy world he purchased, and he's living in the post-apocalyptic rubble you describe.

You can listen to it here:

http://www.drabblecast.org/2010/11/19/drabblecast-188-the-store-of-the-worlds-by-robert-sheckley/

 

[Peter Andersen]

Hi, Victoria-- Thank you so much! That's exactly the one! I've been looking for this for years, and now it just takes a few minutes to post this and get your response. Totally awesome - I even thought it was Sheckley, and had been looking through a bunch of his stories, but never found it.

Thanks again!

Pete