there was space for a bed in addition to all the stuff a boy
can collect who becomes enamored of science while in High School, and
who consummates the wedding with studying electronics in college.

[Illustration]

I pushed his door open a little wider and looked in before entering; a
trick the family had acquired when Jim was in the Zoological-Biological,
or frog-collecting age. "What do you want, son?"

"Just want to show you something," he said, pointing to the floor. He
was bent over looking intently at what seemed to be a sheet of that
fluorescent plastic that's used for signs. It was lying on the floor,
was about two feet square, and was glowing a dim pink. Whether from
light within itself, or from the desk lamp, I couldn't tell.

"What is it?"

"I don't really know, Dad, but watch what happens." So saying, he
picked up a glove from the desk, tossed it onto the plastic plate. I
should say he tossed it _at_ the plate, because it didn't land, but
rose fast, straight up! I watched it hit the ceiling with a splat!
Where it stuck. It was then I noticed several other things all
plastered to the panelling too; the mate to the glove, a package of
cigarettes, a cigarette lighter and a golf ball or two.

* * * * *

Well, I had learned years ago in the Prestidigitation Age, or, "You
too can amaze your friends with feats of Magic" that quite often Jim
would go to great lengths to mystify anybody handy. I wasn't too
impressed.

"Next thing will be to make a rope stand up, or saw a woman in half, I
suppose?"

"No, Dad, this is no trick. Fact is, I think I've stumbled onto
something that could be important ... anti-gravity. Or, something that
looks like it."

"Well," I said, "It could be, but just what is this thing?"

"Up at school I started fooling around with various metals, and one
idea I had was to suspend them in tiny particles, colloidally almost,
in plastic. Then I'd run various voltages and varying frequencies
through the plastic."

"Yes, but why?"

"Well, the thing I had in mind originally was a wall or ceiling panel
that would serve as a source of either cold light using a given
voltage and frequency, or as a source of radiant heat, using some
other voltage and frequency. All from the same panel."

"And you wind up with this?"

"Yes, and I'll be darned if I can explain just what this is. I'm
really going to have to do some digging."

While Jim was talking, I had bee