by Kirby Brooks
mattress and covers stuck up here with me? There indeed was athought.
* * * * *
Pushing Duchess aside and getting licked in the face once again for mytrouble, I reached over and got hold of the mattress. In doing so Ihad to roll over partially. I really got the sensation then of beingon a pine board floor. So much so in fact, that I rolled clear overonto my hands and knees. It wasn't so bad after all! Just like beingon a regular floor, reaching for a mattress and covers. Really had tokeep my eyes away from that window though!
I finally got the bed straightened out and got comfortable. Duchess,no doubt figuring this was a rather special occasion, proceeded toease herself in bed with me. At that point I didn't care too much so Ilet her stay. It was a funny thing but she didn't seem to have muchtrouble standing up at all. In fact, she seemed perfectly happy withthe whole arrangement, but every-time I glanced at that dormer windowand pictured vast reaches of blue nothing, my stomach turned over alittle.
Guess I must have dozed off, because the next thing I remember wasJohnny standing on the ladder, poking me with a tennis racquet.
"Wake up Dad," he was saying. "Mother wants to know if you and Duchesswant any lunch."
"I don't know about Duchess," I yawned, "But I could certainly do witha bit to eat. Like to shave and brush my teeth too. Think you couldfigure out something?"
Johnny figured, and oddly enough it's no trick to brush your teeth(I'm lucky to still have my own) upside down. It's much the same aswhen you do it normally ... bent over the lavatory. As for shaving,well I never cared much for them, but I used Jim's electric razor andthat was taken care of. No shower though. Not even Johnny could figurethat one out.
Mary came in with sandwiches and coffee, and with straws it turned outall right. Duchess did her usual lapping. There wasn't anything elseto do but wait, so Johnny brought me the morning paper. Let me tellyou, that's no snap, trying to read a paper that's continually tryingto pull away from you. My arms got awfully tired after awhile so Igave that up. Noticing it was rather stuffy, I asked Johnny to lowerthe upper sash of the dormer so the air could circulate a bit, and asit became more comfortable, I must have dropped off to sleep again.
* * * * *
The next thing I knew I was awakened rather forcibly by loud screamsand yells from the garden just outside the window. When I got my witstogether and looked, the first thing I noticed was that Duchess wasnowhere around. About that time, Johnny burst into the room, tearsstreaming down his face, and crying as though his heart would break.Close on his heels was Mary, also crying, and Jim was bringing up therear.
"What in the world's the matter?" I asked.
"Oh, Ralph," Mary sobbed, "It's Duchess ... she's gone!"
"She just flew right up in the air!" Johnny added.
"What do you mean, 'flew right up in the air', what are you alltalking about?"
"She got out of the window, Dad," Jim said. "We were out in the gardentalking, and I guess she heard us. Looks like she went to the window,scratched the screen loose, and out she went."
"Oh, Ralph, it was just horrible," Mary sobbed. "That poor thing,going up just like a balloon ... getting smaller and smaller."
"Yeah, Dad," Johnny sniffed, "We watched her till she went clear outof sight ... she was kickin' her legs and we could hear her barkin'too."
"For heaven's sake, Ralph," Mary cried, "don't you go near thatwindow!"
"Yes, you'd go up too, Dad," Jim added.
Clutching tightly to the mattress, I assured them I wouldn't go nearthe window, or the door either, for that matter. Just the thought ofthat poor dog sailing up in the air made me sick in the pit of mystomach.
"How high will she go, Jim?" I asked.
"Gee, I don't know, Dad. But I think she'll just keep right on going,clear up out of the air." Jim had a hard time keeping a sob out of hisvoice too.
"What'll happen to her, son?"
"Well, you see, between the cold and the lack of oxygen, she'll justgo to sleep.... I remember reading about fliers at high altitude."
"Thank Heaven," Mary breathed. And I added a silent "Amen."
About 3:30 Professor Jordan arrived and Jim brought him in andintroduced us. The professor was probably 40, but looked hardly olderthan Jim, and was built along the same tall and gangly lines. A verybusiness-like man though, thank heaven, and he got right to the point.After the first shock of seeing me on the ceiling, he turned to Jim,"Now, tell me. Exactly what happened, and what is this rig you havehere?"
* * * * *
Jim told him the whole story of how Duchess and I got caught, thenwent into great detail about the plastic plate, the kinds of metal hehad used, and the different settings on the transformer. He finishedby telling how Duchess had sailed off into space.
At this, Professor Jordan looked more closely at the transformerhookup. "You say the settings are still the same?"
"Yes, sir, it's still the same. I haven't changed a thing except topull the plate out in the hall."
"Have you tried it since your father was caught?"
"No, sir ... in all the excitement I haven't gotten around to foolingwith it again."
The professor walked out in the hall, reached in his pocket for ahandkerchief, tossed it over the plate. It rose! Straight up, andstuck to the ceiling!
"My gosh!" Jim blurted. "Somebody must have plugged that thing inagain!"
Mary and Johnny, who were watching in silence, both spoke up to saythat neither of them had. Jim reached down and picked up the AC line.Sure enough, it _wasn't_ plugged in!
"Well, this is going to take some studying," Professor Jordanmuttered, looking rather awed at Jim's gadget. "Jim, let's start atthe beginning again, and be sure you tell me everything you did, everymove you made, what kind of metal you used, how finely divided it was,what concentration you used and what voltages and frequencies youused."
"I'll try, Professor," Jim said, "But it's going to be sort of a hitor miss proposition because I fiddled with this thing for an hour orso before accidentally dropping my cigarettes on the plate. When theywent up, I was surprised, to say the least, so I tried other things."
"What we've got to figure put first of all, is whether it was causedby a combination of changes, or whether it was the last setting youused," Professor Jordan said. "If it was a combination of voltage andfrequency changes, then we've certainly got a problem on our hands."
All this time of course, Mary and Johnny had been standing more orless open-mouthed, listening, and I, from my vantage point high on theceiling, had been taking it all in too.
"Can you think of any way to run the experiment over?" The professorasked. "Do you think you can remember the formula for the plasticplate?"
Jim thought a moment, snapped his fingers and said, "By golly, Ibelieve I've got another piece of that plastic around here somewhere.I made it up at school and had to cut a little piece off so I couldget it in my suitcase. I'll see if I can find it." And steppinggingerly around the plate in the hall he came back into the room andstarted rummaging around in his luggage.
* * * * *
The professor looked at me. "Mr. Wilson, what sort of sensation didyou have when you stepped on the plate?"
"Well, as near as I can remember, I _don't_ remember," I said. "Istarted to reach up and pull Duchess down, and the next thing I knewmy head hit the ceiling. Still got a bump big as an Easter egg."
"Did you have a giddy, light sensation?"
"No, as I say, I don't remember anything but the whack on the head."
About that time, Jim hollered, "Hey! I found it! Now maybe we can findout what goes on here."
Jim and the professor very carefully disconnected the transformer fromthe plate in the hall, made sure the dial settings were the same,then hooked up the new plate. It was a lot smaller than the first one,being only about six inches wide and two feet long.
"I wonder if shape has anything to d
o with it?" the professor mused.
"We'll find out in a minute," said Jim. "Everybody stand back now, andI'll plug in the transformer."
He plugged it in and in a few seconds the plate began to glow the sameas the other one. "We'll give it a few more seconds," Jim said, "thenwe'll see if it works."
The professor fumbled around in his pockets, started to toss his pipeonto the plate, thought better of it and put it back in his pocket.Johnny, who had been watching the whole proceedings, pulled out hisBoy Scout knife.