Astounding Science Fiction (UK Edition) — page 53: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

PARADOX LOST 51 “Thank you, Mr. McCabe. And now”’— The professor turned again to the black- board. “If we let the Symbol b represent the degree of un-possibility, in contradistinc- tion to c—” Shorty stared morosely down at his hands —his hand, rather—in his lap. He glanced up at the clock on the wall over the door and saw that in another five minutes the class period would be over. He had to do something, and do it quickly. He turned his eyes toward the aisle again. Not that there was anything there to see. But there was plenty there to think about. Half a dozen paper clips, his best fountain pen, and his left hand. There was an invisible something out there. You couldn’t feel it when you touched it, and objects like paper clips didn’t click . when they hit it. And you could get through it in one direction, but not in the other. He could reach his right hand out there and touch his left hand with it, no doubt, but then he wouldn’t get his right hand back again. And pretty soon class would be over and— Nuts. There was only one thing he could do that made any sense. There wasn’t any- thing on the other side of that plane that hurt his left hand, was there? Well, then, why not step through it? Wherever he’d be, it would be all in one piece. He shot a glance at the professor and waited until he turned to mark something on the blackboard again. Then, without wait- ing to think it over, without daring to think it over, Shorty stood up in the aisle. The lights went out. Or he had stepped into blackness. He couldn’t hear the professor any more, but there was a familiar buzzing noise in his ears that. sounded like a _ bluebottle fly circling around somewhere nearby in the darkness, He put his hands together, and they were both there; his right hand clasped his left. ‘Well, whatever he was, he was all there. But why couldn’t he see? Somebody sneezed. Shorty jumped, and ‘then said, “Is ... uh . . . anybody there?” His voice shook a little, and he hoped now that he was really asleep and that he’d wake up in a minute. “Of course,” said a voice. A rather sharp and querulous voice. “Uh ... who?” “What do you mean, who? Me. Can’t you see— No, of course you can’t. I forgot. Say, listen to that guy! And they say we’re crazy!” There was a laugh in the darkness. “What guy?” asked Shorty. “And who says who’s crazy? Listen, I don’t get—” “That guy,” said the voice. “The teacher. Can’t you— No, I forget you can’t. You’ve got no business here anyway. But Im listen- ing to the teacher telling about what hap- pened to the saurians.” “The what?” “The saurians, stupid. The recat The guy’s nuts. And they say we are!” Shorty McCabe suddenly felt the need, the stark necessity, of sitting down. He groped in darkness and felt the top of a desk and felt that there was an empty seat behind it and eased himself down into the seat. Then he said, “This is Greek to me, mister. Who says who’s crazy?” “They say we are. Don’t you know—that’s right, you don’t. Who let that fly in here?” “Let’s start at the beginning,” Shorty. “Where am I?” “You normals,” said the voice petulantly. “Face you with anything out of the ordinary and you start asking— Oh, well, wait a minute and I'll tell you. Swat that fly for me.” “T can’t see it. I—” “Shut up. I want to listen to this; it’s what I came here for. He— Yow, he’s telling them that the dinosaurs died out for lack of food because they got too big. Isn’t that silly? The bigger a thing is the better chance it has to find food, hasn’t it? And the idea of the herbivorous ones ever starving in these forests! Or the carnivorous ones while the herbivorous ones were around! And— But why am I telling you all this? You're normal.” “I ...I don’t get it. If I’m pomnal, what are you?” The voice chuckled. “I’m crazy.” Shorty McCabe gulped. There didn’t seem to be anything to say. The voice was all too obviously right, about that. In the first place, if he could hear outside, Professor Dolohan was lecturing on the positive absolute, and this voice—with what- ever, if anything, was attached to it—had come here to hear about the decline of the saurians. That didn’t make sense because Professor Dolohan didn’t know a pixilated peterodactyl from an oblate spheroid. And— “Ouch!” said Shorty. Something had given him a hard thwack on the shoulder. begged Ccomicbooks.c©