or SCHROEDINGER’S CAT Mrs Schroedimger never, ever, looked behind her when backing out of the driveway. If skateboards, bikes, toys, even innocent passers-by got mangled, why should she care? Hadn’t she said, time and again, “the driveway must be left clear.”

What a pity that she never thought to tell Sooty that. Still, at his age,he should have known. Lying asleep on the concrete in the warm sunshine, he had nobody but himself to blame but, regardless of where the blame lay, poor Sooty was in a bad way. His cruushed rear end gave him no hope of recovery.

“Dr/ Schiller!! Don’t just stand there like ninnies. Go and get Dr. Schiller.” If Ilse and Erich were in a state of shock. Mrs. Schoedinger was, if anything, worse.

Dr Martin Schiller, a family friend, was a physicist, not a medical doctorand certainly not a veterinarian, and it should have been clear to anyone that Sooty was failing even as the words were being spoken.

Even in the short time it took to fetch the doctor from to houses away was too long. Sooty was dead on his arrival. To the doctor it was something of a relief.He had doubted his ability to put the animal down. But for the children it was no relief. Sooty had been a family member for as long as they could remember. The doctor who loved them both and was moved by their grief. Perhaps he could redeem the situatiom. If the findings of Quantum Mechanics could be extended to the macro world, as he had lately come to believe possible, Sooty was only dead beause they were percceiving only one of a number of possible outcomes of the event. It should be possible to change that. In theory, Sooty alive could be just as valid as Sooty dead.

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Martin Schiller was a physicist of some standing who had chosen Websters Reach for his retirement if it can be said that aphysicist is ever retired. In some ways it had been a disappointment to the locals. “Martin who?” visitors would ask entirely unimpressed. Point him out and the man lookd anything but distinguished. More like an aged jockey in fact. He might have redeemed himself had ha been a Nuclear Physicist,that would have been something to skite about. But no, he insnsted that his field was Particle Physics. Nobody had any real idea of just what Particle Physics was but, whatever it was, it was obviously pretty dull stuff.

Dr. Schiller was reasonable neighbour in most respects. Friendly, although it was often necessary to say ‘hello’ more than once and with increasing volume. His mind tended to be off somewhere. He went for long beach walks and spent