Qally points to a wall at the forward end of the chamber. ‘‘Press against that wall, and you'll be able to walk right through it. Good luck!”

You press against the wall. It yields to the weight of your body as though made of cotton. You pass through, and it forms again behind you, as solid and smooth as steel.

“Sit down, or you may fall over,” ’ a voice says.

You look around, but to your amazement there is no one in the room except a small child, hardly more than a baby. You sit next to the child and gaze into his large brown eyes.

“You're just a baby,” you say, “yet you can talk. You must be older than you look.”

“I was once a full-grown man,” the baby replies. “‘This is the time-reversal chamber—the U-TY’s greatest invention. Here, time runs backward. In eighteen months, I will no longer exist—because I will not yet have been born.”

Does that mean that now I'll grow younger too?”

“Indeed, you are right now,” the baby replies. “However old you are—that’s how long it will be until you’re born. I will be born much sooner than you. Then you will be all alone.”

“What will happen to you after you are born?”

“I will not exist.”

“How awful.”

“I suppose so,” the baby says, “‘but it will be no worse for me than it was for you before you were born. There’s always a chance that my life will start again sometime in the past. Maybe I will become my father, and then, when he is born, I will become his father!”

“Is there no way out of here?" you ask.

“‘None—except—you could try walking through that portal. But, if you try, you may be for a moment in two times at the same place, or, what is worse, two places at the same time!”

~ If you risk escape,

< GO TO CHAPTER 36 >

~ If you decide to stay and hope for a better chance to escape,

< GO TO CHAPTER 37 >