"No, she isn't. But she's forgotten. She hasn't _really_ forgotten. I
don't know your technical terminology; she refuses to remember. Oh,
_you_ know. Her subconscious, or unconscious, or whatever, is blinding
her. She won't face reality. And it's time for us to go back. But she
won't budge. She claims she's normal, and I'm the one who's crazy. In
fact, she was very happy that I was coming to see you today. I _told_
her I was going to see you, but she persisted in insisting that I was
coming here because _I_ needed help. She said I'm coming to you because
subconsciously I know I need you. Well, enough of that. I'm here because
we have to go home, and if you could just make her face life long enough
to admit that, I'm sure that when we do get home our doctors will have
no difficulty with her case. It won't be so bizarre to them, of course,
as it must seem to you."
"Frankly, Mr. Fairfield," Dr. Quink said, "you're not being entirely
clear in this matter. First of all, you say you have to go home. You're
not a native of New York then?"
"A native? How quaintly you put it, Doctor. You might better say a
savage, mightn't you? But that's neither here nor there. I am, of
course, a native, as you say, of New York. I thought I explained last
time. I am simply not of this _time_."
* * * * *
Doctor Quink slowly shook his shaggy head. "I'm afraid the precise
meaning of your phrase escapes me, Mr. Fairfield."
"I am not of this _time_, Doctor. Nor is my wife. We are from ... well,
from the future."
"From very _far_ in the future?" Quink asked quietly.
"Quite far. I'm not sure just exactly _how_ far. Systems of time
measurement have changed, you understand, between our time and this, so
that the calculations become rather involved, though, of course, only
superficially."
"Of course. Quite understandable."
"Quite. You _are_ being understanding about this. Much better than I had
hoped for, actually. At any rate, let's get on with it. For some obscure
reason my wife has fled reality, and now that our vacation is up she
refuses to return with me, stating flatly that she has never, to make a
long story short, traveled through time--except, of course, at the
normal velocity with which we all progress in the course of things--and
that it is I who am out of my head and though, while not actually
troublesome, it would be thoughtful of me to see a doctor or at least to
shut up about this nonsense before the neighbors hear me. Could you see
her tomorrow evening? She'd never come here, feeling as she does, but I
thought if you would come to dinner you might hypnotize her unawares
or--"
"I don't think that's feasible under the circum--"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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