Ernie shook his head. "You're nuts," he mumbled.
"It's true, Ernie."
"But—" A thought struck him. "Hey, are other people getting this on their sets?"
"Everyone in the city, Ernie. But they aren't seeing it. As far as we can tell they think they're watching their usual programs. Everyone is in a trance, Ernie. They just go through the same motions over and over. It was the same with the engineers here. We just pushed them aside. They're tied up now. We're keeping them under drugs. We had to do that. When they were loose they just tried to get back at the controls. But that was all, they never really saw us."
Ernie shook his head again. "Wait a minute. Let me get my head clear—O.K., now you say everybody is in some kind of trance. Why?"
"I tried to make you see it today. The world is stuck. It's stuck in this God-forsaken one day! We don't know why. Some of us—just a few—have known it all along. But even we can't remember what caused it."
"You mean it's happening everywhere?"
"Yes. Or not happening, I guess you'd say. We're not getting reports from overseas ... not any that are any different from the first Wednesday. So it must be the same over there. It's the whole world, Ernie."
"Wait a minute. Let me think." After a moment, he got up, went into the kitchen and got another beer.
"O.K., I'm ready," he said as he came back. "Now, why did you guys pick me? How many of you are there?"