letters.
"Randall ... Forth ... Director ... Department ..." and Dr. Forth made a
note. I said aloud, "It is--_Doctor_ Forth, isn't it?"

"Don't you know?"

I looked down at myself, and shook my head. "Maybe _I'm_ Doctor Forth,"
I said, noticing for the first time that I was also wearing a white coat
with the caduceus emblem of Medical. But it had the wrong feel, as if I
were dressed in somebody else's clothes. _I_ was no doctor, was I? I
pushed back one sleeve slightly, exposing a long, triangular scar under
the cuff. Dr. Forth--by now I was sure _he_ was Dr. Forth--followed the
direction of my eyes.

"Where did you get the scar?"

"Knife fight. One of the bands of those-who-may-not-enter-cities caught
us on the slopes, and we--" the memory thinned out again, and I said
despairingly, "It's all confused! What's the matter? Why am I up on
Medical? Have I had an accident? Amnesia?"

"Not exactly. I'll explain."

I got up and walked to the window, unsteadily because my feet wanted to
walk slowly while I felt like bursting through some invisible net and
striding there at one bound. Once I got to the window the room stayed
put while I gulped down great breaths of warm sweetish air. I said, "I
could use a drink."

"Good idea. Though I don't usually recommend it." Forth reached into a
drawer for a flat bottle; poured tea-colored liquid into a throwaway
cup. After a minute he poured more for himself. "Here. And sit down,
man. You make me nervous, hovering like that."

I didn't sit down. I strode to the door and flung it open. Forth's voice
was low and unhurried.

"What's the matter? You can go out, if you want to, but won't you sit
down and talk to me for a minute? Anyway, where do you want to go?"

The question made me uncomfortable. I took a couple of long breaths and
came back into the room. Forth said, "Drink this," and I poured it down.
He refilled the cup unasked, and I swallowed that too and felt the hard
lump in my middle begin to loosen up and dissolve.

* * * * *

Forth said, "Claustrophobia too. Typical," and scribbled on the card
some more. I was getting tired of that performance. I turned on him to
tell him so, then suddenly felt amused--or maybe it was the liquor
working in me. He seemed such a funny little man, shutting himself up
inside an office like this and talking about claustrophobia and watching
me as if I were a big bug. I tossed the cup into a disposal.

"I