As Long As You Wish

Transcriber's Note: Transcriber's Note: This e-text was produced from Astounding Science Fiction, June, 1955. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
If, somehow, you get trapped in a circular time system . . . how long is the circumference of an infinitely retraced circle?
The patient sat stiffly in the leather chair on the other side of the desk. Nervously he pressed a coin into the palm of one hand.
Just start anywhere, I said, and tell me all about it.
As before? Without waiting for an answer, he continued, the coin clutched tightly in one hand. I'm Charles J. Fisher, professor of Philosophy at Reiser College.
He looked at me quickly. Or at least I was until recently. For a second his face was boyish. Professor of Philosophy, that is.
I smiled and found that I was staring at the coin in his hand. He gave it to me. On one side I read the words: THE STATEMENT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS COIN IS FALSE. The patient watched me with an expressionless face; I turned over the coin. It was engraved with the words: THE STATEMENT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THIS COIN IS FALSE.
That's not the problem, he said, not my problem. I had the coin made when I was an undergraduate. I enjoyed reading one side, turning it over, reading the other side, and so on. A fiendish enjoyment like boys planning where to put the tipped-over outhouse.
I looked at the patient. He was thirty-eight, single, medium build, had an M.A. and Ph.D. from an eastern university. I knew this and more from the folder on my desk.
Eight months ago, he continued, I read about the sphere found on Paney Island. He stopped, looking at me questioningly.
Yes, I know, I said. I opened my desk drawer, took out a clipping from the newspaper, and handed it to him.
That's it.