Summary

“Time Cubes” is set at an unspecified time in the future. A woman named Alice lived and worked in a mall, and one day she saw a vendor showing off a display of toy cubes. When he turned a knob, a plant inside the cube gradually turned back into a seedling. When he turned the knob the other way, it became a large, vine plant, growing out of the cube. He then showed another cube in which the knob turned a frog back into a tadpole in one direction and became a dead and decaying frog when turned in the other direction.

Alice never left the mall, as many people did not. The mall had interconnecting bridges and tunnels to get from one end to another. The bridges were equipped with fencing to prevent people from jumping. Alice was seeing a...