"O buraco na esquina", uma breve história do grande RA Lafferty; publicado pela primeira vez em Damon Knightantologia de Orbit 2, reimpresso na coleção de Lafferty Novecentos Avós e em outro lugar. Algum dos estas capas tocar um sino?
Uma dona de casa percebeu que o marido não era mais o marido, ele tinha o mesmo nome e agia da mesma forma, mas era um ogro. Ao sair para o trabalho, enfiou a cabeça inteira na boca para dar um beijo de despedida. Ela era como "uau!"
Não saindo para o trabalho, ele acabou de chegar em casa do trabalho:
"Did you remember to bring what I asked you to bring this morning, Homer?" the loving wife Regina inquired.
"What did you ask me to bring this morning, quick-heat blueberry biscuit of my heart?" Homer asked.
"If I'd remembered, I'd have phrased it different when I asked you if you remembered," Regina explained. "But I know I told you to bring something, old ketchup of my soul. Homer! Look at me, Homer! You look different tonight! DIFFERENT!! You're not my Homer, are you! Help! Help! There's a monster in my house!! Help, help! Shriek!"
"It's always nice to be married to a wife who doesn't understand you," Homer said. He enfolded her affectionately, bore her down, trod on her with large friendly hooves, and began (as it seemed) to devour her.
"Where'd you get the monster, mama?" son Robert asked as he came in. "What's he got your whole head in his mouth for? Can I have one of the apples in the kitchen? What's he going to do, kill you, mama?"
"Shriek, shriek," said mama Regina. "Just one apple, Robert, there's just enough to go around. Yes, I think he's going to kill me. Shriek!"
Son Robert got an apple and went outdoors.
Algum homem descobre que as paredes entre as dimensões mudaram e (não tenho certeza sobre esse ponto) que ele se assentará novamente.
The man who knew everything was named Diogenes Pontifex. He lived next door to Homer Hoose, and they found him in his back yard wrestling with his anaconda.
"Diogenes, come over to Homer's with us," Dr. Corte insisted. "We've got a couple of questions that might be too much even for you."
[. . .]
"I was first a gestalt two. Now I'm a gestalt three for a while," said Diogenes. Well, first we have the true case that a hundred or so solid and weighty bodies are occupying the same space that our earth occupies, and at the same time. This in itself does violence to conventional physics. But now let us consider the characteristics of all these cohabiting bodies. Are they occupied and peopled? Will it then mean that a hundred or so persons are occupying at all times the same space that each person occupies? Might not this idea do violence to conventional psychology? Well, I have proved that there are at least eight other persons occupying the same space occupied by each of us, and I have scarcely begun proving. Stark White Sycamore Branches! New-Harrowed Earth! (New harrow, old earth.) Cow Dung Between Your Toes in July! Pitchers'-Mound Clay in the Old Three-Eye League! Sparrow Hawks in August!"
Ele chega em casa e é como ler jornais da noite ou documentos de trabalho enquanto sua esposa se ocupa da casa. Então ele realmente a estuda enquanto eles conversam e ele de repente grita. Ela é sua esposa, mas também uma aranha gigante, ele grita o nome dela quando ela o agarra, ela diz calmamente que (o nome dela eu esqueço) é o nome da espécie dela, e então ela quebra todos os membros para facilitar o manuseio.
"Then it's all right," Homer said. "I was just daydreaming on my way home, and all that stuff never happened. Here I am in the perfect house with my wife Regina, and the kids'll be underfoot in just a second. I never realized how wonderful it was. AHHHHNNN!! YOU'RE NOT REGINA!!"
"But of course I am, Homer. Lycosa Regina is my species name. Well, come, come, you know how I enjoy our evenings together."
She picked him up, lovingly broke his arms and legs for easier handling, spread him out on the floor, and began to devour him.
"No, no, you're not Regina," Homer sobbed. "You look just like her but you also look like a giant monstrous arachnid. Dr. Corte was right, we got to fix that hole on the corner."
"That Dr. Corte doesn't know what he's talking about," Regina munched. "He says I'm a compulsive eater."
A história termina com ela comendo-o dos pés para cima, enquanto ele grita, grita, grita "... essa foi a linha final.
"Help, help," said Homer as she ate him clear up to his head. "Shriek, shriek!"