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wandered—and floundered—and fell when I thought about my solidity—and landed—and pawed through this endless mist.
    Once or twice I thought I saw people. But I could not be sure, for I was careful not to think they were people. And when I had spent a timeless space in stumbling about I forgot my caution and, seeing a misty thing which looked like a man, thought he was a man.
    Very briefly he assumed a shape. It was nebulous and distorted as though I looked at him through a drinking glass just emptied of milk.
    â€œStop it!” he cried in a thin voice. “By what right have you dragged me back? Vanish and be saved!”
    And he vanished.
    From somewhere came caroling voices and an ineffably sweet harmony which I could not associate with any instruments I had ever heard. For an instant there came over me an exquisite longing to forget myself and my misery and join that chorus. But then I remembered Flerry and George Smiley and, doggedly, I went on with my search. Half an eternity, it seemed, of toiling search.
    It took me a long while to discover that other one. A long while. I felt I had swum through a light-year of mist, had fallen through the bottom of the Universe and had scrambled skyward to the sun itself. But I found him.
    He was a definite shape before I had any chance to think of him, and when I thought him not there he still was there.
    I had found him!
    He was above me perhaps fifty feet and he seemed to be sitting on air and dangling his feet over the edge. Great gouts of mist rolled between us, blotting us from one another’s sight. But each time the mist cleared, there we were again. I could not contain myself for joy and he seemed to feel much the same way, for he waved his arms down at me and beckoned me up. I beckoned him to come down. We must have been farther apart than it seemed to our eyes, for he could not hear me nor I him.
    He was evidently frightened to let go of his perch in air and so I had to take the initiative. I looked along the way from me to him and thought hard about a stair. And step by step the stair appeared. I ran up it, shouting at him the while, but, in my enthusiasm, I forgot the stair and it vanished.
    I landed as soon as I was frightened of earth’s impact and again built the stair. This time I looked at the steps as I went up and this time I arrived.
    He was a diminutive fellow with a face which attested to a belligerent turn of mind. And his first greeting to me was, “Did you do all this?”
    â€œNo. George Smiley did it.”
    â€œWho?”
    â€œGeorge Smiley.”
    â€œMust have been an Earthman. I am from Carvon myself.”
    â€œNever heard of that,” I said.
    â€œWell, it was a nice place. I was researching on the regime of Vaso on Wwhmanin and all of a sudden my book vanished and here I was. And here I am.”
    â€œHere we both are,” I said. “I’ve been looking all over for you. I need help. Did you see those stairs I just built?”
    â€œYes, but they’re gone now. It wasn’t such a good job.”
    â€œWell, I’ve discovered that all we have to do is think of something real hard and then it will come about. And if we can remember it—”
    â€œIf we can remember it. I’ve been trying to concentrate on a ham sandwich for a day and a half, but I keep forgetting it before I can eat it. Woops. There it goes again.”
    â€œNow look,” I said. “I’ll think about it, too.”
    â€œNo, let’s get something to sit on first. I don’t know what’s under me and I don’t—”
    â€œDon’t say that!” said I, barely saving him from falling. “All right, we’ll think of a table. There! There’s a table. Now you keep thinking about that table while I get a couple of chairs—”
    He shut his eyes and kept a grip on the table. I shut mine and imagined us sitting on chairs. And then there we were, sitting on