Ernie said scornfully. "In fact, I think it's nuts." Hepaused to think of something else to say, then shrugged and turned."I'll see you later. I got to get in to work."
* * * * *
And now here he was, Ernie thought, sitting in his own room withJory's face looking at him out of the blue screen.
_The whole day has been nuts_, Ernie told himself.
"Hello, Ernie," Jory's voice repeated tiredly. "Hello, Ernie....Hello, Ernie--"
Ernie threw his beer can on the floor. Foam spewed out and soaked therug. "All right," Ernie bellowed, "All right--Hello!"
Jory stopped. He put his hand to his head and looked excited. He waswearing earphones, Ernie saw.
"Ernie!" Jory said. "Do you see me?" He looked blindly out of thescreen.
In his rage, Ernie nearly kicked in the face of the set. "Yes, I seeyou! What are you trying to pull?"
Jory turned excitedly to someone beside him, but off the screen. "I'vegot him," he said quickly. "He's awake." He turned and faced Ernie.
"Look, Ernie, I can't see you but we've got a microphone in your room.I can hear every word you say. Now sit down for a minute and let meexplain."
"You'd better," Ernie said ominously.
"Are you sitting?"
"Yeah, I'm sitting. Get on with it."
"I've been on your screen every night for the past week, Ernie. Wetook over the station. And we've been broadcasting to you on allchannels for the past week."
Ernie shook his head. "You're nuts," he mumbled.
"It's true, Ernie."
"But--" A thought struck him. "Hey, are other people getting this ontheir sets?"
"Everyone in the city, Ernie. But they aren't seeing it. As far as wecan tell they think they're watching their usual programs. Everyone isin a trance, Ernie. They just go through the same motions over andover. It was the same with the engineers here. We just pushed themaside. They're tied up now. We're keeping them under drugs. We had todo that. When they were loose they just tried to get back at thecontrols. But that was all, they never really saw us."
Ernie shook his head again. "Wait a minute. Let me get my headclear--O.K., now you say everybody is in some kind of trance. _Why?_"
"I tried to make you see it today. The world is stuck. It's stuck inthis God-forsaken one day! We don't know why. Some of us--just afew--have known it all along. But even we can't remember what causedit."
"You mean it's happening everywhere?"
"Yes. Or not happening, I guess you'd say. We're not getting reportsfrom overseas ... not any that are any different from the firstWednesday. So it must be the same over there. It's the whole world,Ernie."
"Wait a minute. Let me think." After a moment, he got up, went intothe kitchen and got another beer.
"O.K., I'm ready," he said as he came back. "Now, why did you guyspick me? How many of you are there?"
"Just a handful ... no more than twenty. We're scattered all acrossthe country. We picked you because you're a test case, Ernie. One ofus is a psychologist.
"He says you're a common denominator. If we could break you out of it,then we could get through to a whole cross section of people."
Ernie grunted and sipped his beer. "A common denominator, huh?Thanks, pal. You mentioned drugs. I guess you can go anywhere? Justwalk past people and never be seen?"
"That's right."
Ernie laughed scornfully. "You've got a good deal. Why louse it up?What do you stand to gain?"
Jory shook his head. "You're wrong, Ernie. For one thing, everythingis slowly running down. Miners go to the same part of the mine eachday and send out nothing but empty cars. The same thing is happeningall across the country, in farms, in factories, in hospitals--"
Ernie got up. "Keep talking," he said.
"Hospitals are hideous these days, Ernie. Don't go near a surgeon. Allhe can do are the same operations he performed on the first Wednesday.If you're the wrong height, the wrong weight, or just there at thewrong time, he'll cut you to pieces.
"Homes burn to the ground. And nobody tries to get out of them. Thefire department is no good. It's stuck in that first Wednesday.
"We broke off broadcasting last night. We had to fight an apartmenthouse fire. There are only three of us here in the city. We didn'tsave anyone. What could we do? We were lucky that we kept it fromspreading.
"We need help, Ernie. We need it badly--"
Absently, Ernie said, "Yeah, I see that all right." He kept pacing.
"I don't know if I can make you understand how important you are rightnow, Ernie. With you helping, we can isolate the thing that triggeredyou out of this. We can use it as a technique on whole groups ofpeople. The world will begin moving again. At last, things will beginto change."
"Yeah--" Ernie stopped and looked at the rug beside his dresser. Hehad found what he had been looking for. He picked the microphone up.
And pulled loose the wires.
From the television, Jory screamed. "Ernie, _listen to me_--"
Ernie turned off the set.
He sat on his bed and continued to think while he finished the can ofbeer. When he had it all thought out he smiled. He felt very happy. Hecould stop being afraid. Afraid of anything. His foreman, his job. Allof it.
He wasn't interested in walking into banks and carrying off sackfulsof money. What was the sense to that? He couldn't spend it anyway.
Besides, he had something that was better.
All his life there had been too many bright guys with too many brightideas. And the bright ideas got put into practice and then thingschanged. They could never leave a guy alone and just let him do hisjob. They always had to throw in the unexpected.
But this time, nothing was going to change.
Ever.
He chuckled and turned out the light.
* * * * *
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