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chamber is missing its power supply, his entertainment tapes have been swapped out for a cat toy and all his food has been replaced by cat kibble.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.

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.

Eric’s boss Bradshaw demands he come to work right away to report on his trip. Bradshaw isn’t happy that Eric let one of their best workers get turned into an amphibian, so he fires Eric but keeps the toad. Back at home, Eric, Patricia (benevolently no longer a statue) and the deity plot how to get Matson back when the police, along with Bradshaw, surround the house. Turns out it is illegal to transport non-Terran life to Earth. Eric makes a deal to change Matson back to a human if they call off the troops, which his boss accepts but then reneges on once the deity has converted Matson back. Just then the deity realizes (long after the reader) that Bradshaw is the evil Nar Dolk in disguise, and the two of them fight before disappearing to their own dimension. 

Cast of characters

• Eric Blake – brings Tinokuknoi Arevulopapo to Earth from Ganymede
• Tinokuknoi Arevulopapo – a Ganymedean deity
• Patricia Blake – Eric’s wife
• Thomas Matson – Eric’s co-worker
• Horace Bradshaw – Eric’s boss
• Jennings – works in the biology lab at Terran Metals

The post A Present for Pat appeared first on the world Dick made.

Of course the next day, while he is alone, Jimmy does spot a buggie in a tree. The buggie communicates telepathically to Jimmy that their planet has dried up, and all they want is to exist over Earth’s plentiful oceans. Jimmy heeds his father’s advice though and alerts some nearby men who burn the buggie to a crisp. Ted couldn’t be prouder, bragging about his son to anyone he sees after he hears the news.

A similar alien “threat” would show up again as the drifters a few years later in Dick’s novel The World Jones Made.

Cast of characters

• Ted Barnes
• Lena Barnes – Ted’s wife
• Jimmy Barnes – Ted’s son
• Mike Edwards, Ralf Drake – Jimmy’s friends

The post Martians Come in Clouds appeared first on the world Dick made.

Cast of characters

• Captain Shure
• Navigator Nelson
• Communications Officer Barnes

The post The Cosmic Poachers appeared first on the world Dick made.

When he is eventually captured by the aliens and carried into the sky in a net he resigns himself to the fact that the aliens want him for his knowledge and ability. Instead, just before he is cast into a frying pan, he finds the aliens only want to eat him.

The reversal here is amusing, but nothing about the setup really works.

Cast of characters

• Anthony Douglas – a nuclear physics professor at Bryant College
• Laura Douglas – Anthony’s wife
• Bill Henderson – head of the Biology department at Bryant College
• Jean Henderson – Bill’s wife
• Milton Erick – head of the Math department

The post Fair Game appeared first on the world Dick made.

Cast of characters

• Allen Fergusson – member of the Pittsburgh settlement
• Charlotte, Ben Untermeyer – members of a settlement outside Pittsburgh
• John Dawes – a survivor who has learned to craft a wooden cup

The post Pay for the Printer appeared first on the world Dick made.

His psychoanalyst connects him with Vivian Arrasmith, a female Blobel and former Terran spy who reverts to human form six hours of every day. They marry, but years later when they have difficulty in their relationship Vivian stabilizes as a human full time in order to save her marriage not knowing that Munster has stabilized full time as a Blobel in order to operate a business on Titan.

Cast of characters

• George Munster – a human who turns into a Blobel
• Dr. Jones – Munster’s robot psychoanalyst
• Vivian Arrasmith – Munster’s wife. A Blobel who turns into a human
• Pete Ruggles, Sherman Downs, Reinholt Glaubman – Munster’s fellow vets
• Nina Glaubman – Munster’s mistress
• Henry Ramarau – Munster’s attorney

The post Oh, To Be a Blobel! appeared first on the world Dick made.

Cast of characters

• John LeConte – a ‘politico’ on Earth
• Mr. Fall – LeConte’s secretary
• Peter Hood – CURBman from Centaurus
• Joan Hood – Peter Hood’s wife
• Rudolph Fletcher – Hood’s assistant
• Otto Dietrich – the supreme police investigator from Centaurus who vows to make an example of the war criminals responsible for Earth’s nuclear war
• Benny Cemoli – a supposed revolutionary who seized power of North America in a coup
• Stavros – a Greek grocery store owner and supposed follower of Benny Cemoli

The post If There Were No Benny Cemoli appeared first on the world Dick made.