ed. "What did he
expect you'd do? Occupy two bodies at the same time?"

Willy looked at me. I shrugged. "Have to confess I hadn't thought of
it," I muttered, only half aware that they had me over a barrel. I was
half tempted to ask Willy to fill my rye glass with pastels again, but
it seemed an imposition at the moment.

"Oh, what the hell," I said committingly. "I'm not the kind of guy to
let a friend down over a technicality!"

Red leapt to my lap and clambered up my shirtfront. "I _knew_ you
wouldn't let us down!" she said happily, and bussed my chin. Before I
could be modest about it she had bounded to the desk-top and was
stretching herself out beside Willy's drawing of himself. Willy and I
stared from her to each other.

"Well," Willy said. "Let's get to it."

I won't elaborate on the details on my act of friendship. I killed Willy
in as gentle a manner as possible, and when I turned back to the layout
pad they were sitting there embracing. Willy-the-Figment stood up
proudly and extended his hand, the one Red wasn't clinging to.

"Thanks, Jim," he said, when I had shaken it warmly with my finger-tip.
"I knew when I phoned you tonight that you were just the one who would
come up with an unselfish, practical solution to my dilemma. I'd like to
say--"

"Oh, come on, come on, Willy," Red said impatiently, pulling him back to
the pad. "Jim knows how much we appreciate his help. Come _on_!"

"Oh, very well," said Willy, winking at me. I winked back. "Lucky sti--"
I began, but then remembered Willy's corpse. That brought a nagging
thought to my mind, but Willy and Red were lying side-by-side, half
submerged in their second dimension, and Red was beckoning impatiently,
pointing to the dough rubber beside her.

"Hurry up," she said. "Rub us out."

I rubbed them out.

Willy's body vanished from the floor as I dropped the eraser. And just
as suddenly I was sober. Cold, shaking sober.

Where was Willy? I looked around the room. Nobody but me. Me and my
delirium tremens.

I got out of that apartment fast and headed for a long line of drinks. I
had a big case of murder to wash away. Or did I?...

... So you see, that's how it is. Willy's gone, and nobody knows where.
Nobody but me. And I don't know either. I keep thinking of what Red said
about her "fourth dimension" world. I think about it a lot.

I've given up my job at the agency. My apartment too. I got a new one.
Willy's. It's just as it was that night.