I opened the front door and went out, closing it gently behind me. I
was on a porch of red enameled concrete. There were three steps down to
the walk. I had never seen them before.
* * * * *
It was evening. Somewhere down the block a woman was calling someone
named Johnny. Across the street a man was going up the walk to the
house from his car. Next door a skinny man with a large Adam's apple
was mowing the lawn. He saw me and waved at me. A nervous smile flitted
over his lips.
"Hi, Orville," he called.
But my name wasn't Orville, and I had never seen these houses, these
people. I had never before been in this neighborhood.
Or had I? Was it possible to have amnesia while in familiar
surroundings?
I considered the possibility, then rejected it. I was positive I had
never been here before. I was certain my name wasn't Orville.
I knew who I was, and I knew my name was Fred Martin. Why, ten minutes
ago I had been....
The man across the street had just opened the door to enter the house,
but now neither he nor the house were there. In their place was
Thordsen's bench. Around me were the dim outlines of the lab.
I tried to remember what I had been doing. I turned to my bench and
groped for the light switch.
Light bathed my bench. I looked at the scattered parts of the computer,
and grunted with relief. Of course! I had come back to the lab after
dinner to work some more.
I started to take off my coat. Sudden doubt made me pause. I went
slowly over to the corner medicine cabinet and looked at my reflection.
My face looked back at me. I needed a shave. But my face was familiar.
It was undoubtedly mine. Still....
I groped in my coat pocket and found it empty. I patted my hip pocket,
and took out my wallet. I flipped it open and searched the driver's
license for my name.
The name written there was Orville Snyder.
In that moment a strange emotion of detachment settled upon me. Almost
disinterestedly I looked at other identifications. Each bore the
signature of Orville Snyder.
Yet I was not Orville Snyder. I was Fred Martin....
"Now look here, Fred," I said aloud. "Something's wrong." I grinned,
but I knew it wasn't funny.
I went to the mirror again and studied my face. It was the same face I
had seen there a minute before. I tried to detach myself, to make it
seem a strange face. I couldn't. It was my own face.
I went back to my bench and frowned down at the scattered parts. Tube
banks, condensors, resistors, switches. I had laid them out myself
before going out to eat, so they would be ready when I returned.
"Now let's see," I said aloud. "I distinctly remember laying them out.
Thordsen was talking to me at the time. We were discussing the feedback
principle in this circuit. Then he left. I went to the supply room to
get that extra tube tank. Then I went out to ... to...."
I had come to a blank wall in my memory. I couldn't remember going out.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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