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outside the cluttered display window says that the store has been there for over a century. So had some of the inventory, but Louie—he refused to be called Louis—was the only shopkeeper left in town who had special narrow paper boxes for his customers. I do have a fondness for some traditions.
    Samaha’s Factorium and Emporium is dark, with wooden counters and rough-paneled walls that contain fine cracks older than any current living souls in Vanderbraak Centre. Even the modern glow panels in the ceiling do not seem to penetrate the store’s history.
    I walked past the bakery counter that always featured breads and rolls heavy enough to sink a dreadnought or serve as ballast for a dirigible and pulled my paper from its slot, fifth down in the first row, right below the empty slot labeled “Derkin.” In the year and a half since I returned to Vanderbraak Centre, I’d never seen mister Derkin.
    “Here you go, Louie.” I left my dime on the counter. The Post-Courier was only seven cents, but the other three I had pressed on Louie on principle as a fee for saving back issues for me when I was away.
    “Thanks be ye, Doktor. Have a pleasant day.”
    “The same to you.”
    The front-page story below the fold caught my eye, and I read it even before I left the store.

    SAN FRANCISCO (RPI)—A fire of undetermined origin destroyed the entire Babbage center of the California Polytechnic Institution late last night, killing one professor and a night watchman. Arson is suspected, but the destruction was so thorough that it may be weeks before federal investigators can determine even where in the massive complex the fire began. The dead professor is believed to be the Babbage research coordinator, Elston Janes.
    CPI has been the site of recent protests against psychic phenomena duplication studies. Webster VanBujirk, speaking for the Roman Catholic Diocese of the Pacific, denied any church involvement. “Although we have expressed grave concerns about the direction of Babbage research [at CPI], such widespread destruction is reprehensible.”
    Selkik Means, Anglican-Baptist bishop of California, released a statement which claimed in part that “all devout Anglican-Baptists deplore such wanton destruction.” Even so, Bishop Means added that he hoped that after rebuilding the facility the Institution would reconsider its policy of accepting federal research contracts on psychic phenomena.
    The Alliance for World Peace asked Speaker Hartpence to begin
an investigation into charges that the CPI research was in fact disguised Defense Ministry research. This allegation was denied immediately by the Defense Subminister for Procurement and Research. Speaking on behalf of Minister Gore, Subminister Allard Reynard stated, “The federal research conducted at CPI was exactly as contracted. It was research of purely psychic phenomena….”

    I folded the paper into my case and climbed back into the Stanley for the short drive to the faculty car park. As I turned up Highland Street, the clock on the post centre struck half past eight.
    Only a handful of spaces remained, but then, the car park only contained four dozen places, and twice that number of faculty lived outside of easy walking distance. The rest parked where they could, but not, of course, around the square. The parking issue almost had had Dean Er Recchus and the town elders before the magistrates, and might yet again.
    I vented the Stanley before locking the doors and walked to the Natural Resources Department’s offices. Gilda had not arrived, and there were only two messages in my box. One was from my esteemed chairman, the most honorable Doktor David Doniger—a reminder of the faculty meeting, on the special memo paper he used as chairman. The other was a note from the Student Affairs office that Corinne Blasefeldt would be absent because of her father’s funeral. I wanted to send a note back that I would have been surprised if she had been in class, but the dean’s