Mark Clifton 52 min read

A Swami in white turban and black cloak intones prophecies over the personnel director's secretary, 'a tall, dark, handsome man will come into your life', as the boss himself walks in.

Mark Clifton's 1955 story is a witty psi-powers and social-SF tale of a fake mystic and real powers. Sharp, funny golden-age SF. Read it for a delightful office comedy where a huckster Swami turns out to be more than he seems, and hard-headed science must reckon with genuine psi.

In its time

Published in 1955, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

H. R. Van Dongen