He reached across the terrified girl, snapped over the key. Instantly the flickering ceased ... the gray, bottomless mists dissipated ... the illumination returned. We were once again back in the bedroom, sitting in the time-machine.
But—there was a startling difference.
Standing beside us, staring at us with eyes huge as moons and mouths incredulously agape, were three people. And those three people were—
Helen MacDowell ... Horsesense Hank ... and myself!
CHAPTER III
The Whacky Worlds of Maybe
I was the first to break the horrified silence, and I hereby claim the all-time, All-American and world's record for silence-shattering—because two of me broke it at once!
I wailed, "Omigawd!" Then started like a bishop in a burleyque as I heard my own voice wailing, "Omigawd!"—and saw myself whirl and make a bee-line for the door.
Then Horsesense Hank—my Horsesense Hank, I should say—put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Easy, Jim!" And the other Horsesense Hank put his hand on the other me's arm, and said, "Easy, Jim!", and two Helens asked, simultaneously, "Hank—what in the world has happened to us?"