byTom Lionel, Consulting Engineer, awoke with a shake of his head. At once, he was out of bed. He consulted first the calendar and then the clock. The thought struck him funny. He hadn’t been drinking, but the idea of looking at a calendar upon awakening might be construed as an admission that he didn’t know what time of what day it was.
Or mayhap what month.
Or mayhap what month.“Ding it,” he grunted. “I’ve been away again.”
He dressed by stages. At the trousers department, Tom wandered out into the living room and stood over a chessboard, studying the set-up. The opponent had moved the queen to the rook’s fourth, menacing his bishop. Tom smiled and moved his knight to his knight’s sixth and checked the opponent’s king on the rook’s first, and the queen simultaneously. He slid the draw
