le
thing with the exception of the frame, rose straight up and smothered
the dog and me very effectively! After the first moment of panic,
consisting of flailing arms, legs, muffled barks and curses, I was
able to shove the bedding aside so we could breathe again. I had just
started to yell at Jim to turn the thing off and stand aside, when
that's just what he did. I clutched at Duchess, hoping to break both
our falls I guess, but nothing happened!

I looked at Jim, and he was looking at the plug in his hand. There was
a dazed look on his face, and I'm sure there was one on mine too.
Duchess just licked my face and wagged her tail. For a space of about
two breaths no one spoke, then all started at once....

"Jim, you pull out that plug right now and get your father down from
there!" That was Mary.

"Don't just stand there like a dope ... turn that damn thing off!"
That was me.

"Jimmy, where's your camera? I want to get a picture of this!" That
was Johnny.

Duchess just whined, and wagged her tail apologetically.

"Jim," I said, very softly, "Will you please stop messing around and
get us down from here?"

"I unplugged it, Dad ... I don't know why you're still up there." He
shook his head.

Johnny, bless his little heart, had what seemed to be a good idea;
"Why not get hold of the wires and pull the plate out from under
them?"

So Jim eased up to within about a foot of the plate, grabbed the wires
and started pulling. I had no sensation at all. We just stuck there.
Even with the plate out in the hall!

* * * * *

Jim stood for a moment in thought, then looked up at us and said,
"Well, maybe it'll wear off in a little while, as you gradually
discharge whatever kind of charge you got from the plate."

"What do you mean by 'charge'?" I asked.

"Well, not knowing what kind of field I generated with that plate, I
couldn't tell you offhand, but it is probably something like this; you
see, apparently what I did was not cut gravity off exactly, but
changed the normal electrical charge in whatever object came into the
field. Seems to me if I had cut gravity with the plate, you would have
fallen when I turned it off. As it is, you're still there," he added
rather unnecessarily.

And Jim, as his teen-age friends used to say, wasn't just whistling
Dixie. We were definitely, unquestionably still there.

About this time I became aware of a pain in the small of my back. For
a man wh