He gazed at her for one more frustrated moment, then turned back to the auto-teacher and flicked it on. “Nevertheless,” he muttered, “I’ll stick to it at least to the point where I can order a hamburger in a restaurant.”

She frowned at his back, even as she finished her drink. “What is a hamburger?”

“I’ll never tell,” he smirked at her over his shoulder. “That’s one thing I know about that you don’t.” But then he relented. “People used to eat them, for some reason or other not quite clear to me now that I’m acquainted with present-day cuisine.”

Edith stood and went over to toss her glass into the auto-bar’s disposal chute.

“Well, I’ll leave you to your studies and go to my room to do my own.”

He blinked at her. “Your own? I thought you were out of school.”

She had to laugh, albeit somewhat ruefully. “Just to keep up with developments, I spend two hours a day at concentrated study, Jule. So does everybody else who doesn’t wish to fall by the wayside with what’s happening in the world. I’ll see you at breakfast with Mother and Father.”

He looked at her blankly. “Do they continue to study too?”

“Father puts in four hours a day, seven days a week. Of course, he is still doing medical research, and attempts to keep up with the latest.”

Chapter Two

The Year 1956

Unlike some, Julian West seldom realized that he was dreaming while it was going on. The past usually came to him with such vivid accuracy that he thought he was actually experiencing it. To call most of them dreams was stretching a point. They were more accurately nightmares. Even under a sedative, he was unable to avoid them.

Now he was reliving an experience he’d had some years before going into stasis. It was on a trip to Tangier, Morocco, that fabulous city nestled on the Straits of Hercules and forming the link between Africa and Egypt, back when it was still an International Zone governed by eight European countries.