
A man wakes up convinced he knows who he is—Fred Martin—but finds himself in a stranger’s kitchen, facing a hostile woman he doesn’t recognize. As he steps outside, the familiar street morphs into an unfamiliar suburb, and even his own name on a driver’s license reads “Ortery Snyder.” The disorienting scene blurs the line between memory and illusion, leaving him to wonder whether he’s suffering amnesia, trapped in a dream, or something far stranger.
Back in a laboratory that seems to appear out of nowhere, he discovers scattered equipment and a bench that hint at a scientific experiment gone awry. The narrative follows his frantic search for a body, an identity, and a foothold in a reality that keeps shifting beneath his feet. With a mix of noir‑style dialogue and eerie, almost cinematic descriptions, the story invites listeners into a puzzling, mind‑bending mystery that asks what it truly means to exist.
Language
en
Duration
~55 minutes (53K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Original publisher
United States: Greenleaf Publishing Company, 1953.
Credits
Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Release date
2021-08-25
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1909–1965
A lively early science fiction writer and editor, he helped shape the feel of pulp-era magazine SF with fast-moving stories and a strong presence in fan culture. He wrote under several names and became especially associated with The Hounds of Hell and the long-running "Club House" feature in Amazing Stories.
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