you into the closet,
which is now illuminated by light from the room. The closet is and is
not a closet; it is the size and shape of one, but it contains nothing,
not a single hook, no rod for hanging clothes, no shelf. It is an empty,
blank-walled, four-by-four-foot space.

You close the door to it and stand looking around the room. It is about
twelve by sixteen feet. There is one door, but it is closed. There are
no windows. Five pieces of furniture. Four of them you recognize--more
or less. One looks like a very functional desk. One is obviously a
chair ... a comfortable-looking one. There is a table, although its top
is on several levels instead of only one. Another is a bed, or couch.
Something shimmering is lying across it and you walk over and pick the
shimmering something up and examine it. It is a garment.

You are naked, so you put it on. Slippers are part way under the bed (or
couch) and you slide your feet into them. They fit, and they feel warm
and comfortable as nothing you have ever worn on your feet has felt.
Like lamb's wool, but softer.

You are dressed now. You look at the door--the only door of the room
except that of the closet (closet?) from which you entered it. You walk
to the door and before you try the knob, you see the small typewritten
sign pasted just above it that reads:

This door has a time lock set to open in one hour. For reasons you
will soon understand, it is better that you do not leave this room
before then. There is a letter for you on the desk. Please read it.

It is not signed. You look at the desk and see that there is an envelope
lying on it.

You do not yet go to take that envelope from the desk and read the
letter that must be in it.

Why not? Because you are frightened.

You see other things about the room. The lighting has no source that you
can discover. It comes from nowhere. It is not indirect lighting; the
ceiling and the walls are not reflecting it at all.

[Illustration: Illustrated by VIDMER]

They didn't have lighting like that, back where you came from. What did
you mean by _back where you came from_?

You close your eyes. You tell yourself: _I am Norman Hastings. I am an
associate professor of mathematics at the University of Southern
California. I am twenty-five years old, and this is the year nineteen
hundred and fifty-four._

You open your eyes and look again.

* * * * *

They didn't use that style of