Authentic Science Fiction Monthly No. 54 — page 45: what you’re looking at

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

AUTHENTIC SCIENCE FICTION door and at once forgot about the iconoclastic rabbit’s leg. Because beyond the bed- room door wasn’t the bed- room—but the bathroom. His fingers tried to crush the green plastic door knob, then lost strength and began to tremble. Sweat ran from the palm towards their tips. It was happening again. During these last unbroken fifteen hours in the lab, ab- sorption in research had tem- porarily submerged the greater puzzle, which at times lately had driven him near to hysteria. Now he had to face it again. The inexplicable. The horrible sense of insecurity. The self-distrust. The un- resolvable problem: objective or subjective? Suddenly, his fear was transmuted to anger. This time he wouldn’t retreat. It was his job to investigate the mysterious. He’d always sought problems. Why should he run away from this par- ticular one merely because he hadn’t sought it? He would outface this thing, master it, solve it, use it. 44 He went into the bathroom that shouldn’t be there. Everything was real, solid. He turned on the tap to splash his tired eyes with cold water. Then he yelped and snatched his scalded fingers back. Steam rose swiftly from the basin and fogged his startled image in the mirror. He sucked his fingers. Then, gingerly, he tried the other tap. Yes, the cold water was coming from the tap labelled HOT, and very definitely vice versa. That was a new one. He had not eaten all day, else the wash basin would have served for another and more urgent purpose. He felt that bad, suddenly. He retreated to the passage, tiptoed uncertainly along it as though it had been mined, and reached the branch where the bathroom had been yester- day. Around the corner, the carpet was blue. Yesterday it had been golden. Before that, grass-green. He was almost conditioned to the changes. But not quite. He would never really become used to them until his scientific mind had reached an explanation. comiclbooks.corn