Ernie had heard enough. He climbed the ladder to the top, butted his head and climbed down. "Okay. You win. What's the score?"
"You and Marsha," the man said.
"Melinee," Ernie corrected.
"Melinee in your dimension, Marsha in ours. You and she exist in our dimension as well. Same types, same characteristics inwardly. But not the same outwardly. Different hair, different name—your own features were to be slightly different here."
Ernie sat down on the sofa beside the two old men. He buried his head. "This is the other dimension? Then where is the other me?"
"Oh, no," his host said. "This is not 'the other' dimension. This is the experimental dimension. You are from the second. What we are both in is a third realm sponsored by the government—the federal government of The Unison States. Congrice sponsored this scientific investigation, provided we could accomplish it before the session ends."
The first desire to laugh at the stupidity of the nightmare grappled with Ernie. But when he looked at that ladder and remembered the bump on his head, he knew this was not the time or place for a nightmare.
The man went on, "So we talked Senatore Jumphries into wielding his might in committee, the committee on extra-dimensional perception talked to the President Eisenhoovelt, he addressed the Congrice, and by the single vote of Demorep Martini, this thing was financed for short duration."
Ernie opened his eyes and looked beyond the bar and the experimental lab. It was like the inside of a giant ship in space or a vessel plowing the Pacific. It spread into distant chasms of darkness.