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either. Someone would have approached me and tried to bully me or offered payment to get it back. Perhaps they would have threatened me to give it to them and then keep quiet about it. They certainly wouldn't have told me to destroy it.
    "What am I thinking?" I mumbled. "Nobody has this kind of technology. It's a television as thin as a piece of paper that stays against a wall by itself, is self-powered, and can be folded up and put in a pocket. Nobody has this. At least nobody on this planet." My eyes opened wide and my jaw dropped as I realized the implications of that last sentence.
    I was hyperventilating again as I sat down at the table and positioned myself directly in front of the device, so I worked to get my breathing under control as I stared at the image being projected and tried to reason its source. It didn't appear to be a television show. The image was more like what would be received from a security camera. What seemed like ordinary people were walking along an ordinary city street. I knew it wasn't New York City. For one thing, it was overcast outside my house, but the sky in the video image was bright and sunny. And people were wearing lighter-weight clothing than I'd expect to see in New York right now.
    "So how do I change the channel and increase the volume?" I asked aloud. "There aren't any controls visible. Do I need a remote?"
    Naturally I didn't receive an answer— not that I really expected one. And if I had, I would have immediately checked into Bellevue because I was already beginning to doubt my sanity.
    Stretching out my arm, I touched the paper on the right side of the image, just inside the paper's edge. The image immediately began to shift right, as if the camera operator were moving sideways. I pulled my hand away and it stopped. When I touched it again, it moved right again. I touched the top of the image next, and it immediately changed as if the camera operator were on a boom that was rising into the air. When I pulled my hand away from the device, the image stopped moving. I touched it again and it rose again. At this point I realized my breathing had quickened appreciably and I was getting a little dizzy, so I forced myself to take slow, measured breaths.
    As the image cleared the surrounding buildings, I saw the unmistakable shape of an obelisk that could only be the Washington Monument in DC. I touched the left side just inside the edge, and the camera moved left. As I continued to touch it, the Capitol Building came into view. Live cams on the internet that could be adjusted from a computer were common, but they were nothing like this. For one thing, the image quality was nothing less than superb. In fact, it was more like a window than an electronic image.
    I had a sudden thought and reached out towards the device. My finger met a more-or-less expected resistance at the center of the image. So much for that dumb idea , I thought as I pulled my arm back. But the image had seemed so lifelike that it really appeared like I could put my hand right into it. You never know for sure until you try, I told myself, but if my hand had gone through the paper, I would definitely be on my way to the psych hospital for an examination.
    Thinking I would hold it up close, I reached out and lifted the edge of the paper off the wall, but as the paper came free, the image disappeared. I was alarmed, thinking I might have broken it. As I held it in my hands, it again looked like an ordinary piece of paper. "Oh God, oh God," I said under my breath as a sort of prayer that I hadn't destroyed the electronics by removing the paper without turning off the device first, although I didn't even know how to power the unit down. I put it back on the wall, thinking it might work again if it was perfectly vertical, and I was horrified when it failed to illuminate.
    I thought back to what I'd done originally, then reached out and placed my thumb lightly against the top right corner. When it didn't illuminate, I