."

"Cool," the repairman said, watching the picture. "I mean, so why worry?
You got a picture, right? You want me to turn the picture around? I can
do that with a little fiddling around inside the set ... uh-oh. Dad,
something's happening."

* * * * *

The repairman bent closer, staring at the picture. It was now showing a
busty young woman singer, her mouth opened, but silent, since the sound
was turned down. She was slowly rotating as Rapp and the bearded
repairman watched, turning until her face, still mouthing silent song,
hung upside down on the screen.

"It always does that," Rapp said. "No matter which way I put the set,
the picture's always upside down."

"No, man," the repairman said, pleadingly. "Look, I took a course. I
mean, the best school, you dig? It don't work that way. It just can't."

"It does, though," Rapp pointed out. "And that's what the other repair
people said, too. They took it out, and brought it back, and it still
did it. Not when they had it in their shops, but the minute it came back
here, the picture went upside down again."

"Wow," the repairman said, backing slowly away from the set, but
watching it with the tense gaze of a man who expected trouble. After a
minute he moved toward it again, and took hold of the cabinet sides,
lifting.

"I don't want to put you down, Pops," he said, grunting. "Only, I got to
see this. Over she goes." He set it down again, right side up. The
picture, still the singer's face, remained in a relatively upright
position for another moment, and then slowly rolled over, upside down
again.

"You see," Mr. Rapp said, shrugging. "I guess I'll have to buy another
set. Except I'd hate to have it happen again, and this one did cost
quite a lot."

"You couldn't trade it in, either," the repairman agreed. "Not to me,
anyway." Suddenly he snapped his fingers. "Hey now. Sideways?"

"You mean on its side?"

"Just for kicks...." the repairman gripped the set again. "On the
side...." He set the cabinet down, on one side, and stepped back, to
regard the picture again.

Slowly, the picture turned once more, and once again, relative to the
usual directions of up and down, the picture was stubbornly, completely
inverted.

"It's onto that, too," the repairman said, gloomily. He sat down on the
floor, and assumed a kind of Yoga posture, peering between his legs.
"You could try it this way, Pops."

"I'm pretty stiff," Mr. Rapp t