Philip Dick: Time Out of Joint

Sticking out his hand he said to Vic, "Good-bye."

Vic, his face wooden, ignored him.

"Are you going back to Old Town?" Ragle said.

Vic nodded.

"Maybe I'll see you all again," Ragle said. "After the war." He did not believe that it would last much longer. "I wonder if they'll keep up Old Town," he said. "Without me in the center."

Turning, Vic walked off, away from him, to the door of the drugstore. "Any way to get out of here?" he said loudly, his back to the two of them.

"You'll be let out," Mrs. Keitelbein said. "We'll drop you off on the highway and you can arrange for a ride back to Old Town."

Vic remained by the door.

It's a shame, Ragle Gumm thought. But it has been that way for some time, now. This is nothing new.

"Would you kill me?" he said to Vic. "If you could?"

"No," Vic said. "There's always the chance you'll switch back again, to this side."

To Mrs. Keitelbein, Ragle said, "Let's go."

"Your second trip," she said. "You'll be leaving Earth again."

"That's right," Ragle said. Another lunatic joining the group already there.

Beyond the windows of the drugstore a shape tilted on its end, to launching position. Vapors boiled up from its bottom. The loading platform coasted over to it and locked in place. Halfway up the side of the ship a door opened. A man stuck his head out, blinked, strained to see in the night darkness. Then he lit a colored light.

The man with the colored light resembled Walter Keitelbein to a striking degree. As a matter of fact, he _was_ Walter Keitelbein.