After he arrives at Meknos and makes his drop off the aliens ask him about his cat. He denies having a pet (which he flushed out the airlock) but while he is going through a decontamination procedure so he can leave the Meknosians search his ship. When he is finally on his way back to Terra he finds his deep sleep chamber is missing its power supply, his entertainment tapes have been swapped out for a cat toy and all his food has been replaced by cat kibble. 

Strangely the last short story Dick wrote was first published in The Yuba City High Times (a high school newspaper and not a marijuana enthusiast’s magazine like I first thought/hoped) after the son of an acquaintance of Dick’s wrote him and asked for a short story for the paper which Dick actually then sent over. “The Alien Mind” went on to be published in Fantasy & Science Fiction later that same year.

Cast of characters

• Jason Bedford – intergalactic delivery man
• the Meknosians

The post The Alien Mind appeared first on the world Dick made.

The narrator wakes up on the last day the Lysol Lady can legally occupy her unit before getting evicted, spends the day wondering what will happen to her and then finds out the next day from the building’s sales rep that she moved out several weeks ago after the Housing Authority found her a new apartment. 

Cast of characters

• the unnamed narrator
• Mrs. Archer aka The Lysol Lady – the narrator’s neighbor
• Al Newcum – sales rep for South Orange Investments

The post Strange Memories of Death appeared first on the world Dick made.

Dick reworked “Chains of Air, Web of Aether” into his novel The Divine Invasion.

Cast of characters

• Leo McVane – operates a communications dome on CY30 II
• Rybus Rommey – McVane’s neighbor in a nearby dome
• the food delivery man

The post Chains of Air, Web of Aether appeared first on the world Dick made.

To solve this global catastrophe Joan Simpson, the head of World Mental Health who has been kept in suspended animation in the center of the Earth for just these scenarios, is brought forth to cure Mr. Computer. She determines Joe, lonely and on the verge of suicide, is the reason for Mr. Computer’s breakdown. The police round up Joe and she agrees to take him with her back down into the center of the Earth, giving them both companionship and setting Mr. Computer back to normal. 

Cast of characters

• Joe Contemptible
• Joan Simpson – the head of World Mental Health and the name of Dick’s real-life girlfriend at this time
• Fred Doubledome – a computer tech?
• Dr. Pacemaker – brings Joan out of suspended animation

The post The Day Mr. Computer Fell Out Of Its Tree appeared first on the world Dick made.

At the beginning of the story the priest Philos Diktos witnesses the Sibyl talking with two Immortals who predict two thousand years of darkness and ignorance. Jumping forward to 1974 Philip remembers growing up and his desire to be a science fiction author all the while having dreams and visions of ancient Rome. One night when he is an old man he is visited by the two aliens who tell him they now work through mortals to wake people up and bring springtime to the winter world. Back in Rome we find all that was an account of Philos Diktos who had traveled into the future. He documents this in a scroll to his fellow Romans along with the poet Virgil’s declaration that the tyranny in the future will eventually come to an end and springtime will be reborn.

Cast of characters

• Philos Diktos / Philip Dick – a Roman priest / twentieth-century sci-fi author
• The Cumaean Sibyl
• Carol Heims – Philip’s psychologist
• J’Annis and F’fr’am – the Immortals from Albemuth

The post The Eye of the Sibyl appeared first on the world Dick made.

In the world of this misguided story children can be ‘aborted’ all the way up until they are twelve (the arbitrary age the state decided a person gains a soul) if their parents don’t want them anymore.

Walter, who just turned twelve, is still scared of the abortion truck that drives around the neighborhood picking up kids even though his mom assures him he no longer has anything to worry about. Another boy gets rounded up by the ‘bort truck, and his father insists to get picked up with him. For some nonsensical reason the state has determined the soul enters the body when a child learns math. The boy’s father claims he doesn’t know anything about math, although he is actually a Stanford graduate and just wants to expose the absurdity of the whole situation. He does manage to get some minor media publicity when the abortion facility lets the man and his son free, and afterwards the men of the story complain about how they feel trapped by the women in their lives. “The Pre-persons” is ridiculous and dumb no matter which side of the pro-choice argument you are on.

Cast of characters

• Walter Best – a twelve-year-old too old to be ‘aborted’
• Cynthia and Ian Best – Walter’s parents
• Oscar Ferris – driver of the abortion truck
• Earl Fleischhacker – a kid picked up by the ‘bort truck
• Tim Gantro – gets picked up by Ferris for being a stray
• Ed Gantro – Tim’s father
• Sam B. Carpenter – runs the county abortion facility

The post The Pre-persons appeared first on the world Dick made.

Dick is working through his issues with women here. I’ll just leave it at that.

Cast of characters

• Cadbury – the titular beaver
• Hilda – Cadbury’s wife
• Dr. Drat – Cadbury’s psychiatrist
• Carol Stickyfoot – Cadbury’s love interest

The post Cadbury, The Beaver Who Lacked appeared first on the world Dick made.

Back at the police lab Tinbane continues to play this pinball game even after they can tell the machine is constructing a defense mechanism in the form of a catapult that will launch the pinball back at the player. The game takes advantage of Tinbane’s gambling nature, and as he is trying to beat the game and destroy the catapult the machine is building a scan of his brain pattern. When he goes back to his apartment that night (after narrowly avoiding death when the machine fights back with its catapult) he finds he is now in the center of a giant pinball game himself as he is attacked by enormous pinballs, and he hopes the police lab can construct a large catapult for him before it’s too late.

Cast of characters

• Joseph Tinbane – a Superior Los Angeles police officer
• Falkes – an S.L.A. police officer
• An unnamed police lab technician 
• Ted Donovan – the lab chief

The post Return Match appeared first on the world Dick made.

De Rerum Natura deals with the fleeting nature of life, but certain passages have been altered to indicate a philosophy of immortality. They eventually realize only the books bound in wub-fur have been changed. The wub is a native Mars creature, generally agreed upon to be pretty stupid, that is nearly impossible to kill, but when it does die the pelt continues to live. Through the books it is communicating this message of eternal life. Based on all this Mr. Masters calls his lawyer and updates his will. He wants his coffin after he dies to be lined in wub-fur. 

Dick returns here to the theme of one of his earliest stories: never underestimate a wub.

Cast of characters

• Barney Masters – president of Obelisk Books
• Mr. Brandice – member of Watchmen Over Distortion and Forged Artifacts Generally
• Jack Snead – Obelisk’s copy editor
• Luther Saperstein – business agent for the firm Flawless, Incorporated that procures the wub-fur

The post Not By Its Cover appeared first on the world Dick made.

The Genux-B thinks Herb Sousa, a man who operates a penny gum ball machine business in California, is a threat who needs to be eliminated. Stafford and the others feed data into the computer in an attempt to figure out why it has targeted Sousa, and the output they eventually receive from Genux-B is that Herb Sousa is the devil. 

At that point they conclude the Genux-B is severely malfunctioning and shut it down. Stafford returns to his apartment with a couple of Sousa’s gum balls in his pocket that they had picked up in order to rule out all possibilities of a threat. In the morning the gum balls have multiplied. In a few days 15,000 gum balls are spilling from his apartment and when Stafford tries to contact the FBI they are no longer able to answer the phone.

Should we trust computers completely? Do we even have a choice anymore? “Holy Quarrel” is a fun (and creepy) read.

Cast of characters

• Joseph Stafford – Genux-B computer repairman
• Unnamed computer engineer
• Three unnamed FBI agents

The post Holy Quarrel appeared first on the world Dick made.