"I succeeded in P. T. because I transported myself through space instead
of time. I knew every detail of the day room, so it worked. My brain
reduced my body to its elemental charges in the P. T. bath and
reassembled it in the dayroom. Something like radio, with the brain
acting as sending set and receiver. Maybe we should call it philosophy,
Doc. What is reality? If I sit here in your office but imagine I'm
sitting in the dayroom, until the chair in the dayroom becomes more real
than this, where am I actually sitting?"
Dr. Bean stood up, adjusted his glasses, and said, "Orville, I am going
to do as you asked. I am going to tell you exactly what is wrong with
you. You are suffering from distorted perception--illusions and
hallucinations, disorientation. You are also becoming an exhibitionist
and are developing a persecution complex. I thought, when you first came
in, that you had improved. But if you don't pull yourself together and
try to get well, you'll be in here a long time."
Potts's chair overturned as he thrust himself up. He placed his thin
hands on the desk and said, "You psychiatrists can't see an inch in
front of your nose! All you can do is quote a textbook. If anybody
mentions mental telepathy, or predicting the future, or a sense of
perception, you classify them as insane. You think you've reduced the
mind to a set of rules, but you're still in kindergarten! I'll prove
every word I said! I'll vanish into the future! I can't change the past,
but the future hasn't happened yet! I can imagine my own!"
Joe grabbed the fist that Potts shook under the doctor's nose and pinned
the patient's arms behind his back.
"Take him upstairs to Ward K, Joe," Dr. Bean said. "To the pack room.
That should calm him."
"So long, moron!" Potts called.
"Let's go, Orville Potts," Joe said. "We're going to fix you up just
like an ice cream soda."
"You won't pack me in ice," Potts promised. His thin body twisted in
pain.
He closed his eyes tight and concentrated.
Joe's great hands clamped into fists when Potts disappeared.
* * * * *
Potts opened his eyes. He lay face down on a padded acceleration couch
with broad straps across his brawny back and legs. Before his face, a
second hand swept around a clock toward a red zero. Potts twisted his
head slightly in the harness and looked at the beautiful young woman
strapped to the couch on his right. A shrieking warning siren blared
through the spaceship.
The woman smiled.
"Hia, ked," she said in strange new accents. "Secure your dentures. Next
stop, Alpha Centaurus!"
End of Project Gutenberg's A Thought For Tomorrow, by Robert E. Gilbert
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account