Donald Keith 34 min read

An out-of-work color engineer, chewing vitamin pills and sleeping capsules, is offered a job where the trouble comes labeled fakemake, bumsy, and peekage.

Donald Keith's 1957 story sets frazzled Jeff and his wife Ann in a noisy diner as a bold stranger dangles a bewildering opportunity. Clever, brisk hard SF with an intriguing jargon-laden hook. Read it for an inventive golden-age puzzle that pulls a down-on-his-luck everyman into strange work.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

34 min read (a novelette, room for a turn or two).

Illustrated by

Jack Gaughan