y?_"

"I tried to make you see it today. The world is stuck. It's stuck in
this God-forsaken one day! We don't know why. Some of us--just a
few--have known it all along. But even we can't remember what caused
it."

"You mean it's happening everywhere?"

"Yes. Or not happening, I guess you'd say. We're not getting reports
from overseas ... not any that are any different from the first
Wednesday. So it must be the same over there. It's the whole world,
Ernie."

"Wait a minute. Let me think." After a moment, he got up, went into
the kitchen and got another beer.

"O.K., I'm ready," he said as he came back. "Now, why did you guys
pick me? How many of you are there?"

"Just a handful ... no more than twenty. We're scattered all across
the country. We picked you because you're a test case, Ernie. One of
us is a psychologist.

"He says you're a common denominator. If we could break you out of it,
then we could get through to a whole cross section of people."

Ernie grunted and sipped his beer. "A common denominator, huh?
Thanks, pal. You mentioned drugs. I guess you can go anywhere? Just
walk past people and never be seen?"

"That's right."

Ernie laughed scornfully. "You've got a good deal. Why louse it up?
What do you stand to gain?"

Jory shook his head. "You're wrong, Ernie. For one thing, everything
is slowly running down. Miners go to the same part of the mine each
day and send out nothing but empty cars. The same thing is happening
all across the country, in farms, in factories, in hospitals--"

Ernie got up. "Keep talking," he said.

"Hospitals are hideous these days, Ernie. Don't go near a surgeon. All
he can do are the same operations he performed on the first Wednesday.
If you're the wrong height, the wrong weight, or just there at the
wrong time, he'll cut you to pieces.

"Homes burn to the ground. And nobody tries to get out of them. The
fire department is no good. It's stuck in that first Wednesday.

"We broke off broadcasting last night. We had to fight an apartment
house fire. There are only three of us here in the city. We didn't
save anyone. What could we do? We were lucky that we kept it from
spreading.

"We need help, Ernie. We need it badly--"

Absently, Ernie said, "Yeah, I see that all right." He kept pacing.

"I don't know if I can make you understand how important you are right
now, Ernie. With you helping, we can isolate the thing that triggered
you out of this. We can use it