did you, Mr. Bloom?' That was sheer mischief on my part. I was enjoying his eruption.
'I quit to go into business, damn it. My academic average, over the three years I attended, was a strong B. Don't imagine anything else, you hear? Hell, by the time Priss got his Ph.D., I was working on my second million.'
He went on, clearly irritated. 'Anyway, we were playing billiards and I said to him. "Jim, the average man will never understand why you get the Nobel Prize when I'm the one who gets the results. Why do you need two? Give me one!" He stood there, chalking up his cue, and then he said in his soft namby-pamby way, "You have two billions, Ed. Give me one." So you see, he wants the money.'
I said, 'I take it you don't mind his getting the honor?'
For a minute I thought he was going to order me out, but he didn't. He laughed instead, waved his hand in front of him, as though he were erasing something from an invisible blackboard in front of him. He said,
'Oh, well, forget it. All that is off the record. Listen, do you want a statement? Okay. Things didn't go right today and I blew my top a bit, but it will clear up. I think I know what's wrong. And if I don't, I'm going to know.
'Look, you can say that I say that we don't need infinite electromagnetic intensity; we will flatten out the rubber sheet; we will have zero gravity. And when we get it, I'll have the damndest demonstration you ever saw, exclusively for the press and for Priss, and you'll be invited. And you can say it won't be long.
Okay?' Okay!
I had time after that to see each man once or twice more. I even saw them together when I was present at one of their billiard games. As I said before, both of them were good. But the call to the demonstration did not come as quickly as all that. It arrived six weeks less than a year after Bloom gave me his statement. And at that, perhaps it was unfair to expect quicker work.
I had a special engraved invitation, with the assurance of a cocktail hour first. Bloom never did things by halves and he was planning to have a pleased and satisfied group of reporters on hand. There was an arrangement for trimensional TV, too. Bloom felt completely confident, obviously; confident enough to be willing to trust the demonstration in every living room on the planet.
I called up Professor Priss, to make sure he was invited too. He was.
'Do you plan to attend, sir?'
There was a pause and the professor's face on the screen was a study in uncertain reluctance. 'A demonstration of this sort is most unsuitable where a serious scientific matter is in question. I do not like to encourage such things.'
I was afraid he would beg off, and the dramatics of the situation would be greatly lessened if he were not there. But then, perhaps, he decided he dared not play the chicken before the world. With obvious distaste he said, 'Of course, Ed Bloom is not really a scientist and he must have his day in the sun. I'll be there.'
'Do you think Mr. Bloom can produce zero gravity, sir?'
'Uh... Mr. Bloom sent me a copy of the design of his device and... and I'm not certain. Perhaps he can do it, if... uh... he says he can do it. Of course'-he paused again for quite a long time-'I think I would like to see it.'
So would I, and so would many others.
The staging was impeccable. A whole floor of the main building at Bloom Enterprises-the one on the hilltop-was cleared. There were the promised cocktails and a splendid array of hors d'oeuvres, soft music and lighting, and a carefully dressed and thoroughly jovial Edward Bloom playing the perfect host, while a number of polite and unobtrusive menials fetched and carried. All was geniality and amazing confidence.
James Priss was late and I caught Bloom watching the corners of the crowd and beginning to grow a little grim about the edges. Then Priss arrived, dragging a volume of colorlessness in with him, a drabness that was unaffected by the noise and the absolute splendor (no other word would describe it-or else it was the two martinis glowing inside me) that filled the room.
Bloom saw him and his face was illuminated at once. He bounced across the floor, seized