Journalists -- Fiction; Short stories; Time travel -- Fiction
Blank?
By RANDALL GARRETT
Illustrated by ENGLE
Amnesia? Well, maybe--but how and
where had he earned that $50,000?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Infinity June 1957.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Bethelman came to quite suddenly, and found himself standing on
the corner of 44th Street and Madison Avenue. He was dizzy for a
moment--not from any physical cause, but from the disorientation. The
last thing he could remember, he had been sitting in a bar in Boston,
talking to Dr. Elijah Kamiroff. After the interview was over, they'd
had a few drinks, and then a few more. After that, things began to get
hazy.
Bethelman rubbed his head. It wasn't like a hangover; his head felt
perfectly fine. But how in the devil had he gotten here? He looked
around. No one was paying any attention to him, but no one pays any
attention to anyone on the streets of New York. Still feeling queer,
he headed east on 44th Street.
He wanted to sit down for a bit, and the nearest place was the little
bar halfway between Madison Avenue and Grand Central Station. He went
in and ordered a beer.
What the hell had happened? He'd had too much to drink on several
occasions, but he'd never gone to sleep in one city and awakened in
another. Dr. Kamiroff must have put him on the plane; the biochemist
didn't drink much, and had probably been in better shape than Bethelman
had been.
He glanced at his watch. Two-fifteen! Wow! The city editor would be
wondering where he was.
He went to the phone, dropped in a dime, and dialed the city desk. When
the editor's voice answered, he said: "Hickman, this is Bethelman; I'm
sorry I'm late, but--"
"Late?" interrupted Hickman, "What're you talking about? You've only
been gone half an hour. You sick or something?"
"I don't feel too good," Bethelman admitted confusedly.
"That's what you said when you left. Hell, man, take the rest of the
day off. It's Friday; you don't need to show up until Monday if you
don't want to. Okay?"
"Yeah," said Bethelman. "Sure." His mind still didn't want to focus
properly.
"Okay, boy," said Hickman. "And thanks again for the tip. Who'd have
thought Baby Joe would come in first? See you Monday."
And he hung up.
Bethelman stood there looking foolish for a full five seconds. Then
things began to connect up. _Friday!_ It shouldn't be Friday.
He cradled the phone and walked over to the bar where the barman was
assiduously polishing a beer glass.
"What day is this?" he asked.
"Friday," said the white-jacketed barman, looking up from the shell of
gleaming glass.
"I mean the date," Bethelman corrected.
"Fifteenth, I think." He glanced at a copy of the _Times_ that lay on
the bar. "Yeah. Fifteenth."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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