My Library

small cart into a building with massive thick walls. The containers had
pipelike protuberances extending from the top. Men working behind shields
performed the removal, casually cautious, and did not relax their automatic
vigilance until the containers were safely in the building and the door closed.
The contents were "hot," either through heat or radiation. The actions of the
technicians all seemed to indicate the latter.
The streets and roads are different, again principally in size. The "lane" on
which vehicles travel is nearly twice as wide as ours. Their version of our
automobile is much larger. Even the smallest has a single bench seat that
will hold five to six people abreast The standard unit has only one fixed seat,
that of the driver. Others are much like living-room chairs, placed around a
compartment that measures some fifteen by twenty feet. Wheels are used,
but without inflated tires. Steering is done by a single horizontal bar. Motive
power is contained somewhere in the rear. Their movement is not very fast,
at something like fifteen to twenty miles per hour. Traffic is not heavy.
Self-powered vehicles exist in the form of a four-wheeled platform which is
steered by the feet acting upon the front wheels. A mechanism pumped by
the arms transfers the energy to the rear wheels, much like the children's
"rowing wagons" of some years back. These are used for short distances.
Habits and customs are not like ours. What little has been gleaned implies a
historical background with different events, names, places, and dates. Yet,
while the stage of man's evolution (the conscious mind translates the
inhabitants as men) seems to be identical, technical and social evolution are
not completely the same.
The major discovery came soon after I gathered the courage for extended
expeditions into Locale three . In spite of early indications, the people there were
not aware of my presence until I met and "merged" temporarily and
involuntarily with one who can only be described as the "I" who lives "there."
The only explanation I can think of is that I, fully conscious of living and being
"here," was attracted to and began momentarily to inhabit the body of a
person "there," much like myself.
When this took place—and it began to be an automatic process when I went
to Locale three —I simply took over "his" body. There was no awareness of his
mental presence when I temporarily displaced him. My knowledge of him and
his activities and his past came from his family, and what was evidently his
brain memory-bank. Though I knew that I was not he, I could feel objectively
the emotional patterns of his past. I have wondered what embarrassment I
have caused him as a result of the periods of amnesia created by my
intrusions. Some must have brought him much distress.